Morgie
Aquarium Advice FINatic
This is my first attempt at making a biotope tank, so I thought it would be nice to do one that is different and a bit more unusual than the typical Amazon tank. My little 10 gallon tank is going to be based on an Indian/Burmese river/creek type habitat. I've done a TON of work on it today, although I failed to take any progress pictures (It was quite messy)
My plan for the tank:
The "Before":
It had some nice attributes, the rocks, petrified wood, and the driftwood I eventually got for it ended up looking pretty nice.
The CONS: UGF, that had absolutely no point. The sand went on top of the gravel it was supposed to filter (I quickly modified the tank to be safe for cories), not appealing!
Today I spent most of my time working on this tank (no pictures of progress, sorry)
~Moved the fish (etc) to a bucket with air stone
~Drained the tank
~Removed the substrate on top of the UGF
~Removed the UGF
~Cleaned the tank pretty thoroughly (20+ years with one UGF was disgusting)
~Washed play sand
~Put the sand in
~Drip acclimated the fish
~Put the decorations back in
And now I'm waiting for the water to clear up..
It's looking like this right now:
As you can see from the line of algae, the level of substrate has gone down a lot and the fish now have more room. I put the little store bought archway/cave back in just to give them some shelter for the time being.
Checklist:
~ 1x fully grown aponogeton (unknown sp., currently in a different tank)
~ 9x aponogeton bulbs (unknown sp., I don't expect all of them to grow)
~Main driftwood
~Small rocks
~Dwarf Gourami
Things to get:
~Large rock piece
~Various Rotala
~Hair grass
~blyxa (I have some, but it's not in any shape to be moved)
~black background (paint or plastic)
~Celestial Pearl Danios (x6)
I'd love any critique you guys have on my current aquascaping design or stock list (plants & fish).
I'll post regular updates here over the next few weeks and be sure to get some progress shots next time!
My plan for the tank:
The "Before":
It had some nice attributes, the rocks, petrified wood, and the driftwood I eventually got for it ended up looking pretty nice.
The CONS: UGF, that had absolutely no point. The sand went on top of the gravel it was supposed to filter (I quickly modified the tank to be safe for cories), not appealing!
Today I spent most of my time working on this tank (no pictures of progress, sorry)
~Moved the fish (etc) to a bucket with air stone
~Drained the tank
~Removed the substrate on top of the UGF
~Removed the UGF
~Cleaned the tank pretty thoroughly (20+ years with one UGF was disgusting)
~Washed play sand
~Put the sand in
~Drip acclimated the fish
~Put the decorations back in
And now I'm waiting for the water to clear up..
It's looking like this right now:
As you can see from the line of algae, the level of substrate has gone down a lot and the fish now have more room. I put the little store bought archway/cave back in just to give them some shelter for the time being.
Checklist:
~ 1x fully grown aponogeton (unknown sp., currently in a different tank)
~ 9x aponogeton bulbs (unknown sp., I don't expect all of them to grow)
~Main driftwood
~Small rocks
~Dwarf Gourami
Things to get:
~Large rock piece
~Various Rotala
~Hair grass
~blyxa (I have some, but it's not in any shape to be moved)
~black background (paint or plastic)
~Celestial Pearl Danios (x6)
I'd love any critique you guys have on my current aquascaping design or stock list (plants & fish).
I'll post regular updates here over the next few weeks and be sure to get some progress shots next time!