1st post! School Aquascape?!? My 20 gallon long tank journey:

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Hi guys,

I am setting up an aquarium at my high school. I received many donations of plants, hardscape, soils, and other materials from classmates and fellow hobbyists to make this all possible.

20 gallons long
Eheim 2213
Finnex Fugeray Planted Plus with Moonlights.
CO2 art dual stage regulator with precision magnetic knob w/ Check Valve, Inline Diffuser, Bubble counter
Seachem Fertilizers

The plants I will be working with are: (bold signifies most likely will be used)

Foreground:
Marsilea Hirsuta
Staurogyne Repens
Dwarf Sag

Midground:
Crypt. Wendtii

Epiphytic:
Anubias Nana
A. Nana var. Petite
Bolbitis
Java fern
Java Fern var. Vindelov

Background:
Hygrophila sp. Brown
Hygrophila Difformis
Rotala Indica, Rotala HRA, Rotala Rotundifolia Mixed
Ludwigia sp. Red
Vesuvius (Spiral Val)
Crypt. Retrospiralis
H. Polysperma
L. Sessiliflora
L. Aromatica

I chose fast growing, hardy plants that will do well in 'medium' tech conditions, including high light, moderate co2, and dosing of nutrients.

Fish:
GBR pair
15 Cardinal Tetra


(Sorry for the bad photography)

Any comments are welcome and preferred!!!

Can't wait to get it started on Monday!
Shane

 

[Andy D]

Hi Shane!

Looking forward to the progression.

 

[tim]

Nice project, really like your hardscape layout, it flows nicely together, will you have access to the tank during school holidays for water changes/ maintenance?
Look forward to following your progress Shane.

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Thanks for the compliment! I will have access to the tank during school holidays for maintenance and water changes. I am currently doing the water test, and everything is looking good. I still need to receive some substrate I ordered, so hopefully it arrives by Tuesday so I can start the tank.

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Excuse the messed up desk with all the tubs, but I'm engineering the filtration system out of an old eheim 2213... and i got it to work!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Planning out the tank is fun. I plan on using it as an experimental tank for a bunch of different stems. I will have dirt with a sand cap in the front, and the aquasoil in the back.

 

[Raptorendame]

Looking forward to the tank 🙂

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Thanks! I can't wait too!

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Unfortunately, school was canceled today, so I need to carry everything there tomorrow, and there is a bunch of stuff.

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Wish me luck guys! IDK how I will get this done, I will have to be swift lol.

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Its going down!!!

Check out my flickr for pics, they are too big for the server to handle here on UKAPS.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/146065657@N08/?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/146065657@N08/?

 

[MrHidley]

Lovely Hardscape. Wish I'd had an interest aquariums/plants at all when i was in school, i'd probably be a great deal better at it by now.

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Thanks a bunch! I literally had no money, so I collected all the pieces from older tanks, and other forum members and places like that. Proves that one, without funds, can still find somewhat of a way to surpass obstacles like lack of materials to work with.

 

[MrHidley]

Thanks a bunch! I literally had no money, so I collected all the pieces from older tanks, and other forum members and places like that. Proves that one, without funds, can still find somewhat of a way to surpass obstacles like lack of materials to work with.

This is nice to hear, when i set up my 60P for the first time the cost was around £650 all in. I've tried to avoid spending anywhere near this amount of money again, my next tank is going to be almost entirely DiY to save money.

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Cool! That would have been an awesome 60p tho lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Updates are on here: http://praquatics.com/forums/threads/shanes-journals-and-detailed-tank-builds.2019/#post-49091

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Starting a new thread that will include a bunch of info about some of my tanks...


This first post is going to be a documentation of my 20 gallon long school tank.
______________________________________________________________________________________


Shane School Aquarium Project Tank:

Shane Puthuparambil


Table of Contents:

1. Stage 1- Planning
   
   1. Initial hardscape and ideas
      
      
   2. Supplies
      
      
   3. Plant Choice
2. Stage 2- Setup
   
   
3. Stage 3- Cycle
   
   
4. Stage 4- Stocking

Stage 1: Planning


Goals for this tank:

• Ease of maintenance
  
  
• Quality plant growth
  
  
• Quick water changes
  
  
• Inspire teens to research about nature and aquariums
  
  
• Effective teaching tool in classroom

Planning the hardscape:

In order to plan out the hardscape and layout of this tank, I talked to many aquascapers, including Hiep Hong (67th in IAPLC 2016), Shawn McBride (The Aquascaping Podcast) and a wide array of forum members on: The Aquascaping World, UKAPS, The Planted Tank, and Aquatic Plant Central.

I started messing with 4 pieces of malaysian driftwood. Here are some of the compositions I came up with:

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

I finally decided to go with a triangular composition that looks like this, but I realised I did not have enough wood. So I went out, and hunted for some at various locations, till I found a few pieces that I liked.


The original was missing alot:



With the new wood and an SAT prep deck to position it:



The overall composition looked much better and had the flow and character that I wanted to use on my tank. I even drew in the line at which I wanted the substrate to follow (in the background).


Now came the planting plan. I collaborated with Shawn McBride, and decided to use a wide variety of stem plants and epiphytic plants including:



Foreground:
Marsilea Hirsuta
Staurogyne Repens
Dwarf Sag
Crypt. Wendtii

Epiphytic:
Anubias Nana
A. Nana var. Petite
Bolbitis
Java fern
Java Fern var. Vindelov

Background:
Hygrophila sp. Brown
Hygrophila Difformis
Rotala Indica, Rotala HRA, Rotala Rotundifolia Mixed
Ludwigia sp. Red
Vesuvius (Spiral Val)

Crypt. Retrospiralis
H. Polysperma
L. Sessiliflora
L. Aromatica


I had the majority of the plants growing in one of my other tanks, but some were donated to me as well from very kind and generous hobbyists including TurningDizzy, Bartohog, and TropicalAquarist on The Planted Tank forum.


As for the tank size and specs, I decided on:

• 20 gallon long
  
  
• Eheim 2213
  
  
• Finnex Fugeray Planted Plus with Moonlights.
  
  
• CO2 art dual stage regulator with precision magnetic knob w/ Check Valve, Inline Diffuser, Bubble counter
  
  
• Seachem Fertilizers
  
  
• Eheim Jager 200W Heater

I was very happy with how it turned out, as compared to the first iterations of the hardscape.


In total, the planning stage took me around 1 and a half months. I was very happy with everything turned out. Now onto the difficult part, set-up!


Stage 2: Setup

A little bit of background: We decided to setup on Tuesday, when I had a free first period. The overall setup took around 3 hours, from 7:00AM till 10:00AM. I will let the pictures describe the setup process.


This picture is where we are after the planning stage:




Before setting up the tank:

1. First, I had to pack all the plants, substrate, tools, filter, heater, timers, and all the other supplies in order to setup the tank. It took around 4 cardboard boxes to fit everything. This was completed the night before.
   
   
2. Next, I created a mock up plan of how I would complete all the setup for the next day.
   
   
3. I woke up the next morning at 4:30AM, drank some tea, and began loading everything except the perishable plants into the car.
   
   
4. We left the house at around 6:30AM, and headed to school where I met up with Cole S., my partner in the business plan project. He would help me setup the tank.
   
   
5. We carried everything to the classroom. We decided to place it on the counter right next to the sink, which provides us with easy access to clean and running water.
   
   
6. We laid out all our materials, tools, equipment, and started the setup.

The Setup:

1. We started to set up the tank.
   
   
2. First, we placed a layer of osmocote plus under the substrate. Osmocote is useful as plants absorb the nutrients leached by the organic fertilizer over time. It is mainly used in gardens, but I decided to use some for the tank, as advised by several friends.
   
   
3. Then, we added a cardboard divider where we planned on using aquasoil behind, and in front, regular garden soil with a sand cap.
   
   
4. We taped down the cardboard divider, and then placed a small layer of soil in front, and a deep layer of porous lava rock as the base layer in the back. Since we did not want the soil in front to be visible, we left an inch of space between soil and glass.
   
   
5. Next, we placed a layer of sand over the soil, and the first layer of aquasoil behind the cardboard. At this stage, we removed the divider.

1. Now, we positioned the hardscape, and made sure all angles were great. We then added soil behind the wood, to hold it in place properly.
   
   
2. We finally added little hits of gravel around the wood to fully bring together the natural feel.

1. We wet the substrate in preparation for planting.
   
   
2. We begin the planting process by adding stems in locations described in the planting plan.
   
   
3. We added epiphytic plants that do not require soil to grow on the driftwood.
   
   
4. We added small foreground plants to the left, under the wood, and attached midground plants in small nooks around the wood as well.
   
   
5. At this step, we filled with water slowly, added the heater, installed the filter, and the tank was fully setup.

______________________________________________________________________________________Soon to be continued...

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Before I continue, these are all the people who helped me with advice and/or acts of kindness! Some of you are on this forum. Thank you!

1. Aquarium Design Group of Houston
2. SubstrateSource
3. The Wet Spot Tropical Fish
4. CO2Art LTD. (UK)
5. Buceplant.com
6. Shawn from PureFishWorks.com
7. Bartohog, TurningDizzy, ShadowMac, TropicalAquarist (@katzaquatics) and others
8. Nate McNulty
9. Tom Muller
10. All the forums and other forum users who gave me advice (UKAPS, TPT, APC, Apistogramma.com, PRAquatics)
11. David Soares
12. Ted Judy
13. My classmates
14. Tannin Aquatics
15. Everyone else who has helped me on this journey!

 

[Shane Puthuparambil]

Future stocking is going to be Apistogramma sp. Abacaxis as well as Nannostomus sp. (!)