Hello everyone,
Some pictures from my last job, a 3-gallon aquarium.

Plants are, Eleocharis (acicularis and parvula) Hemienthus "Cuba" Micranthemum micranthemoides, and Peacock moss.

the substrat is a mixture of AKADAMA and Aqualite,

I covered the substrat with sand of river LOIRE (France)

I have used stones of "El Valle Del Almanzora" Almeria (Spain)

And this is the aquarium finished , with CO2 and light but 11w PL and another PL with 9w ,total , 20w

a few more photos:

Regards

Here’s my latest pico project … curvilinear II
It’s a glass cylinder about two gallons and "The Stump",
w/ white sand & white stones.
The plants are Anubias Nana Petite, Java fern & a little Xmas moss.
The lighting is an MR16 fixture with a 5 watt 6000K LED lamp.
The LED & white sand overexposes the pics making more washed out than it really looks.
Let me know what you think … or if you have any ideas on improvements.

-Rick

Greetings from PORTUGAL

This is my new aquarium

Working with the hardscape

Flora:
Eleocharis Acicularis
Eleocharis Parvulus
Glossostigma Elatinoides
Ludwigia Arcuata
Echinodorus Paleofolius
Rotala Rotundifolia
Blyxa Aubertii

Elos Material

elos terrazero

Elos bottom mineral

Elos terra S

Today:

Added 15 Microrasboras erythromicron

Changed water today and dosed 5ml of Excel and 0,5ml of Potassium

Present the Bosco……

45l 50×30x30
1 pll 24w and 1 pll 32w
Co2 external reactor
Fauna:
Microrasbora erythromicron
Neocaridina heteropada
Flora:
Riccardia chamedrypholia
Taxiphylum sp.
Proserfinaca palustrus
Eusteralis stellata
Cryptocoryne sp.

Regards.

P.D.
More info here

Hi ,

here is a new harscape , the tank is 240L , 120*45*45cm ,the plantation has just been finished so it’s gonna need a bit of time .
i’m not really satisfied with the hardscape it seems to be a bit unbalanced , the right part seems to be too low compared to the left part , i’ll have to see how it looks with the complete plantation but there will certainly be some changes , the stem part should be heavy in the right and light in the left to help to balance the hardscape , the background will mainly be in myrio matogrossense , with a bit of red (rotala indica and arcuata narrow leaf) .Stones are only here for the wood not to float , i’ll remove them as soon as possible .

plantation is , glossostigma , eleocharis bellem , eleocharis parvula , eleocharis acicularis , crypto parva , crypto wendtii green , tenellus , fantanalis sp , vesicularia sp , microcrosorum narrow , bolbitis , myrio matogrossense , rotala indica , ludwigia arcuata narrow leaf , eleocharis vivipara , hygrophilia sp and maybe some vallisneria nana .

specs:240L , 120*45*45cm , lights 144W , co2 pressurized , eheim 2028 ,2078 all in biological filtration , aquasoil (+power sand+tourmalineBC etc…),fets step 1 , brighty K .

i’ll update soon , hope you like it

90g Cameroon Biotope

Plants:
Anubias barteri v. nana
Bolbitis heudelotii
Crinum natans

Fish:
10x Norman’s Lampeyes
2x pair of Pelvicachromis taeniatus
5x Microsynodontis sp.

Light:
2x 250w Metal Halide 5hrs/day

This was an experiment and have since changed lights. I wouldn’t recommend doing this. Although there was very little algae maintaining proper nutrition for the plants was almost impossible, especially Iron. Some of the more exposed or higher up plants went chlorotic quickly or were otherwise harmed by the intensity of the light. Prior to switching to PC lighting I was supplimenting a tablespoon (3tsp) of KNO3, 1/2 tsp KH2PO4, 1 tsp CaSO4, 1 tsp K2SO4, 3 tbsp Epsom Salts, and 1/4 tsp CSM+B every other day.

Substrate:
Quartz sand (Paver Base from Home Depot)
Flourite in spots underneath the sand in the rear for the Crinum
Stream pebbles

Left oblique

FTS

Lower Right Side

One of my females feeling brave

Hi y’all and welcome to check out my paludarium project.

Specs:
Aquarium is 240 cm (8 ft) x 40 cm (16 in) footprint and 30 cm (1 ft) tall. That adds up to 300 liters or 75 gallons. The background takes some of that.
On top of it is a box about 35 cm (14 in) high that will hold some dry planting.

Hardscaping is self-made, including the fake stone and tree trunks.

For filtering I’m using a 20 g sump

The "stream"-factor is made with a one-way flow accomplished by one Tunze Stream 6060 pump rigged to the end of the tank, pushing water through a channel in the background. It is pre-filtered with a foam matt:

(The above two pics taken when the tank was just an aquarium, not a paludarium)

A shot of the background in the aqua-part

Background above the waterline being made:

Tree trunks being made:

The front of the tank (above surface) is open and shall remain so. I dislike all kinds of frames and stuff blocking the view.

So this is where I’m at, going to start planting the tank. I joined APC to get some help with deciding how to go with it. I have a lot of confidence on you guys to be smarter than me on the trick.

My goal is to get the tank planted sparingly, or to leave at least some of the hardscaping to be seen. The lighting is going to be 6 x 54W T5 tubes and perhaps some 20W halogens to give a bit of shimmer with the surface agitation.

There’s going to be a Nepenthes or two, Tillanzias and mosses. And some vines and whatever I come up with.
I’m undecisive on what’s going to go in the water, vegetationwise.

The flow is strongish and the fishes are going to be hillstreams, other loaches and maybe some Loricariids.

So hi, everyone. Looking forward to using your imagination and expertice on this.
And thanks for a fine forum!

/Hx

Hi there,

I’ve some pictures to share with you
Last Friday I changed my old aquarium for something bigger! I know that it is more 10cm on each side but it gives me more 110lt.
So I decided to change a bit and make something different from my last layouts.

I hope that you enjoy it

DIY Aquarium 130×50x60

Setup the aquarium ‘ Step by step

Next day after setup:

4 days after, the first breeding!

And it’s all!

Take care,

Filipe Oliveira

After introducing myself in the welcome forum I promised to make some pics of my tank as it is now. So I just took the camera to make these:

It is a 200G (80 x 24 x 24 inches) tank with 4 rows of 2 x 39watts T5 Osrams controlled by electronic dimmer.
Filtration is done by 1 Eheim 2180 Pro III with included heating (Biological) and 1 Eheim 2017 mechanical filter.
PH controlled CO2, Fertilisation EasyLife Profito, EasyLife Ferro and additional KNO3 and KH2PO4.
Just plain fine swimming pool filtersand as substrate.

400l "Natural Dutch" by Raymond Sowden (wearsbunnyslippers)

Introduction and background

My name is Raymond Sowden and I am from Cape Town, South Africa. I am 31 and have been keeping fish tanks for more than half my life. I got interested in planted tanks about 2 years ago
as a low maintenance way of keeping my tanks, with little or no water changes, potting soil substrate etc. I later found out this was the Diane Walstad method. The addiction grew and
soon it was more about the plants than the fish. I have always been an avid gardener so I guess the transition was pretty natural. My wife jokes that the fish are just fertilizer factories
and that if wasn’t called a "fish tank" I wouldn’t even keep fish anymore. Little did I know this would turn out to be much more maintenance than regular fish tanks, but also much more rewarding.

I had never seen a true planted tank before, so I started researching and became a lurker on APC, doing as much reading as I could, learning about CO2 and EI, substrates and T5’s, low-tech, high-tech, nature style, jungle, Dutch, so much information to absorb. The tanks that really drew my attention though, were the colorful densely planted Dutch style tanks, especially the ones like
Fluo’s and ShayF’s. This is the kind of tank I aspired to, and am still trying to achieve.

Inspiration

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f…624&original=1

http://us4.pixagogo.com/S58UTKI1w3i7…2/IMG_7001.JPG

I had already converted my 100l into a planted tank, my discus were fast outgrowing it and so I decided I needed to get a bigger tank.

So I rushed out and bought a medium tech 200l tank, upgraded to T5’s with reflectors, pressurized CO2 and flourite - the only manufactured plant substrate I could get my hands on at the time, and started EI dosing.

It was a steep learning curve and I quickly went through all the usual newly setup tank woes, diatoms, algae, green water, nutrient deficiencies etc., so more reading and more learning, and more time spent on APC.

About a year later that tank sprang a leak, and I was faced with a decision, either get a new tank or quit the hobby, guess which way I went. Seen as I was buying a new tank now anyway, I decided

I needed an even bigger one. Bigger tanks are easier to look after in my opinion, up to a point.

That brings me to my current tank, it is a Juwel Rio 400, 100G. It came with 2 T5’s built in and a built in filter. I upgraded the lighting and took out the filter, preferring to use an
external canister filter.

Setup

Lighting with reflectors

Different light Kelvin ratings

1 week after setup

1 month

2 months

3 months

Final Pics

Left

Middle

Right

Side View

The addition of the rocks was frowned upon by some of the Dutch purists, but I prefer a more natural looking layout, the super neat streets and perfectly pruned bushes are a little too unnatural for my tastes, and I think the rocks added some nice contrast. Don’t get me wrong, I find Dutch style tanks absolutely stunning, but not for me personally.

It is quite difficult to source decent plants in South Africa, we have an extremely long species banned list, but I would’ve replaced the rocks with some smaller plants as they became available eventually anyway.

Tank specifications

Volume: 400 Liters
Measurements: 151 x 51 x 62 cm

Lighting:

1 x 59w Juwel High-Lite® Day T5
1 x 59w Juwel High-Lite® Nature T5
4 x 59w Arcadia Plant Por T5’s
8 hrs per day with a timer

Substrate: Flourite

Filtration: Eheim Pro II 2026

CO2: Saga Regulator, power head diffusion, 2 bps. Comes on 2 hours before the lights, goes off with the lights.

Flora

1. Hygrophila polysperma ‘Sunset’
2. Cryptocoryne sp.
3. Alternanthera reineckii
4. Rotala rotundifolia
5. Hygrophila difformis ‘Variegated’
6. Rotala macrandra
7. Hygrophila corymbosa
8. Pogostemon stellatus ‘Narrow Leaf’
9. Mayaca fluviatilis
10. Hygrophila corymbosa ‘angustifolia’
11. Rotala sp.
12. Echinodorus tenellus
13. Lobelia cardinalis
14. Nymphaea lotus ‘Red’

Fauna

Discus, Cardinal Tetra, Harlequin Rasbora, Rummynose Tetra, Corydoras, Baryancistrus sp. (L177)

Maintenance

Sunday - day1: prune, preen, clean glass inside, 25% or more water change, 1/2 tsp kno3, 1/8 ish tsp kh2po4, 1/2 tsp equilibrium, 1/2 tsp dolomite and clean glass on outside
Monday - day2: 5ml Trace
Tuesday - day3: 1/2 tsp kno3, 1/8 ish tsp kh2po4, 1/2 tsp equilibrium, 1/2 tsp dolomite
Wednesday - day5: 5ml Trace
Thursday - day5: 1/2 tsp kno3, 1/8 ish tsp kh2po4, 1/2 tsp equilibrium, 1/2 tsp dolomite
Friday - day6: 5ml Trace
Saturday - day7: Rest and enjoy
Daily Flourish Excel

Challenges

I have fought cyano in this tank from the beginning, never managing to eradicate it 100%, I was almost at the point of dosing erythromycin.

Keeping the stem plants nicely shaped and evenly trimmed takes a lot of pruning, sometimes twice a week on the fast growers, but it is very satisfying and part of the enjoyment of the hobby.

The Eheim 2026 was spec’ed for the 200l and it was not coping with the filtration so I have upgraded it to a Fluval FX5.

Final thoughts

This tank has been broken down and setup again do to me relocating from Johannesburg to Cape Town so it no longer looks like the pictures. I look forward to scaping a new layout and trying some new plants, I am keeping my journal up to date.

I won’t be satisfied that my tank is "done" until I consider my tank in the same league as Fluo’s and Shay’s…

I would like to thank all the guys on our local forum APSA for all their support and helping to source some of the "rarer" plants, and a huge thanks to APC for all their inspiration!

Kind Regards,
Raymond