Hey all!
I'm excited to finally start another journal on here. I took a vacation from tanks and shrimping but as some of you know, I graduated college and I've got time now to devote to some tanks.
I'll be making two or three new tanks in the next year, and this is the first.
As you'll be able to tell by the title; I want this to be a very mossy tank. SO mossy in fact that it will have a moss wall, a moss floor and a tree of moss!
So over the past few weeks I've worked with Han and we put together a plan for the flora in the tank.
My moss wall will be flame moss, so it should look interesting as the moss creeps up, not down. My moss floor will be Christmas moss (that and mini Xmas are my personal favorites). And my moss tree will be well maintained round pellia.
I'll also have in this tank several Anubias Micro plants to keep with the scale of the tree.
The tank itself will be one of my favorite tank brands -- AquaTop. The AquaTop 4g package includes a beautiful tank and some extras. They build top quality tanks that are low-iron, affordable and gorgeous.
My scape will be interesting I hope. I plan to do 2/3 of the floor a low to the ground 1-2 inch gravel bed of black flourite and 1/3 will be divided by a jutting out rock I plan to make look like a cliff. Behind the cliff, I intend to have a 3.5-4.5 inch substrate bed.
On top of that cliff I have a moss tree which will be the main focus of the tank.
Other plans: I hope to cycle it quickly with a combination of Safe Start, seeded filter media and snails. I hope to develop quick biofilm with a product called Bacter AE, and the plan is to get a very blue species of shrimp in here within a month.
So as I do with all my builds, here's a cost breakdown:
Tank/filter/light- $80
3X Moss species & Anubias - $190
Substrate (large grain flourite black)- $20
Filter cover- $5
Safe start- $10
Moss tree- $60
I don't have shrimp yet, but I hope to not spend more than $70-80 shipped.