The Forrest

[ChrisC]

Hi guys,
I don't frequent this forum too often, I suppose I need to start coming here more often! I'm setting up a new tank which will be my aquascaping experiment. I've been influence alot by the japenese style of aquascaping, studying the works of such people as Takashi Amano and following as many set up threads as possible.

I suppose a little introduction is necessary - I'm Chris Cummins, I'm 15, I live in Derbyshire in England and I've fish keeping for a while now, and expanding my horizons scientifically with my new nano reef and now imaginatively with this fw project.

The area of the room this tank is near my bed and generally it's a quite place. Aesthetically, I want to acheive the minimalist look which I have seen and loved in so many Japenese works. To counter the golden ratio and create a more powerful dynamic setup I hope to put a centre island of wood, with a low lying carpet of plants on either side. As the stand is a dark colour, I hope to keep the tank very bright, experimenting with a white background.

Lighting will be provided through a DIY luminaire, with 3x 30W Daylight spectrum (6500k) tubes providing 4.5 wpg, with DIY Co2 injection and an external Eheim Class Canister filter. I'll be ordering equipment on tuesday.

Substrate is a bottom layer of cactus compost with a 1-2" layer of play sand on top. Heres pictures of setup so far:







Comments and feedback apreciated!

Thanks,
Chris

 

[craynerd]

Hi Mate,

Great stuff. Nice to see you have a good plan!
A few questions:

What size is our tank?

Have you got any pictures of your DIY luminaire?

What sort of plants will you be growing?

DIY CO2, i presume this is a yeast system?

Can you also tell me what type of wood that is, is it some sort of a root wood? I really like the idea of the piece, my only concerns are the blunt cut ends, will you be covering these with some sort of a moss or had you not thought about it?


hehe, lots of questions buddy. Best of luck.

Chris

 

[demonmagus]

studying the works of such people as Takashi Amano and following as many set up threads as possible.

you should be studying for your spanish


nice tank

 

[Qays]

this will be good!

 

[George Farmer]

Hi Chris

I like your plan. Beware that you will need to plant heavily from the outset with fast growers (75% substrate covered) if you want to avoid early algae issues, unless you have a mature filter that is. Or do not stock with any fish until the plants are mature, and when you do stock do so very slowly to avoid ammonium spikes that are a major algae trigger. Personally I would plant heavily with weeds like H. polysperma etc. then gradually make the transition to your "minimalist" look.

Your lighting sounds ideal. What size tank is it? If its 96 l. then you have 3.6 wpg (wpg is US gal.). I assume you have reflectors?

If you are DIYing CO2 then running two units is ideal, swapping the mixtures alternately will provide greater CO2 stability. Unstable CO2 is also a major algae trigger.

Interesting substrate, I've never heard of cactus compost being used in the aquarium. What made you choose it?

Have you planned a fert schedule?

Good luck with the project, it sounds promising.

 

[simonbrown403]

Looks like a well though out project.

I'm also interested in the compost idea, I've been reading in to it, and I'm thinking of giving it a go, so it will be interesting to see how you go.

Keep us posted

Simon

 

[Themuleous]

Welcome back and thanks for sharing looking forward to seeing it progress

 

[ChrisC]

Thanks for the comments guys, I'll try to work through them:

Nice to see you have a good plan!

Actually it's mainly just becauuse I have nothing else to do. I've been reading my copy of the Ecology of the Planted Aquarium by Diana Walstad and I must say I'm very tempted to do a walstad style "natural" tank. If anyone has not read her book I would highly recommend you get yourself a copy.

What size is our tank?

Don't ask me technical questions like that! lol, I think it's about 100ltr or so. It's Juwel if that's any help.

Have you got any pictures of your DIY luminaire?

Haven't yet built it, although if I go down the walstad route I won't need to make it as the 36W of light in the current hood should be enough.

What sort of plants will you be growing?

Probably: java fern, java moss, crypts, anubias, sagittaria lileopterus, maybe e. tennelus.

DIY CO2, i presume this is a yeast system?

Yep, although as stated above if I go walstad I won't be using CO2

Can you also tell me what type of wood that is, is it some sort of a root wood? I really like the idea of the piece, my only concerns are the blunt cut ends, will you be covering these with some sort of a moss or had you not thought about it?

I think it's called Sumatran Driftwood, it's hideously expensive but I like the look of it. The chopped ends did come into consideration buy I decided with the amount of moss and ferns that are going to be tied to it, it shouldn't be a problem.

Beware that you will need to plant heavily from the outset with fast growers (75% substrate covered) if you want to avoid early algae issues, unless you have a mature filter that is. Or do not stock with any fish until the plants are mature, and when you do stock do so very slowly to avoid ammonium spikes that are a major algae trigger. Personally I would plant heavily with weeds like H. polysperma etc. then gradually make the transition to your "minimalist" look.

Yep, I have a few stem plants lying around still so I could use them, although, again, if I go down the walstad route, it will be heavily planted from day one to the end anyway.

Interesting substrate, I've never heard of cactus compost being used in the aquarium. What made you choose it?

I am following very much in the footsteps of Rich, a guy who set up a Walstad meets Amano tank a while back and I am in contact with through a different forum. Cactus compost is generally quite a widely used substrate with cheapo's like me, I'm actually semi-suprised none of you have heard of it, it is known to give good results.

Have you planned a fert schedule?

I just received a bundle of PMDD from this guy (I received 6 transparent, unmarked zippy bags of anonymous powder from Ireland lol ), but haven't yet got round to sorting out a fert schedule.

Next round of pics wqith a semi-completed hardscape (may add a couple more rocks). Ignore the substrate, there more sand coming soon - assuming demonmagus gives me his (BTW - your filter and lights arrived).






Comments apreciated!

Thanks,
Chris

 

[TimJ]

Well done chris looking good so far and great planning, could 've used some of that myself, but I'm a lot older and wiser!? not.

Keep up the great work and keep posting.

Tim

 

[Themuleous]

You'll be the envy of many people on here with wood like that, its almost impossible to get decent long twisty wood

 

[ChrisC]

Thanks for the nice comments guys, although it did cost to get wood like that. The garden centre where I got it from is a complete rip off. £8.99 a peice!

Thanks,
Chris

 

[ChrisC]

Lights on. The shorter 8" PC in the middle of the tank produced EXACTLY the effect I wanted!



Thanks,
Chris

 

[George Farmer]

Great looking wood! Which garden centre?

Razor blades are good for removing the old Juwel filter silicon BTW.

Nice to hear of a low-tech fan. Have you been following Peter Bradley's low-tech experiment on the PFK website? He has adapted Diana's methods slightly by changing more water etc. The tank is at its six month point now, looks healthy but the aquascaping is awful - your tank looks better already! I've made a few comments throughout the experiment for your interest.

http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/...category=plants You may need to register to read the blog.

 

[Luke_e]

Cracking piece of wood mate, its looking great, when do you plan on getting your plants in?

 

[ChrisC]

Cracking piece of wood mate, its looking great, when do you plan on getting your plants in?

I'm still undecided on plants actually. First I need to read Waltads book cover to cover and then make a decision base on that. The real inspiration behind the aquascaping was this tank - one of Amano's:

So I'm thinking about maybe a low lying carpet of E. Tenellus with a few neatly groomed Acorus Gramineus behind the wood to provide contrast to the tangles of the wood. I have some hornwort in the back pond, would that do the job for a floating plant to keep back algae during set up? If so, I'll order plants tonight and get everything sorted. If theres one thing Reefing's taught me though is taht it's not possible to be overly patient so I'll leave it a few days and see what happens.

Great looking wood! Which garden centre?

Tansley Garden Centre.

Razor blades are good for removing the old Juwel filter silicon BTW.

Cool. When I drain the tank I'll scrape it off then.

Nice to hear of a low-tech fan. Have you been following Peter Bradley's low-tech experiment on the PFK website? He has adapted Diana's methods slightly by changing more water etc. The tank is at its six month point now, looks healthy but the aquascaping is awful - your tank looks better already! I've made a few comments throughout the experiment for your interest.

http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/...category=plants You may need to register to read the blog.

Thanks alot for that link, I hadn't come accross it before, that'll give me some reading to do!

Thanks,
Chris