Ellie's 54L
I don't have photos at every stage for this tank as it has been set up a few months now, but I have some, and I can see that this is a tank that will evolve quite a bit so thought it would be good to document its progress, and have a place for lots of pretty pictures 
background:
I was into fishkeeping when i was a kid. Asked for my first tank when I was about 13 from my parents for Christmas. Loved keeping my community set up and worked in a pet shop selling lots of different fish species which I loved until I was about 17. But I never knew about aquascaping, that it even existed. I loved changing around the layout and decoration in my tank (mainly wood and pipes) but I never thought to add many plants. I would buy real plants from time to time as a bunch, held down with lead weight, but I only had gravel substrate and they always died off eventually.
fastforward until after uni, and after I moved to a new country. Went to local garden centre and saw their AMAZING supply of aquatic plants, all in pots with good roots. I knew I had to have some in a tank, so I started researching. Came across the world of aquascaping and I was hooked.
So now I have this tank, and Im already planning a new and bigger one...but that will be when I have a house of my own so I dont have to move it.
Enough of the rambles
This is the tank with the hardscape set up. My initial plan was to have a tree type thing on the left and then just moss/annubias on the right hand wood. I just loved how it twists. And then just a carpet along the bottom.
![Toy Display case Wood Art Glass]()
![Food Wood Cuisine Dish Animal product]()
But when I visited the garden centre to buy plants I went a bit (lot) overboard and bought way too many, I just loved them all. In heinsight, I would have planned it a bit better with the plant species but oh well, I had alot of fun and it was good experience growing the different ones.
After planting and cycling...
![Plant Vertebrate Green Organism Pet supply]()
![Plant Plant community Botany Terrestrial plant Organism]()
And from the back
![Plant Water Organism Terrestrial plant Aquatic plant]()
Original list of plants:
Nymphoides,
Staurogyne repens,
Hygrophila corymbosa,
Lilaeopsis brasiliensis,
Myriophyllum mattogrossense,
Anubia barteri,
Microsorum pteropus,
Ludwigia glandulosa,
Hemianthus callitrichoides
I started off using pressurised CO2 but after it ran out and I had no money to buy a new canister I dont use it right now.
Also, had a bad outbreak of whitespot. Raising temp didnt work in time and I couldnt add salts because of plants or treatment because of shrimp, so they all died unfortunatly. Its been a month or so, so hopefully the stage in the substrate is all dead. Planning on putting some CPDs in there.
Although I liked how well the plants grew (should have taken pics when it was forest like) you couldnt see the wood much which is what I love so I did some trimming/pulling out plants I didnt want in there anymore. Have kept all plants which I will eventually use in a planted bowl I am making. I added more wood because my 'tree' didnt work out too well.
sorry about the awful picture and the amount of glare, when I get the time I will take a proper non phone photo. There is alot more space in the tank than it looks like in the photo, doesnt do it justice.
![Plant Water Organism Pet supply Rectangle]()
its Christmas moss on the new wood and the same original java moss on the right hand side.
Fauna:
4 amano shrimp
2 bamboo shrimp
background:
I was into fishkeeping when i was a kid. Asked for my first tank when I was about 13 from my parents for Christmas. Loved keeping my community set up and worked in a pet shop selling lots of different fish species which I loved until I was about 17. But I never knew about aquascaping, that it even existed. I loved changing around the layout and decoration in my tank (mainly wood and pipes) but I never thought to add many plants. I would buy real plants from time to time as a bunch, held down with lead weight, but I only had gravel substrate and they always died off eventually.
fastforward until after uni, and after I moved to a new country. Went to local garden centre and saw their AMAZING supply of aquatic plants, all in pots with good roots. I knew I had to have some in a tank, so I started researching. Came across the world of aquascaping and I was hooked.
So now I have this tank, and Im already planning a new and bigger one...but that will be when I have a house of my own so I dont have to move it.
Enough of the rambles
This is the tank with the hardscape set up. My initial plan was to have a tree type thing on the left and then just moss/annubias on the right hand wood. I just loved how it twists. And then just a carpet along the bottom.
But when I visited the garden centre to buy plants I went a bit (lot) overboard and bought way too many, I just loved them all. In heinsight, I would have planned it a bit better with the plant species but oh well, I had alot of fun and it was good experience growing the different ones.
After planting and cycling...
And from the back
Original list of plants:
Nymphoides,
Staurogyne repens,
Hygrophila corymbosa,
Lilaeopsis brasiliensis,
Myriophyllum mattogrossense,
Anubia barteri,
Microsorum pteropus,
Ludwigia glandulosa,
Hemianthus callitrichoides
I started off using pressurised CO2 but after it ran out and I had no money to buy a new canister I dont use it right now.
Also, had a bad outbreak of whitespot. Raising temp didnt work in time and I couldnt add salts because of plants or treatment because of shrimp, so they all died unfortunatly. Its been a month or so, so hopefully the stage in the substrate is all dead. Planning on putting some CPDs in there.
Although I liked how well the plants grew (should have taken pics when it was forest like) you couldnt see the wood much which is what I love so I did some trimming/pulling out plants I didnt want in there anymore. Have kept all plants which I will eventually use in a planted bowl I am making. I added more wood because my 'tree' didnt work out too well.
sorry about the awful picture and the amount of glare, when I get the time I will take a proper non phone photo. There is alot more space in the tank than it looks like in the photo, doesnt do it justice.
its Christmas moss on the new wood and the same original java moss on the right hand side.
Fauna:
4 amano shrimp
2 bamboo shrimp
