geaves
Member
The cube is 40cm square with 10mm glass, purchased from ebay and it originally came with reef sand, was purchased by the seller as a marine tank but never used. Wanted to use the reef sand due it's aesthetics, but discovered that this is a complete no no for use in tropical aquariums.
Visited an lfs which I found via google, very helpful, had 4 low tech planted tanks in the shop, came away with an Eheim 2010, Heater, thermometer, a selection of 5 plants, Tetra plant, Aquasafe, and Easy Carbo......no gravel though as at this point I was not aware of the reef sand issue.
So come 4th March realising that the reef sand was no good a quick dash to the nearest lfs and picked up some gravel.....
mistake.....
This is before and originally posted in Low Tech:
SAM_0963 by geaves, on Flickr
SAM_0956 by geaves, on Flickr
As you can see not very inspiring.....
So, with some advice from Antipofish, set to work on a total replant....ordered some Unipac Samoa Coarse Sand, a box of mixed plants, and some Hair Grass from AE. So everything arrived on Friday with the plan to re design and plant on Saturday....at this point I would like to point out my wife is very much involved in this, she is better at the layout and planting...me...well a 3 year old would probably have more talent than I do.
Saturday morning comes and after the weekly shop we have to visit a couple of local lfs, just in case we've missed something, mistake....she has now spotted the idea of landscaping.....fortunately this has now been put off until the 'next one' when more advanced planning will have to take place.
So removed the plants from the fist attempt, and removed nearly all the gravel, but left the Tetra plant in place, then covered with the Samoa gravel and this is the result today after Saturday's planting:
Replant_3 by geaves, on Flickr
Replant_1 by geaves, on Flickr
Replant_5 by geaves, on Flickr
Unfortunately I don't have a David Bailey stylee camera, our point and shoot spends most of it's time in school with the wife, I've used my Nokia N8.
The only downside is the hair grass at the front, I found a video on the Tropica site explaining plant prep prior to planting, so the hair grass needs replanting (trying for a triangle shape at the front), but I shall have to get the wife some tools...
Currently I am dosing 2ml of Easy Carbo and 2ml of Aqua Nourish (from AE) per day. No C02 injection.
Geoff
Visited an lfs which I found via google, very helpful, had 4 low tech planted tanks in the shop, came away with an Eheim 2010, Heater, thermometer, a selection of 5 plants, Tetra plant, Aquasafe, and Easy Carbo......no gravel though as at this point I was not aware of the reef sand issue.
So come 4th March realising that the reef sand was no good a quick dash to the nearest lfs and picked up some gravel.....
mistake.....
This is before and originally posted in Low Tech:
SAM_0963 by geaves, on Flickr
SAM_0956 by geaves, on Flickr
As you can see not very inspiring.....
So, with some advice from Antipofish, set to work on a total replant....ordered some Unipac Samoa Coarse Sand, a box of mixed plants, and some Hair Grass from AE. So everything arrived on Friday with the plan to re design and plant on Saturday....at this point I would like to point out my wife is very much involved in this, she is better at the layout and planting...me...well a 3 year old would probably have more talent than I do.
Saturday morning comes and after the weekly shop we have to visit a couple of local lfs, just in case we've missed something, mistake....she has now spotted the idea of landscaping.....fortunately this has now been put off until the 'next one' when more advanced planning will have to take place.
So removed the plants from the fist attempt, and removed nearly all the gravel, but left the Tetra plant in place, then covered with the Samoa gravel and this is the result today after Saturday's planting:
Replant_3 by geaves, on Flickr
Replant_1 by geaves, on Flickr
Replant_5 by geaves, on Flickr
Unfortunately I don't have a David Bailey stylee camera, our point and shoot spends most of it's time in school with the wife, I've used my Nokia N8.
The only downside is the hair grass at the front, I found a video on the Tropica site explaining plant prep prior to planting, so the hair grass needs replanting (trying for a triangle shape at the front), but I shall have to get the wife some tools...
Currently I am dosing 2ml of Easy Carbo and 2ml of Aqua Nourish (from AE) per day. No C02 injection.
Geoff
