The aquascape utilizing plants native to my area is now 2 weeks old in my 54G corner aquarium. Starting last week, I began getting lots of green spot algae on the glass indicating that the initial burst of phosphates in the ADA Aquasoil was starting to run out. So, after conducting a few tests, I did a water change, and began dosing phosphate, potassium, and traces, and soon after, the plants (and algae) are responding well.

After my initial planting, I have added Elatine americana and Eleocharis acicularis. I wanted the hairgrass around the rocks to be a little bit taller, so I used Eleocharis acicularis there. I’m in the process of acquiring Eleocharis parvulus, which is much shorter to use in the more wide open areas. Elatine americana is the beautiful fine-leaved plant to the right of the large rock, which some club members collected in NJ, but is also native to Maryland. I’m still planning on putting Proserpinaca palustris and Rotala ramosior in this tank once I grow out a few more stems in other aquariums. Once my plants are little more established, I’ll add the fish, but that’s likely at least a month away. Comments/critiques welcome!

I just wanted to share a picture of my completely non-aquascaped 40G farm tank. This is the aquarium where I grow out plants for use in future aquascapes, or hang onto plants that I don’t want in one of my current aquascapes, but don’t want to get rid of either. This is the 40G aquarium that has earthworm castings underneath a top layer of ADA Amazonia Aquasoil. I dose Flourish and Flourish Iron daily, adding Potassium every once in awhile, but otherwise it does pretty well on it’s own.

One of the benefits of keeping an aquarium like this, as opposed to an emersed tank, is that plants grown in here are immediately ready to go into another aquarium when needed. When plants grow too large in this tank, I just trim them out, and take them to club auctions or sell online. Farm tanks also let you truly use only the plants you want in an aquascape, without feeling the need to cram a plant into the aquarium just so you don’t lose it. I have no idea how many different species of plants are crammed into this tank. I’m convinced that if I had a 1000 gallon aquarium, I’d somehow find a way to fill it with plant mass. The biggest challenge is ensuring that no single group of plants shade out others, as it’s easy to lose track of what’s growing where. Nevertheless, I highly recommend keeping a farm tank of some size as a way of improving the aquascapes in your other aquariums.

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.

I last posted about the 75G aquarium about a month ago, when it was only setup for 2 weeks. I hadn’t yet decided which foreground plant I was going to go with. After a fair amount of indecisiveness, I was at my local fish store last week, and impulsively bought a pot of Glossostigma elatinoides.

This certainly is not a maverick pick, but it’s been awhile since I actually did a tank with good ‘ol glosso, so I thought it would do well. You may notice that in addition to the foreground, I’ve also begrudgingly removed all of the Blyxa japonica from this aquascape. Where I had it previously was just over-powering the foreground a little bit.

I also got some Cryptocoryne parva, which I have planted on the edges of hardscape underneath the archway. I’m sure that eventually I’ll have to rescue it from the glosso, but I also added some slightly taller Cryptocoryne willisii, which should stick out.

I have a few other plants in this tank that I’ll likely need to remove to the benefit of aquascape once I have places for them in one of my other aquariums. Mostly, those plants are Lamiaceae sp. and Proserpinaca palustris on the right side of the tank.

The other plants in this tank are all doing quite well. You can see Hottonia palustris pearling in the photo above. Overall, I’m looking forward to finally having the foreground filled in, so that I can just tweak the rest of the plants into a finished aquascape. Comments/critiques welcome as always!

I was sitting across the room, watching some television, which I noticed a huge mass of cherry shrimp, all congregated in the front of my 75G aquarium. The 75G has been close to algae-free lately, so I have been feeding extra algae wafers for the plecos, but hadn’t really paid much attention after doing so. Apparently, the population of cherry shrimp was quite interested in the algae wafers, and called of their friends to join them in the feast.

Of course, with that many shrimp in one place, all of the rainbowfish in the tank wanted to see what was so interesting. They dove in and out of the population of shrimp, but didn’t seem to bother the shrimp any by doing so.

Finally, the Ancistrus sp. ‘L279’ bristle-nosed plecos realized that I dropped in algae wafers, and stormed into the middle of the shrimp. In some instances, they swam in fast enough to a send the shrimp flying out of the way.

All in all, it’s pretty entertaining to watch these critters interact with the rest of the tankmates. As you can tell, the cherry shrimp have had no problem breeding in my 75G aquarium!

It’s been about two months since I first setup the aquascape in my 50G aquarium. The plants are growing in very well, and after many hydrogen peroxide treatments, the algae I was experiencing is finally starting to wane. Unfortunately, the H2O2 also took a toll on many of the fish I had in this tank. Otherwise, I’ve removed a few more rocks from the right foreground to allow for more focus on the woodwork there. Ideally, I’d like the wood to look like a fallen tree.

The HC and hairgrass are both starting to take off, which I’ve been waiting awhile for. I’ll probably tweak a few more things, removing a couple plants from the scape, but more/less, I’m pretty pleased with how it’s progressing. As always, comments/critiques welcome!

I wanted to give an update on my 75G aquarium, roughly two weeks since I rescaped it. As you can tell, many of the stems in the background need a trim, but otherwise, the midground is pretty much intact. I still haven’t decided on a foreground plant, which I really need to do. Right now, I’m kind of thinking of using Echinodorus tenellus var. ‘micro,’ which is a small grassy plant that turns red under intense lighting.

The Hottonia palustris is growing really well in the right-background, and is a very unique looking plant. Right now it’s growing tall, and then trailing a little bit toward the front glass as it nears the water surface, which is exactly what I want.

The tank is also packed with about 50-70 Iriatherina werneri (Threadfin rainbowfish), and a few other Melanotaenia praecox (Dwarf Neon rainbowfish) that I had from another tank. While I was taking photos they all congregated in a single area underneath the arch, so it looks like they’re packed far denser then they normally are.

Also, the Proserpinaca palustris (Mermaid weed) that I found locally this past summer is growing nicely, and has turned a nice burgundy color under the lights. This particular variety appears to have extremely fine-tooth leaves, as compared to some of the ones I’ve seen in the hobby. I think I actually prefer this look.

Overall, I’m pleased with how this aquascape is turning out. As mentioned, I still need to work on a foreground and trim some of the stems, but otherwise, I’m looking forward to it maturing a little bit more. Comments/critiques welcome as always!

It’s been about 5 weeks since I first planted my 50G aquarium, and as you can see the plants are really starting to grow in. In some ways, I’m starting to think that this isn’t a good thing. I’m reconsidering all of the Blyxa japonica on the left side midground, as it just seems too imposing. I need to come up with a shorter plant there. Previously, I had just jammed the B. japonica down into the substrate prior to photos, but that’s not a great solution.

The Hemianthus callitrichoides has finally started to spread a little bit in the foreground, so I’m hopeful that it’ll soon really gain some momentum and fill in. I was also able to get some Fissidens fontanus moss from another GWAPA member, which I attached to the large root ball on the left side. The stems, especially the Rotala macrandra ‘green narrow’, are really growing fast right now. The only disappointment to this point is the Hemianthus micranthemoides in the right midground, which is growing more veritical than bushy. I’m also dealing with a little bit of hair algae, which I’m trying to rectify by starting a small dosing regimen of traces, iron, potassium, and Seachem Excel. Largely, I’m pleased with how things are proceeding, but recognise that a few adjustments will be in order. Comments welcome!

I guess you could say that the Aquatic Gardener’s Association Convention last month inspired me to work on my tanks. After setting up my 50G, and moving my 40G, it was finally time to rescape my 75G aquarium. I usually don’t do a whole lot of planning prior to starting a new aquascape. Usually, I just pick the materials I want to use, and kind of fit them together, trying different combinations, until something clicks. Well, this time, I decided to try something new.

The day prior to the rescape, I pulled out my porous mossy rock and African bogwood, and began working on a hardscape on the floor. Eventually, I decided that I wanted an archway, slightly off-center, with piles of rocks around it. Then, the next day, when it was time to rescape, it was simple to transplant the hardscape into the tank.

Obviously, once in the aquarium, I made a few adjustments, spreading out the hardscape, and adding a few extra pieces of rocks and wood to fill it out. I also knew that Narrow leaf Java Fern would feature prominently in this aquascape, after receiving a huge amount of it from a very generous GWAPA member. (BB, thank you so much!) Microsorum pteropus is a wonderful plant to use to fill in the gaps between pieces of the hardscape, making the whole thing look like more than a pile of rocks and wood.

After quite a bit of planting, I finished the aquascape. A lot of growing needs to happen, and actually, I still need to plant the foreground, but otherwise, I’m pretty happy with how it’s turned out. Of course, I’ve spent a number of hours staring at it, so I’m sure I see things a little bit differently than a fresh set of eyes.

So, with that in mind, I’d love to hear your comments and critiques!

A few days ago, I finally committed the time to completely tear down my 40G aquarium, and move it from the second floor down to my basement. I had long worried that the weight on the second floor, plus the risk of serious water damage if the tank/equipment ever leaked, was too much of a risk. So, I completely tore down the tank, removing all of the plants, fish, and hardscape. I knew the earthworm casting substrate would be problematic to move, so I did my best to scrape off the top layer of ADA Amazonia, but kept the bottommost worm-poop in the tank.

It’s amazing how something that I can describe in a few sentences above can take so long to implement. It was basically an all-day project, and a two-person job to actually move the tank. Then, after I got it setup, the Amazonia that I scraped off the top was so muddy that it turned the water into something resembling milk. After countless water changes, the water is finally clear, but there’s no aquascape in place. I’m going to use this tank as more of a farming tank to hold my extra plants. The blue-spotted sunfish and killies are still enjoying it as their home, however. I’ll post some picture of the tank itself after I’ve had a chance to fully plant and clean it up a little bit.