i love the arts and craft approach. design looks good and balanced. i like the sand trail
90g Cory Jungle River
After years of stockpiling equipment to create a living reef aquarium, I've finally had to face facts--time and money are short since the big financial crash. So I am pivoting toward a low-tech planted tank designed as a playground for Cories and other small fish. I'll be creating a Zen breakfast nook around the aquarium.
I have been reading a lot and assessing how much of my marine equipment I can use or repurpose and what I can sell to pick up the few things I need. Speaking of which, I may have jumped the gun by buying a 48" Finnex Planted+ 24/7 fixture. I don't have a good understanding of light levels yet. Did I buy a low light or medium light fixture? Either way I will live with it. Nothing wrong with watching plants grow slowly.
While studying up, I've plowed ahead with my aquascape. After looking at many beautiful tanks, I came up with a design that is compromise between natural beauty and my "playground" concept. I made a crude mockup in photoshop (attached).
Legend:
Black: internal overflow and other equipment:
Brown: Planting substrate
Yellow: Pool filter sand for unplanted area
Light green: carpet area. Probably Java Moss. Not sure if the Finnex light fixture makes other carpet options feasible.
Medium green: Mid-ground plants. Variety of low light favorites.
Dark green: Jungle Val. I do not want to see any equipment.
Reddish Brown: Driftwood
Blue: River rocks
I then went shopping. I settled on some crazy expensive pa-hai stones and some Malaysian driftwood. I bought them over the internet, so I had no idea of what I was getting.
I created a life size printout of my mock up and went to work trying to fit the pieces of hardscape into my vision. I've attached a photo of my progress.
The planted area will be sloped towards the back corner and feature a large vertical driftwood piece. I have one large driftwood piece I would have to cut down to size. Or, as in the photo, I would have to build a Franken-tree out of medium pieces. The Pa-Hai rocks turned out bigger than I wanted, but they are cool and I did not want to break them. So I adapted my design to add a canyon wall feature along the sandy river.
I plan to have two groups of eight Cories. One striped species and one spotted. Maybe C. metae and C. sterbae since they seem readily available. The Sterbae are a little big. I'll key an eye out for a smaller spotted species when the time comes.
I have not settled on what my school of swimmers will be. Any of the three neon species would be fine. I got a copy of the book on nano species so I'll research that too. Otos and Sparkling Gouramis are top choices to add later when the tank matures a bit.
Well that's the plan. I hope to get started on the plumbing in October. I'll post a list of my "parts" next.
FishyIdea (Joe)
I have been reading a lot and assessing how much of my marine equipment I can use or repurpose and what I can sell to pick up the few things I need. Speaking of which, I may have jumped the gun by buying a 48" Finnex Planted+ 24/7 fixture. I don't have a good understanding of light levels yet. Did I buy a low light or medium light fixture? Either way I will live with it. Nothing wrong with watching plants grow slowly.
While studying up, I've plowed ahead with my aquascape. After looking at many beautiful tanks, I came up with a design that is compromise between natural beauty and my "playground" concept. I made a crude mockup in photoshop (attached).
Legend:
Black: internal overflow and other equipment:
Brown: Planting substrate
Yellow: Pool filter sand for unplanted area
Light green: carpet area. Probably Java Moss. Not sure if the Finnex light fixture makes other carpet options feasible.
Medium green: Mid-ground plants. Variety of low light favorites.
Dark green: Jungle Val. I do not want to see any equipment.
Reddish Brown: Driftwood
Blue: River rocks
I then went shopping. I settled on some crazy expensive pa-hai stones and some Malaysian driftwood. I bought them over the internet, so I had no idea of what I was getting.
I created a life size printout of my mock up and went to work trying to fit the pieces of hardscape into my vision. I've attached a photo of my progress.
The planted area will be sloped towards the back corner and feature a large vertical driftwood piece. I have one large driftwood piece I would have to cut down to size. Or, as in the photo, I would have to build a Franken-tree out of medium pieces. The Pa-Hai rocks turned out bigger than I wanted, but they are cool and I did not want to break them. So I adapted my design to add a canyon wall feature along the sandy river.
I plan to have two groups of eight Cories. One striped species and one spotted. Maybe C. metae and C. sterbae since they seem readily available. The Sterbae are a little big. I'll key an eye out for a smaller spotted species when the time comes.
I have not settled on what my school of swimmers will be. Any of the three neon species would be fine. I got a copy of the book on nano species so I'll research that too. Otos and Sparkling Gouramis are top choices to add later when the tank matures a bit.
Well that's the plan. I hope to get started on the plumbing in October. I'll post a list of my "parts" next.
FishyIdea (Joe)
Attachments
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Plants list
Good morning!
I had a little time to put together a sort of inspirational visual shopping list of plants for my low tech system (Finnex 48" Planted + 24/7), attached below. The photos are copyright LiquidCreations.com, AquariumPlants.com, and Tropica.com. Very impressed with LiquidCreations site and their "low light" package. Also AquariumPlants.com and HanAquatics.com.
And after that, I had to update my layout plan with ideas about plant placement.
Joe
Good morning!
I had a little time to put together a sort of inspirational visual shopping list of plants for my low tech system (Finnex 48" Planted + 24/7), attached below. The photos are copyright LiquidCreations.com, AquariumPlants.com, and Tropica.com. Very impressed with LiquidCreations site and their "low light" package. Also AquariumPlants.com and HanAquatics.com.
And after that, I had to update my layout plan with ideas about plant placement.
Joe
Attachments
Here is the plumbing design. It is not a measured drawing. I draw things out like this to clarify and simplify my ideas before I start wasting money.
Drawing this also made me realize that i should pull the tank out from the wall so I can service from the rear. Moving and leveling the tank will be another project.
Drawing this also made me realize that i should pull the tank out from the wall so I can service from the rear. Moving and leveling the tank will be another project.
Attachments
Last night I stopped by the LFS that I will be using to get a close look at the schooling fish. I was shocked, at first, at how how colorless they were in the bare tanks. But they were all healthy and active. So not a good place to compare fishes for color. The Glolights had zero color. The embers actually looked good. The neons and cardinals where recognizable but with muted colors. Embers are back on the maybe list!
My current thinking on the Corys is just to get a large school of Bandits, maybe 16.
This weekend I have to track down and organize the rest of my aquarium stuff from storage.
Next weekend I will set up the quarantine tank and start the cycle. I consider it "training"
My current thinking on the Corys is just to get a large school of Bandits, maybe 16.
This weekend I have to track down and organize the rest of my aquarium stuff from storage.
Next weekend I will set up the quarantine tank and start the cycle. I consider it "training"
0 My planning is deep and broad. I expect happy Bandit cories to go about raising large families!
My planning is deep and broad. I expect happy Bandit cories to go about raising large families!
That's a nice plan too! My sterbai corys spawned regularly, but I had to get eggs out of the tank (ropefish would eat them for sure) and this way I got 4 new corys. Now all of them live in guppy tank at work. Oldest are around 9 years old now! Raising corys is a great idea, small ones are so cute... Big ones too
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