Long Update Alert: Frankenstein is born again!
I wanted to keep some plants in a holding tank in their submersed form for my contest scape for a couple of months so I've made some changes. I've removed the CO2 from this tank and have put that on the holding tank. The C2 RGB is now also illuminating my propagation station.
In this process I fitted the LED that originally came with this tank (glad I didn't bin it as it was one day away from going to the dump!). The lighting is quite poor but the centralised spotlight effect created a very moody feel that got me thinking...
Since this is now a low tech setup, why not get experimental and do things I normally don't do. That's when a blackwater setup came to mind. I have plenty of botanicals and manzanita laying around, and I'm sure the shrimp and pygmy corys will appreciate it! (Oh yes, I forgot to mention I have pygmy corys in here now 😅).
So last night I made a quick hardscape using manzanita. I had this vision long ago for the jungle tank to use the huge manzanita logs and just lay them in a pile like it had fallen there, and fill it with botanicals. I've essentially created a smaller, slightly more polished version of that dream. The goal is tannin-stained, low maintenance and simple.
Today I started to break down the old scape, so it could be cleaned and rescaped. I originally put some Tropica Soil in the background but I realised 3 things;
1. I don't have anything to plant there yet.
2. I can't be assed with rooted plants.
3. I also can't be assed with a potential ammonia spike.
As a result, it is just sand in there. I've got some rocks weighing down the wood which is spoiling the look a bit at the moment but for now here's how it's looking.