27 Litre "Grassy Dune" Outdoor Tank

**Urban Aquaria** · 9th Jul 2014, 14:02

I decided to upgrade my previous 18 Litre "Glass Planter" Outdoor Tank which has been running for the past 2+ months. Surprisingly with slow growing plants and lot of indirect sunlight throughout the day, not much algae appeared (other than some green algae on the glass which was easily cleaned off), i guess the low-bio load and minimal nutrients probably helped to ward of algae issues.

So i got a longer tank custom made to utilize the shelf space more efficiently, yet still keep to the low-profile style. The new tank dimensions are L60cm x D25cm x H18cm, quite similar to the ADA 60F tank design in terms of dimensions (though with slightly less depth).

As i wasn't planning to create an elaborate scape (and i prefer it to be easily setup and taken down if required), i chose to stick with sand substrate and use the same types of small volcanic rocks.

This time round i was inspired by the grassy sand dunes at beaches which just feature a simple combination of beach grass and rocks.

The sand was piled up higher in the middle of the tank and the rocks were scattered down the slope.

I choose to use Blyxa Japonica to recreate the beach grass look (it coincided with a plant trimming harvest from my other tanks). What i like about Blyxa Japonica is that its an adaptive plant that can grow well as a water column feeder and its easy to get an instant nice grassy hedge with just bunches of them. It also only grows up to 10-15cm tall, which fits the height and scale of low-profile tanks.

The tank is filtered by an Eheim Ecco Pro 130, which is in turn connected to Acrylic Lily Pipes. I adjusted the flow rate to around 70%-80% to regulate the current, to the point that there is good overall circulation and all the plant leaves are swaying gently in the current, but not too much that they get uprooted.

I'd have to say that this tank is one of the fastest i've ever setup, from empty tank to hooking up equipment to hardscaping and planting to completion, all in it only took less than 30 minutes.

A group of 20+ cherry shrimps (aka maintenance crew) were introduced a few hours after tank setup, the filter already contains a portion of cycled bio-media and the sand substrate is inert, so the parameters stay relatively stable for the fauna.

I'll probably add more smaller and shorter plants in between the rocks as accents, perhaps some Eleocharis sp. 'Mini' or maybe some Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo' could be nice. Will see what i can harvest from my other tanks.

**Ingen** · 9th Jul 2014, 14:28

Eleocharis sp mini and Monte Carlo can grow in sand substrate?

**Urban Aquaria** · 9th Jul 2014, 14:45

Originally Posted by Ingen

Eleocharis sp mini and Monte Carlo can grow in sand substrate?

Yeah, both of those plants can be grown in sand substrate, i had them in a sand based indoor tank and they still grew quite well too, just need to have sufficient nutrients in the water column.

They can even be grown tied to rocks too.

**Ingen** · 9th Jul 2014, 15:33

That's helpful to know! Always thought they need aqua soil to grow.

**aquanick** · 9th Jul 2014, 16:29

Excellent setup for an outdoor tank UA. Just a suggestion, rocks of different sizes and closer placement will give it a much more natural feel.

**Urban Aquaria** · 9th Jul 2014, 17:04

Originally Posted by aquanick

Excellent setup for an outdoor tank UA. Just a suggestion, rocks of different sizes and closer placement will give it a much more natural feel.

Thanks!

Yeah, unfortunately all the volcanic rocks i got from the pack are small sized ones... couldn't find suitable larger ones which match the same color and texture, so ended up with a sort of scattered rock debris look.

**aquanick** · 9th Jul 2014, 17:11

Looks symmetrical arrangement now..

I saw sun pets had quite a good collection of lava rocks.

**Urban Aquaria** · 9th Jul 2014, 17:21

Originally Posted by aquanick

Looks symmetrical arrangement now..

I saw sun pets had quite a good collection of lava rocks.

I saw their selection too, they had nice porous rough-edge type of lava rocks... but i'm more keen on the smooth type volcanic rocks, quite tough to find.

**sthh** · 10th Jul 2014, 08:41

Very nice scape, reminds me of the wild grass plain where lion hidden behind is ready to pounce on unsuspecting prey.

**cosmico** · 19th Jul 2014, 12:19

Bro where you buy the shelf? And the volcanic rock from GC?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

**Urban Aquaria** · 19th Jul 2014, 14:07

Originally Posted by cosmico

Bro where you buy the shelf? And the volcanic rock from GC?

I bought the LÄCKÖ outdoor shelving unit from Ikea.

The small volcanic rocks were bought from Y618, you can check out a close-up photo of those rocks in this post for reference:

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...667#post771667

**sfk7** · 19th Jul 2014, 17:03

UA you might want to check out Sun pets for this kind of rocks. Pictures available at their facebook. Looks similar to me

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...89915390_n.jpg