32 Litre "Tapestry Garden" Tank!

[Urban Aquaria]

I decided to re-scape my previous 32 Litre "Tree Scape" Tank and convert it into a flora/fauna holding tank, as i'm currently in the midst of preparing larger tanks for my future scapes too.

To stock up on some plant selection in advance, i sourced assorted suitable plants from the various LFS, then properly cleaned and quarantined them before adding them into the tank.

Although it wasn't my intention to create a scape (its just meant to be a holding tank after all), i still followed the usual layout of placing fast growing tall stem plants behind, slower growth lower plants in the middle and carpet plants in the front. I also made sure each plant group had some space between them to accommodate horizontal growth and propagation too.

After arranging everything in the tank, it somehow turned out to be a rather pleasant layout. It kind of reminded me of those "dutch style" tanks with plants arranged in neat groups, or those "collectoritis style" tanks with masses of different plants.



The plants are abit short at the moment, hopefully they eventually grow and fill up the tank soon.

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Here are the tank stats:

Tank Size: 45cm x 30cm x 24cm (High Clarity / Low Iron Glass)
Substrate: ADA Aqua Soil New Amazonia (Powder Type)

Filter System: Eheim 2224 + 13mm gUSH Lily Pipe Set
Filter Media: Seachem Matrix

Temperature: 29-30°C (Day) / 27-28°C (Night)

Lighting: Up Aqua Z-Series Pro LED Z-15 (45cm)
Light Duration: 2 x 4 hour shifts (9am-1pm / 5pm-9pm)

Co2: None
Carbon: Seachem Excel
Fertilizer: Tropica Plant Growth Specialised Fertilizer
Fan/Chiller: None

Water Change Regime: 50% Weekly

Water Parameters:
Tested using API Freshwater Master Test Kit
pH = 6.6
Ammonia = 0 ppm
Nitrite = 0 ppm
Nitrate = 0-5 ppm

Flora:

Front:
Hemianthus Callitrichoides
Hemianthus Glomeratus
Staurogyne sp. 'Repens'
Eleocharis Acicularis

Middle:
Cryptocoryne Parva
Cryptocoryne Willisii 'Lucens'
Cryptocoryne Wendtii 'Mi Oya'

Back:
Hygrophila Polysperma 'Sunset'
Rotala sp.'Nanjenshan'
Bacopa Caroliniana
Ludwigia Palustris
Bacopa Monnieri
Lindernia Rotundifolia 'Variegated'
Aciotis Acuminifolia

Fauna:
Danio Margaritatus
Corydoras Habrosus
Otocinclus Macrospilus
Otocinclus Cocama
Neocaridina Heteropoda

Feed:
Hikari Micro Pellets
Hikari Micro Wafers
Hikari Sinking Wafers

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I would have liked to add even more plants, but this tank is really out of space... maybe i might use one of my larger tanks to create a dedicated plant collection tank too.

For now, i'll just be monitoring the growth rates of the plants and tweaking the conditions (adjusting flow, excel and fertilizer dosage, water changes etc) and see how well they acclimatize to the tank environment. It'll be a good opportunity to observe how the various plants grow over time.



Although there is a relatively high fish and shrimp bio-load in the tank, the large amount of plant mass naturally consumes nutrients and nitrates from the water very quickly, i tested the nitrate measurements using a API test kit and the results came up yellow, which means almost 0 nitrates in the water.

This indicates that the plants are consuming more nitrates (and possibly more nutrients) than the bio-load can produce, hence i now have to regularly dose fertilizers which contain both micro and macro nutrients to keep up with the plants demand. At the end of each week, a large water change is done to remove the excess nutrients and reset the nutrient levels.

On a side note, most of the plants i choose are in the easy-moderate demand range, which are able to grow without pressurized Co2 injection (albeit at a slower pace, therefore no need to trim the plants as often). The approach for my future tanks will also be based on similar lower maintenance conditions.



Will update on the tank and plants progress over the next few weeks.

[qngwn]

hey bro,

how do you usually clean and quarantine your plants before introducing them to your tank?
i'm having a bad time with button snail infestation that my dwarf puffers are not able to clear.

[erwinx]

Is the red plant a Rotala or Ludwigia? (sorry still learning)

I'm looking for a red plant that stays red in low-tech tank. So far my red plants new growth is green even though I dose iron and using 2 x T5 tubes for my 30l tank....

[Urban Aquaria]

hey bro,

how do you usually clean and quarantine your plants before introducing them to your tank?
i'm having a bad time with button snail infestation that my dwarf puffers are not able to clear.

What i usually do for new plants is wash them thoroughly in running water, then physically inspect the stems and leaves for worms, snails, eggs etc (manually removing any if i spot them), then dip the plants in salt solution, then excel solution, then wash again in running water.

After that i put them in a clear plastic container for a few days with regular lighting, once i see no more critters popping out, then i add the plants to the main tank.

Sometimes if i find too many pests on a plant, i'll just throw it away rather than take the risk.

It does require a fair bit of extra work to check and prepare plants this way, but the benefit is that i've not had any snails appearing in my tanks so far (at least none that i can spot yet, fingers crossed!).

[marle]

i think its fantastic that you are putting in that extra effort for luxurious plant growth and aquarium health!

[Urban Aquaria]

Is the red plant a Rotala or Ludwigia? (sorry still learning)

I'm looking for a red plant that stays red in low-tech tank. So far my red plants new growth is green even though I dose iron and using 2 x T5 tubes for my 30l tank....

The red plant at the far right of the tank is supposedly Aciotis Acuminifolia, i could be wrong though, but its the closest match that i can find through descriptions and photos online.

The stems and leaves on that plant are only red underneath, the top sides of the leaves are green... but the whole plant tends to look red because the new leaves point upwards so we see more of the red undersides.

So far after a week, the plant's color still looks the same, and i've spotted some new small leaves popping out with the same top green and bottom red feature, so i guess it still retains the same coloration in low tech environments. Maybe this particular plant's color is not as noticeably affected by differing conditions.

Anyways, i'm monitoring how it grows over the next few weeks, see if the color still retains over the long term.

[Urban Aquaria]

i think its fantastic that you are putting in that extra effort for luxurious plant growth and aquarium health!

I guess i have abit of "OCD" too... so i tend to go slightly overboard when doing stuff.

[cherabin]

I was wishing to actually see the tree scape tank in the long run. To access the viability of sustaining healthy HC in a low tech environment.

[Urban Aquaria]

I was wishing to actually see the tree scape tank in the long run. To access the viability of sustaining healthy HC in a low tech environment.

Yeah, the HC carpet became quite stable after a few weeks post-flooding, after that it wasn't declining (other than the shaded areas with low circulation), but also not growing much, just status quo.

From that experiment, i can somewhat conclude that for low tech tanks, the only way HC can realistically maintain a carpet in low tech tanks is if they were pre-established via DSM, and the plant selection has to be very limited and the bio-load kept low... otherwise it'll be very tough to get them to even survive past the transition and maintain a carpet.

If i didn't need to re-arrange the setup to prepare for other tanks, i would have kept it running for abit longer, though it would probably still look the same over the next few months anyways.

I'd admit it actually got abit boring looking at the tank after a while though... so i was also itching for a change in scenery.

[milk_vanilla]

Sounds like duchy style this time bro, keep it up.

Can't wait the next episodes.

[marle]

More pictures please!

[cephelix]

Nice,so much care taken in prepping the plants. Once everything is done,u would have tons of trimmings

[inrewind]

Clean and preppy. How about the other projects?

[Urban Aquaria]

Clean and preppy. How about the other projects?

Still waiting for equipment orders to arrive... somehow all the LFS are currently out-of-stock of the various items i need for the setups. So for now i'm just staring at empty tanks on their racks.

Luckily i have this temporary holding tank to keep me occupied in the meantime.

[Urban Aquaria]

Testing time... this is what happens in a tank full of fast growing plants after a week.



Nitrates still showing yellow color on an API test kit, the effects of faster growing plants and higher plant density is very noticeable.

Looks like i'll have to dose a higher ratio of macro fertilizers to prevent nitrate/nitrogen shortage.

[hydrophyte]

That is lovely. You take such great pictures.

This is like a Dutch style planting.

[sfk7]

Which lfs sells ada soil in powder form?

[Urban Aquaria]

Which lfs sells ada soil in powder form?

Powder type aqua soil seems to be currently out of stock at the various LFS, guess we'll have to wait until they restock.

[cephelix]

so long out of stock??

[Urban Aquaria]

so long out of stock??

Yeah, seems to be the case... i've been checking at the popular LFS for the past few months and all still no stock yet.