The Accidental Aquascape

[The Accidental Aquascaper]

Hi All

First scape and first journal, so all advice and guidance is welcome.

This started a couple of years ago, when my daughter decided she wanted to keep fish. I obliged and bought her this 12 litre tank with a few guppies.

I think she forgot she even had fish by the 3rd day, so very soon we had some dead fish. After watching a few videos on fish keeping advice, I stumbled upon aquascaping. I was totally blown away and knew this was something I had to do….hence my moniker…and the fish are fine by the way.

We're gonna need a bigger boat.

With my appetite whetted, I wanted to put a large tank in the lounge, since this is where it will be viewed the most and there’s a sturdy sideboard just where the tank should go. The tank size would be 100cm wide, 40cm high, but only 35cm deep, as the sideboard is only 40cm deep. Low iron, clear silicone, rimless and braceless.

The sideboard wasn’t as ideal as I thought, so after some levelling off of the top and strengthening of the structure, my need to over-engineer things is satisfied.

Tank in situ and leak test passed, it’s time to add the lighting. I made the stand from 28mm galvanised tube and used gold leaf on the connectors, with the aim to tie it in to the rest of the light unit and the rooms decor.

The light itself is made from floor boards, metal wire and RGB LED strip that came with controller etc… Had to buy a few connectors, but it’s surprisingly easy working with LED strip.

The filter is an Oase Biomaster 250 thermo, modified as per Pondguru on YouTube. I’ve added Purigen to the top compartment instead of carbon. Outflow is a standard lily pipe and the intake is a surface skimmer. Co2 cylinder with Co2art Pro-SE regulator and inline inline diffuser. I’ve had to use an inline bubble counter to get it to fit. This sideboard is proving to be more hassle than it’s worth.

…and that is where I’ll end my first post.

Next update will be what’s going in the tank

 

[Mitch]

Looks Great, Love the Light bracket very unique.

 

[Polly]

Love this, looking forward to watching your journey

 

[Kalum]

nice tank size and looks like there's a lot of thought being put in already, will keep an eye out for the next update

 

[Edvet]

Nice DIY job on the light

 

[The Accidental Aquascaper]

Thanks all.

Part 2
Substrate and Hardscape.

I went round and round in circles with the substrate, as I initially wanted to use a normal soil and cap it with gravel. Mainly because I'm not keen on the look of the regularly shaped dark aqua soils. In the end, I chose the Tropica Soil 18kg and Tropica Soil Powder 9kg, since it would mostly be covered up anyway and looks like it's easy to maintain.

The hardscape will be rock only and is Seiryu Stone/Mini Landscape Rock (mostly) and some will say Seiryu is not Mini Landscape etc... but lets's not get bogged down with that.
There are a few rocks that are show stoppers, but a fair amount of duds too. The top left large rock will be used as a base, so although it's very different, what you will see of it blends in quite well.

Here's my inspiration for the hardscaping. Some of you may recognise this from the critique section.

Mock-up

Plant plan
I've bought a few more rocks since this was done, so although the overall idea will stay the same, there will probably be a few changes. I'm trying to get the line of substrate flat at the front too.

Next update will be the hardscape in the actual tank.

This should happen in the next couple of weeks.

 

[Edvet]

Nice PS skills too

 

[Jayefc1]

Like this a lot looks like it will be very nice the tank looks beautiful with the light and the thought gone in to it

 

[rebel]

Wow your mock up PS diagram is unbelievable!!

Very nice scape as well. Some accident to get that sort of skill to set stones to look very natural.

 

[Keith GH]

The Accidental Aquascaper.

Looks like you have done plenty of research in planning your Aquascape. It should look fantastic when it's fully established.

Keith

 

[soggybongo]

Looking good.

 

[The Accidental Aquascaper]

Part 3
Video and Build

Hi all, I've been busy with my iPhone pretending to be George Farmer.
You can check out my efforts here, on my new YouTube channel.
I'll take some stills with my SLR and upload once I've had 10,000 views.

Enjoy

 

[The Accidental Aquascaper]

Part 4
Planting

Since doing the hadrscape, there's been a few tweaks to the rocks on the left hand side and I've added some Dennerle Grey Quartz Gravel. It's got a slight pinkish hue, but would have preferred it to be blueish like the rock. Any gravel experts?

The plants arrived at the weekend, minus the Eriocaulon Cinereum, but that's coming soon and I've got a bunch of plants to deal with. Have I over ordered or is that not possible?
Used the dry planting method and it worked a treat, no floaters! However, a few had started working themselves free and I could see the roots. I’ve tidied up some of it, but it’s bloody fiddly when there’s water in there. Think I'll leave it until I have the water very low, maybe I'll do a massive water change after the first cut. I've been told to wait 2 weeks.

I've added a Jebao circulation pump, as the flow from the Oase 250 seems pretty poor. Has anyone used the Jebao? It's reasonably quite, but would be nice to know if there are pumps as small as this that are quieter. I was told to place it on the same side as my outflow, is that correct? I thought I was doing the sensible thing by creating a circular flow.

I've got zero experience, so everything I’m doing is mainly learnt from the “internet”. I would appreciate all advice, no matter how basic. It’s been quite overwhelming at times, as I had no idea how complex it was going to be. I am having fun though and I’m looking forward to relaxing in front of it and watching it develop...or maybe stress about the algae. I’ll have you guys to fall back on at least


Day 1
28th April 2019

 

[The Accidental Aquascaper]

I forgot to take a picture of the hardscape before it was planted, but here's a still from the video.

 

[rebel]

Wow that hardscape is so nice. Almost don't want to cover it up.

Consider removing the anubis (is it?) under the big rock. You don't want to obscure that detail. It's too nice.

 

[PARAGUAY]

Not sure on the front gravel ,but hey the overall stone layout is so good

 

[Marc Jackson]

Fantabulosa as they say in the trade.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Looks grand. The straight line created by the gravel will soften as the plants grow in and should start to look more natural.

 

[The Accidental Aquascaper]

Thanks for you comments all.

Consider removing the anubis (is it?) under the big rock. You don't want to obscure that detail. It's too nice.

Correct, Anubias Petit, but it's pretty Grand at the moment. It pained me to cover it up too, but I'll be trimming everything quite harshly as I want to make the leaves smaller. I might end up removing some, but probably not all of it.

Not sure on the front gravel ,but hey the overall stone layout is so good

Yep, it was something that I deliberated over for some time and it does look a bit awkward at the moment. I'm hoping that I can shape the carpet to make it look more natural, as it will be a nightmare to remove. I'll also introduce a few rocks to break it up.

 

[Filip Krupa]

The light itself is made from floor boards, metal wire and RGB LED strip that came with controller etc… Had to buy a few connectors, but it’s surprisingly easy working with LED strip.

Looks fab!
I do appreciate a good DIY light fixture
How powerful of a LED strip are we talking?

Looking forward to seeing how it performs!

Fil