I have been planning on re-scaping our 6-gallon GloView tank for some time now... I really hated the glow gravel and faux corral and wanted a more natural looking tank.
My daughter and I have been accumulating rocks and driftwood and looking at tons of pictures for weeks looking for inspiration, and this past weekend we were finally ready to break down our tank and re-scape it.
It begins
We prepped a 3.5 gallon OSH paint bucket as a temporary holding pen for our fish and plants and siphoned off around 3 gallons from the tank into the bucket.
We moved the light and filter over and started pulling plants out one by one, placing them in the bucket. Eventually we were down to just fish and gravel. We carefully netted the fish and transferred them to the bucket. We then scooped out the gravel.
I cleaned the bottom of the tank but not the walls, I wanted to leave the exiting biofilm in place. We staged the gravel in another bucket for cleaning at a later time and went on with our project. I saved a fair portion of the water we drained and sifted the gravel with it, keeping the green water sludge and used it to soak the driftwood while we prepped everything else.
The ingredients
We sorted out the plants and rocks we were considering, here they are
The driftwood, soaked
The plants
Left to right, top row:
Flame moss, Anubias Barteri v. Nana, Rock tied with Java Moss, Ludwigia Repens x Arcuata, Sunset Hygrophilia (Hygrophila Polysperma 'Rosanervig')
Bottom row, left to right:
4 bunches of Bacopa monnieri and 2 teeny Java fern plantlets on the far right
Floaters, not pictured:
Pistia stratiotes, Egeria densa, C. demersum, Salvinia minima
Also not pictured: one bunch of Water Wisteria (Hygrophila difformis)
And of course, the substrate
Building
EC wants a 3" depth, according to the instructions, so we drained out the "amazon juice" that EC comes in and layed about 2.5" to 3" of substrate.
We wanted to see the ground well so we pitched it, leaving 2" depth in the front and up t0 4" in the rear.
After mocking up the position of the driftwood, we made a slight depression in the front to allow us to bury a portion of the driftwood.
Here an Ikea bowl shows the depth of the depression.
Prepping the driftwood
We then moved on to the plans and wood. We removed the Anubias from it's pot and cleaned up the roots. We took the driftwood from it's soak tray and positioned the Anubias on the wood towards the rear and tied it on with brown thread.
We then split the Flame moss into two sections and tied each half to the left and right of the Anubias, carpeting the "tines of the fork" in the wood (sorry no pic)
We then placed the wood in the substrate and started back filling to create a natural looking (
IMO) scene of a submerged, partially buried log in the bed of a river.
Moving quickly, we planted the Bacopa, Ludwiga, H. difformis, H. Polysperma around the wood and started to fill the tank, slowly as not to disturb anything
With the roots and rhizome of the Anubias visible, we decided to add a bunch of java moss in front of it so we just quickly tucked some in
Burn in
We let the tank sit over night to allow the cloudiness of the water to settle down a bit and in the morning we drained 1/2 the tank to allow us to relocate it back to my daughter's bedroom more easily.
We added fresh water back (60% conditioned tap, 40%
RO) along with the filter and light and returned the Anacharis, Hornwort and various other floaters to the tank before we re-introduced our fish.
Needless to say, the fish were confused but seemed to adapt rather quickly.
After 24 hours we tested the water and added Flourish Excel, 2.5ml. Our plan is to dose every other day
Well, that is it for now... I will update this thread if anything changes but in summation:
14 species of plants/moss
5 neon tetras
2 otocinclus hourami
1 assassin snail
Before
After
Planted 360° 6-Gallon Round and Tall
Linear Mode
