My first real attempt at planting aquarium

[Mark Nichols]

Hi all - I've been working on my aquarium for the past year now and have now decided that I would like a carpeting plant to bring more of a natural/jungle scene to the tank. I've used UKAPs as a point of reference during this time and have finally decided to invest my time speaking with other like minded people.

The aquarium itself is 230L and is a bullet shaped - protruding between my living room and dining room. The central feature is my hardscaped ironwood with some frugal attempts of planting some plants my brother in law kindly dontated. The substrate is basic sand with no real fertilisers added - although I am tempted to place some root tabs. The setup is low tech - but I have seen tremendous growth from the plants that came with it - so much so I have had to perform several haircuts over the year. I have few species of fish - cories, hoplo, bristlenose, tetras, 2 blue rams.

I have just brought 5 pots of Eleocharis Acicularis (Dwarf Hairgrass) and will be attempting to plant this up to form a carpet effect surrounding the hardscape. My questions really are as follows:

• Should I plant up the entire substrate surrounding the hardscape island in the centre or leave some sand?
• How would I best make use of the 5 pots of Eleocharis Acicularis?
• Which - if any any root tabs would you recomend?
• Should I keep original plants?

Thank you

 

[Tim Harrison]

Any chance of some pics...?

 

[Mark Nichols]