I've had planted tanks off and on for the last 5+ years, but really gotten back into it in the last 6 months. I credit it fully to the start of my buce addiction. I got a few of these plants and fell in love, and been focusing mostly on them ever since, collecting many types to see which I liked best. For the most part they were tied to rocks and just put in tanks to grow.
I finally think I have a good feel for the species and what the different characteristics they can bring to a scape. So I'm finally doing it and started a tank which will be buce dominated.
Here are the quick details
Tank: Custom 11g acrylic tank which fits just right on a bookshelf I own. dimensions are 33x11x8.
Lighting: 2 ecoxotic panorama 16w LEDs (with dimmer)
Substrate: Black sand in the center, ecocomplete on the right. Rocks are mostly granite
Filter: Aqueon 10-Gallon QuietFlow Internal Filter
CO2: Injected, 5# tank
Ferts: EI dosing, osmacote+ under sand
Fish:
Koi swordtails (2 months old)
Apistogramma cacatuoides "Double Red" (2 months old)
Red Ramshorn Snails
I plan to eventually clear out most of the fish and make this a shrimp tank, but I got a great deal on a lot of these really nice fry, so they're living in this tank for now.
Plants:
UG
Elatine Hydropiper
Red Root Floaters
Bucephalandra Giant Sword
Bucephalandra Black Achilles
Bucephalandra Mini Cathrine
Bucephalandra Brownie Phantom
Currently there aren't any buce in the tank! But that will change, I am just starting with the hardscape and ground cover. As you can see, a main focus of my initial attempts is creating a LOT of space to attach buce to rocks. I used the granite rocks to create a wall with a lot of places to attach buce in the cracks. The goal is to have nearly all the rocks covered and the wood coming through the plants and then disappearing into the UG.
In time, I plan to actually replace the ground cover with some really small buce as well, to create an all buce tank.
Ok, enough talking, here are the shots of the first few days of setup:
April 4
April 5
April 6
Feedback appreciated! It's obviously going to be an evolving work in progress.
Thanks!
Eric