New to these "under water plant" thingymajigs.

1123 Views 14 Replies 6 Participants Last post by Aquasafe, Oct 24, 2012

Silmarwen

Discussion Starter · Sep 21, 2012

Good morning! I just joined up and wanted to throw this out there before I dove headfirst into everything else

I'm new to planted tanks. When I was a kid, we had a 55-gallon tropical aquarium in our living room, but I don't think we had any live plants in it. Fast forward ten(ish) years, and I'm a senior in college. My new apartment is (relatively) huge, and in all that space, I wanted something alive. So I got my betta, Pearlicus. And that's all well and good.

But I needed more. :icon_eek:

So I started price-checking bigger tanks. And then my dad bought me a 10-gallon aquarium kit and some live plants from Petco.

So I dove headfirst into research, as I tend to do when excited, and began planting and rearranging and trying to decide what fish to ultimately put in it.

All that brings me here, to this lovely little forum, where past google searches have informed me that there are many people who also like aquariums, and many more with vast pools (hah. pun. don't mind me.) of knowledge I can draw from.

So hello, everyone! I'm looking forward to being here often.

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if_fishes_were_wishes

· #2 · Sep 21, 2012

welcome! you're in good hands here

looking forward to pics!

Elppan

· #3 · Sep 21, 2012

Yay! Welcome. I did the same thing when I started, got so wrapped up in research I was sucked in! Now I'm on tank # 4 Hahaha.

Silmarwen

Discussion Starter · #4 · Sep 21, 2012

Elppan said:
Yay! Welcome. I did the same thing when I started, got so wrapped up in research I was sucked in! Now I'm on tank # 4 Hahaha.

Well, between my betta's tank and the yet-uninhabited 10-gallon, I've technically got two, and I'm kindasortamaybeprobablyalmostdefinately getting a 30 gallon for Christmas, so... where's my "too many is never enough tanks club" membership card?

if_fishes_were_wishes said:
welcome! you're in good hands here looking forward to pics!

I've got one or two up already in "Your Tanks," so feel free to take a look. It's nothing special yet, but I'm working on it

Elppan

· #5 · Sep 21, 2012

Silmarwen said:
Well, between my betta's tank and the yet-uninhabited 10-gallon, I've technically got two, and I'm kindasortamaybeprobablyalmostdefinately getting a 30 gallon for Christmas, so... where's my "too many is never enough tanks club" membership card?

Hahaha. Just wait, if you start on shrimp you'll be all 'ooooo look at all the colors! I need a tank for every individual color!'
I started that, lol. Look into Walstad bowls, inexpensive and so neat! I've started putting several together for different varieties of shrimps. Someone here made one out of a wine glass, was great

Silmarwen

Discussion Starter · #6 · Sep 21, 2012

I'm already like that for the fish I'm looking at, haha! I want to keep some bright, silvery fish in the tank I have (it'll go well with the neon gravel and bright green plants), but then I want to build a whole tank around a "Greek ruins" piece I'd seen with angels and really tall plants and moss, and so on...

I think I'm a theme-tank sort of person.

This hobby is going to be so dangerous.

I was already kinda looking at shrimp already, I'm just not sure if I like them yet. I've always been sort of "eh," largely because my mom is allergic to crusteacians, and I don't know how that would affect her if I wanted her help on something, so... If I kept them in little glass bowls all to themselves, I'd probably do better...

Hmm....... (God, this whole site is going to be dangerous for me!)

TexasCichlid

· #7 · Sep 21, 2012

You can come up with some terrific "theme" tanks that don't involve neon gravel and plastic Petsmart decorations. Look at some pictures of the sort of themes you are interested in and try to figure out a natural way to emulate that look and feel. I think you will find it more challenging, but more rewarding in the long run.

Silmarwen

Discussion Starter · #8 · Sep 21, 2012

I really don't intend to use neon gravel ever again, actually. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision when I saw it in the bag, my instincts went "SHINY!" I feel like it's going to be an awesome tank regardless, but I wouldn't do more like it. It has to stay unique(ish). I love the look of all of the completely natural aquariums I've seen in my browsing, but the stonehenge-esque idea has stuck with me for a very long time, so I'm pretty sure it's going to happen, plastic decorations or not.

I do like the idea of getting a few shrimp set up in their little tanks, but after my 10-gallon gets stocked, I have a feeling I'm going to wind up with a couple more bettas in little planted tanks scattered throughout my bookshelves.

I feel like I've always worked will in miniature--from the itty bitty cups and vases that sensei made me stop making in ceramics ("So many small things. Why not try big things?"), to the 100x100px icons I spent years making--so I feel like betta tanks and shrimp bowls would be the way to go for a little while yet while I save up the money for a nice, big tank that I can go all-out on. The frequent water-changes don't bother me in the least, and taking the time to go around and feed everyone would be the most relaxing part of my day

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TexasCichlid

· #9 · Sep 21, 2012

Stonehenge sounds great. Get some seiryu stones and partially cover some of them with mini fissidens or the such and get a fun "ancient ruins" look. Also, with bettas, look into setting up a low tech planted bowl or the such. A 5G bowl that you can make self sufficient, ie, just water top offs and no changes is something I have wanted to try. A lot of people do this with shrimp, but bettas would be an ideal canidate as well I think.

Silmarwen

Discussion Starter · #10 · Sep 21, 2012

Is a no-water-change tank like that even possible? Because that sounds like something I'd be interested in trying, just as an exercise in the art. I've got some spare change this afternoon, so I was thinking of getting some more plants from a shop I just discovered, some corkscrew vals and maybe something floating...

TheBigSleep

· #11 · Sep 21, 2012

Silmarwen said:
Is a no-water-change tank like that even possible? Because that sounds like something I'd be interested in trying, just as an exercise in the art. I've got some spare change this afternoon, so I was thinking of getting some more plants from a shop I just discovered, some corkscrew vals and maybe something floating...

Hello there & welcome!

There are many people on this forum who can give you better information than I can pertaining to natural, low-maintenance tanks - but for some preliminary reading here you go:

http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Walstad_method

Best of luck & have fun! :smile:

TexasCichlid

· #12 · Sep 21, 2012

Silmarwen said:
Is a no-water-change tank like that even possible? Because that sounds like something I'd be interested in trying, just as an exercise in the art. I've got some spare change this afternoon, so I was thinking of getting some more plants from a shop I just discovered, some corkscrew vals and maybe something floating...

Before just running out and buying plants, do a little bit of research this weekend and come up with a cohesive plan of what you want, what looks good, and what it will take to do it. For example, have you thought of a low light tank using only anubias, ferns and mosses? They can look lush and terrific and it's not something I even considered when I first started in the hobby, and regret not considering still. Also, take a look in the swap n shop here. Many members sell very high quality plants for next to nothing aside from shipping, and will beat most aquarium shops quality pretty handily.

Silmarwen

Discussion Starter · #13 · Sep 21, 2012

Well, I'm the first to admit I'm a thoroughly impulsive buyer. I did purchase some more things, but looking at the selection that the aquarium shop (as opposed to petco and meijer) has as far as, well, everything, I have a dozen and a half other ideas in my head that will likely be spilling into my sketchbook and into a tank very soon.

I've been researching miscellenious here and there, but at the moment I'm in a sort of accession phase. I'm personally okay with this, partially due to my situation, and largely due to my personality in general. I'm not buying willy-nilly, I know the plants I'm getting will be alright with what I'm able to provide, but I'm fine with having a large number of relatively purposeless specimins at this point.

Also, I'm a little bit terrified of buying live anything online o_o

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Silmarwen

Discussion Starter · #14 · Sep 21, 2012

TheBigSleep said:
Hello there & welcome!

There are many people on this forum who can give you better information than I can pertaining to natural, low-maintenance tanks - but for some preliminary reading here you go:

http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Walstad_method

Best of luck & have fun! :smile:

Thanks for the link! That's definately something I'll look into sometime this fall, once everything else is settled.

Aquasafe

· #15 · Oct 24, 2012

Welcome to the forum!

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