54G – New Native Aquascape

This weekend I finally got around to tearing down my old aquascape in the 54G corner aquarium, and setting up the basis for a new one that I’ve been wanting to do for some time. The theme of this aquarium will now be all native plants, rocks, and fish. I do not consider this a biotope tank as it currently stands because I plan on using plants from the Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. area, but not necessarily plants that all reside together in the same waterway in the wild.

The hardscape is made of up slate that a few GWAPA members and I collected several years ago. I would have liked to add more rocks to this aquascape, but many of the rocks in my backyard are frozen in the ground, as I reused a number of them this past summer to fill some groundhog holes. (Not the greatest foresight, admittedly!)

For fish, I will be moving my Blue-spotted Sunfish and Banded Killifish into this tank once it settles in. For plants, I’m hoping to fill in the foreground with a field of Eleocharis parvulus (dwarf hairgrass) once it comes into my local shop. Otherwise, I’m using Ludwigia palustris, Proserpinaca pectinata, Proserpinaca palustris, Lobelia cardinalis, Potamogetonaceae sp. (looks like P. diversifolius or Stuckenia pectinata), and a local Eleocharis species that gets about 1 foot tall. I’ll likely add Rotala ramosior once it grows out for me a little bit in another tank.

One of the things that had been preventing me from doing this tank is the fact that these corner tanks are so difficult to light. Previously, I had a JBJ 2x65W PC fixture on top, which did an okay, but would never grow hairgrass in the foreground. So, I saved up a little bit, and ordered a nice fixture from Catalina Aquarium, which is 4x24W T5, with a 250W metal halide bulb in the center. I made an ADA knock-off stand out of electrical conduit to hang the light from, and now should have more than enough light to deal with. I hooked up the CO2 tank, added some ADA Powersand and Amazonia Aquasoil, and am ready to go. Hopefully these plants will grow quickly into a great centerpiece for my livingroom, where I’ll have collecting stories for many of the things within.