Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:
The second was borne from a desire to keep the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.
I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations.
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.
A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials.
Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.
Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!
Here’s the scape ready for action.....
Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.
Cheerio,
Ady.
P.s, it’s good to be back 😀
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:
The second was borne from a desire to keep the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.
I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations.
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.
A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials.
Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.
Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!
Here’s the scape ready for action.....
Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.
Cheerio,
Ady.
P.s, it’s good to be back 😀
.
started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.