Hello all! This is a journal to show my journey as I have dove deeper into the world of fish keeping and then eventually into the world of keeping plants. (I still have a long way to go!)
So I first set up the 35 litre tank back in June using purely plastic plants and equipment that I had from when it was set up years ago when I was a nipper!
The tank cycled without fish for a few weeks or so before adding my first additions of neon tetra.
A couple of weeks down the line after the everything was a tad more established I decided it was time to add my last fish which was also going to act as a centre piece fish, a honey gourami.
So a month passed and the fish were doing great with everything settled in but me being me, I wasn't happy with all the fakery. So I hopped down to the local fish shop and purchased some live aquatic plants.
I soon realised from asking and researching on various forums that I had actually purchased two aquatic plants and one plant that wasn't aquatic at all!
I quickly acted on this and took the plant out before it started rotting away in my tank causing different issues. However, this left me with a tank that was more bare than when I even started the hobby. Instead of taking the slow approach and doing more research, I went ahead and bought a 'bundle' of different plant bunches which to my relief were all aquatic.
But as you will most probably agree, it didn't look very appealing to the eye! Well anyway, I stuck with it and a few weeks passed but my plants were doing...erm terrible. As time passed, I was losing more and more leaves as plants wilted away right in front of me leaving me with little to work with. This time instead of rushing out getting more plants I decided to put a little effort into what I was going to create and how I was going to keep it maintained so little by little I started accumulating different things such as ferts, lighting upgrade alongside the addition of co2 in the form of liquid and gas, improved filtration/flow, etc.
Things started improving and I was getting fairly good growth (any growth compared to what I had before was good in my eyes!). This meant it was time to finally scape the tank into the jungle theme that I was after which is where I am at today, waiting for it all to 'grow-in'.
I hope you like the tank and I apologise for the poor quality pictures taken from my phone also right before the tank is due a little clean!
Any comments, suggestions and questions will be greatly appreciated!
So I first set up the 35 litre tank back in June using purely plastic plants and equipment that I had from when it was set up years ago when I was a nipper!
The tank cycled without fish for a few weeks or so before adding my first additions of neon tetra.
A couple of weeks down the line after the everything was a tad more established I decided it was time to add my last fish which was also going to act as a centre piece fish, a honey gourami.
So a month passed and the fish were doing great with everything settled in but me being me, I wasn't happy with all the fakery. So I hopped down to the local fish shop and purchased some live aquatic plants.
I soon realised from asking and researching on various forums that I had actually purchased two aquatic plants and one plant that wasn't aquatic at all!
I quickly acted on this and took the plant out before it started rotting away in my tank causing different issues. However, this left me with a tank that was more bare than when I even started the hobby. Instead of taking the slow approach and doing more research, I went ahead and bought a 'bundle' of different plant bunches which to my relief were all aquatic.
But as you will most probably agree, it didn't look very appealing to the eye! Well anyway, I stuck with it and a few weeks passed but my plants were doing...erm terrible. As time passed, I was losing more and more leaves as plants wilted away right in front of me leaving me with little to work with. This time instead of rushing out getting more plants I decided to put a little effort into what I was going to create and how I was going to keep it maintained so little by little I started accumulating different things such as ferts, lighting upgrade alongside the addition of co2 in the form of liquid and gas, improved filtration/flow, etc.
Things started improving and I was getting fairly good growth (any growth compared to what I had before was good in my eyes!). This meant it was time to finally scape the tank into the jungle theme that I was after which is where I am at today, waiting for it all to 'grow-in'.
I hope you like the tank and I apologise for the poor quality pictures taken from my phone also right before the tank is due a little clean!
Any comments, suggestions and questions will be greatly appreciated!
Plants are doing well 