Local tank for local people.

[Oddball59]

Kia Ora, Hi, Anyone who knows the East Riding especially, the Humber Bridge area, or Hull, Cottingham, Swanland, Beverly, Hessel etc... will have heard about or have visited "Little Switzerland". Its a well established ex quarry with many very mature trees and some ponds, and next to that is the river Humber, a quite fast flowing very large river, in fact as an old sea dog I can tell you the waterways, the bottom of the river changes more than any other river in the world, the banks are full of drift wood and boulders.
I've often thought if a good aqua scape could be produced purely with what can be picked up off the ground and river banks? Obviously that excludes fish unless you want a tank full of salt water or brackish eals, Dabs and the occasional plaice.
Has anyone done a full aqua scape using just local bits and bobs?

 

[AlexT]

@Wills is a well known and well respected northerner from around those parts, my money is on him knowing something.

 

[Wills]

I have to admit for some reason I have totally forgotten the foreshore at Hessle as a place to forage hardscape! In the country park its likely all chalk rock which isnt great for too many set ups, but you are right on the foreshore there are a lot of big cobbles and river rocks... the trees around there I'm not sure are the right types or tanks you mainly want Beech and Oak in the UK - some fruit trees are also ok I think. From memory (and its a while since I've been... its mainly things like hawthorns in there? There are a lot of Beech trees in the walking trails around Brough/Elloughton though, some of it is forestry land though so you can't really take it...

Plenty of people do forage/scavenge it and done full set ups from it - I've not done it myself, although I have some oak branches that were foraged by someone else and then sold to me from somewhere out in Holderness. He had it in his tank for a number of years so no reservations for using it

I also contemplated foraging from some of the rockier beaches like Flamborough and Mapleton but looong way back to the car haha!

Wills

 

[Oddball59]

I have to admit for some reason I have totally forgotten the foreshore at Hessle as a place to forage hardscape! In the country park its likely all chalk rock which isnt great for too many set ups, but you are right on the foreshore there are a lot of big cobbles and river rocks... the trees around there I'm not sure are the right types or tanks you mainly want Beech and Oak in the UK - some fruit trees are also ok I think. From memory (and its a while since I've been... its mainly things like hawthorns in there? There are a lot of Beech trees in the walking trails around Brough/Elloughton though, some of it is forestry land though so you can't really take it...

Plenty of people do forage/scavenge it and done full set ups from it - I've not done it myself, although I have some oak branches that were foraged by someone else and then sold to me from somewhere out in Holderness. He had it in his tank for a number of years so no reservations for using it

I also contemplated foraging from some of the rockier beaches like Flamborough and Mapleton but looong way back to the car haha!

Wills

Kia Ora, hi Wills. Yeah I'm sort of stuck with what I can lift with my arthritis.... you're right about the chalk, I remember as a lad cycling with my friends there when it was still a chalk quarry. But I'm pleased it's all still there and no one has laid the foundations for a housing complex. I must admit I don't have a great knowledge of trees, but I know a good branch when I see one Haha. I'd like to look at some boulders but again what I can carry is very limited. Aaaaaah Flamborough! we used to stay in my uncles caravan there when I was a nipper. Your triggering memories now Wills. Do you remember been a youngster maybe five and winning a goldfish on "hook a duck" at Hull fair, that was my first ever fish and my dad got a bowl for it the next day, and the day after it died. Also I remember the Rag and bone man coming around with his distinctive call, and if you took him something as a child he gave you a gold fish in a bag as well, which he had stacked up on the side of his wagon behind the horse!
All the technology we have now..... I think I was about ten and my dad took us to Frisbee aquatics... all those years ago, over forty... and he got a fish tank, he was a metal worker and made a stand from steel rod, we chucked some gravel in with an under gravel filter, filled her up and the next day went back got fish we liked... a lot of guppies and just banged em in, and none died! I think there was a hood with a fluorescent light. All the plants naturally were plastic.
Despite it looking a bit worn it was reassuring in a way that the shops still there. I don't know about buying from there but the knowledge base must be incredible, I think the current manager took it over from the original owner when he retired in the eighties.