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So I've had this UNS 30C going for just over a month now and I understand why they say bigger tanks are easier. This has been a bit of a struggle. It was just my 2nd aquarium and was intended to be something simple and easy to care for. Thought I'd finally create a journal for it and chronical it's journey from the little nano that tried to hopefully, a shrimp paradise.


Tank: UNS 30C with a DIY stand.
Light: ONF Flat Nano
Original Filter: Oase Filtosmart 100 Thermo
Current Filter: Oase Biocompact 25
CO2: Fzone regulator on a Paintball CO2 tank. In-tank diffuser.
Substrate: UNS Controsoil (Fine) and ADA La Plata sand
Hardscape: Lava rock and unknown driftwood (probably spiderwood)
Testing out a cheap stainless steel skimmer I purchased off AliExpress

Plants
Multiple types of Anubias and Bucephalandra
Mini Bolbitis
AR mini (just added)
Staurogyne Repens (just added)
Pogostemon Helferi "Downoi" (just added)

Fauna
Sunkist Orange Shrimp
Planned on Chili Rasbora but that didn't go so well, so this will be a dedicated shrimp tank.



The first mistake I made with this was to plant immediately, rather than do a dark start as I did with my first scape. As you can still see in the current photo, I had a lot of Buce melt as a result of the high initial ammonia. I was hoping I would see more of a rebound by now but it's been a struggle. I also had different stem plants in the background and they struggled as well, even though they were already submersed grown plants. The current background plants were just placed in the last week and I've loaded the substrate up with more root tabs. They should be more durable but I may want to add something that gets a little taller. I also plan to fill in the melted Buce and some other bare areas with some additional Buce and Anubias. I'm dealing with some algae on the wood and the Anubias Nana Pinto, but nothing too serious.

I hoped that this would be home to Sunkist Orange shrimp and Chili Rasboras. Even though it's only 7 gallons, from previous experience with the Rasboras, I thought of school of 8 to 10 would be fine. I started with 8, but within 2 days, 5 decided to leave the tank (even with a lid covering 3/4 of the top). General water parameters were good, but I admit, CO2 may have been a little high. I moved the remaining Chilis to my larger tank were they are now happy and content. Hopefully the shrimp will begin breeding soon and I'll have plenty of tiny creatures to watch.



I generally don't like seeing equipment in the tank, so I started with a canister filter. Even adjusting valves to reduce flow, it was still too much and may even have been a contributing factor in the Chilis jumping out. Just this past weekend when replanting the background, I switched over to this tiny Oase Biocompact filter. It's only got a little course sponge wrapping a carbon sponge so the jury is still out on if it will provide enough filtration, but I imagine it will be fine with only plants and shrimp. I also added the in-tank heater (house can be a little cool in the winter) and switched from the inline CO2 diffuser to an in-tank diffuser. The skimmer is an experiment. I bought it on AliExpress to see how well it worked. My impression so far: Positive = I like the look and size, it seems to do a good job skimming, at least on this small tank. Negative = High pitched whine while running. I wouldn't run it all the time due to the sound, but if controlled to only run occasionally, it may work out well as long as it holds up.

I'll post updates as I add more plants and things mature.

Since the tanks have been in such a state of disarray, I’ve been focusing on moving everything to emersed until life sorts itself out.

How I transition from submersed to emersed depends on the growth form of the plant.

Plants that are primarily basal form (not stems) go in square nursery pots with one of two substrates. First choice is long fiber sphagnum (dried and then rehydrated) topped with aquasoil, straight aquasoil, or a mix of peat moss/perlite/coco coir/aquasoil. The sphagnum wicks better than aquasoil. Alternatively, I use straight aquasoil, I line the bottom of the pots with a coffee filter to keep the substrate from falling through. Both work equally well. The bin needs to be filled with a little more water than if dried sphagnum is used which is why the first method is preferable.

The nursery pots are kept in a clear plastic container. Sterilite are the typical go-to, but I actually prefer the tall clear shoe boxes from Walmart. They have built in ventilation holes which is handy because I need to drill holes in the sides of any other container near the lid rim. Ventilation is key.

The shoe boxes are cheap too. I fill the bins as much as possible but a little leftover space is okay.

After filling the bins with pots, I fill all the voids with live sphagnum and fill with enough distilled water to saturate the sphagnum. The sphagnum has antimicrobial properties (so I’ve read, and it seems to check out in practice). This keeps the water from developing algae almost entirely. I dress the tops with live sphagnum too if something needs a little help rooting. Depending on the space, I throw rhizome plants right into the sphagnum as well. They develop excellent root systems and are very easily removed and cleaned when needed compared to conventional soil.

I fertilize everything with a foliar spray of Maxsea 16-16-16 diluted to 1 teaspoon per gallon. It’s a kelp based fertilizer with micronutrients. I highly recommend it.












I’ll follow up with emersed stem plant propogation and other methods for the full greenhouse.

Bladderwort is notoriously difficult to eradicate because even a tiny fragment can regenerate. It has the same requirements as plants, which makes it harder to selectively attack than algae.

A planted tank can be taken down, cleaned and restarted, but success seems not guaranteed due to the near impossibility of completely removing even the smallest bladderwort fragments.

Is this the final word, or are there any remedies with a reasonable success rate? Anyone could share experience?

CO2 injected 1.4 pH drop (50 ppm per Hanna test)
Light 50-60 par at substrate
PPS-pro ferts for high tech tanks
50% water change weekly
8 dgH
0-1 dkH

Had a tree fall on the house last night and there's a chunk of drywall that ended up in the tank. Currently triage has electrical service restoration above addressing the tank. I can't easily get it out because there's debris on the lid (and the whole kitchen). What are the thoughts? I can likely get it siphoned out in a couple hours (been about 5 hours since the tree fell). Unsure I'll be able to do a full water change as the water won't be heated. Generator and battery backups will be started after tree cleanup. The tank itself is on a 2kwh battery, so full run time is 12ish hours.

Trying not to freak out and hope the fish will be okay.

Thanks!

Skip to the actual journal here.

I'm known here for high tech, high nutrient, inert substrate scapes -- but I also love NO tech, rich substrate scapes, too!

This thread is three-sided:

1. To act as a journal for my new No-Tech bowl scape, and
2. To act as a discussion board for no/low tech bowl scapes, and
3. To collect and share accounts and examples of bowl scapes from around the world!

Fishbowls were the OG aquarium, until the hobby helped eliminate them from modern aquarium keeping -- for good reason! Traditional fish bowls were used to house medium-large tropical fish like Bettas in a cramped, unfiltered space, with clown-puke gravel and little to no proper cycling/care/husbandry. We're glad THOSE bowls are gone.

But there is a new modern kind of fish bowl, one where plants, substrate, bacteria, water changes, and proper inhabitant selection all work together to create healthy, mini ecosystem-worlds in our homes:

What does No Tech mean?​

In general, it means that these scapes have:

• No Filter
• No Heater
• No Air Pump
• No Skimmer
• No CO2
• No Circulation

They do have:

• A Light (usually low to medium-powered)
• A Substrate (inert, aquasoil, or sand-capped soil like Walstad method)
• Plants (usually quite low-tech plants, though a surprising number will thrive in this method!)
• Inhabitants (Since these bowls are usually between 2-12 gallons on average, this limits selection to nano fish, shrimp, and snails).

Don't get caught up in the specific label of "no tech" (or worse, gatekeep this method). If you want to use a small filter, or a heater, do it! The concept is still generally the same.

The point is, these are smaller, affordable, beautiful little worlds of light to enliven our living spaces and create art, nature, and beauty -- often with very little maintenance and upkeep besides a partial water change and feeding the fish.

Gallery and Links to bowl scapers:​

Sharing my first 120P aquarium and hoping to obtain feedback and guidance as it progresses.

I purchased the ADA 120P tank, AFA stand, mat and ADA substrate set from AFA in San Francisco. The set cost approx $2,000 including shipping. The set arrived as a set of boxes on a pallet which was loaded into my garage by a local delivery service using a small fork lift. The delivery process took approximately 4 weeks.

The substrate set included one large bag of ADA power sand, the three ADA additives - bacter 100, tourmaline and super clear, five bags of Amazonia 2 regular, and two bags of Amazonia 2 powder.

The tank is 120 x 50 x 50 cm, so roughly 48” x 20” x 20” and holds approximately 80 gallons.

All items arrived in excellent condition. Helpers and I moved the items to the basement. The stand was easy to put together. Plywood based. Sturdy. I drilled some additional 4” holes in the left side and rear panels for access. I put down the mat, and added the tank.

I chose a chihiros 1200 wrgb2 pro light. I hung an IKEA adjustable rod holder over the tank to suspend the light from which has been working out well for my tanks.

For other mechanicals: these have evolved since initial setup

• Oase BIomaseter 2 thermo 350 canister filter loaded up with seachem matrix, seachem matrix carbon and seachem purigen.
• Cuboid aquatics UV disinfection unit.
• Oase Biomaster 2 850 canister filter loaded up similar to 350 and with all pre filter stuff (outer housing, center pipe, pads) removed
• Netlea pre filter
• ARC small acrylic yugang horizontal reactor
• five pound co2 tank
• CO2 Art pro CO2 regulator
• soft, gray silicone 16/22 hosing used throughout
• two sets of quick disconnects for the hosing
• Jardli glass Lily pipe outlets
• Hydra aquatics stainless steel inflow with skimmer
• some inexpensive motion sensing led panels for light within the cabinet
• two kasa smart plug strips

I’ve attempted to include some photos here but they don’t seem to be being pulled in.




The hardscape for the tank was selected collaboratively with the team at cuboid aquatics in Pipersville, PA. I became aware they carried a wide range of hardscape including the WIO product line and they were within driving distance (6 hours), so I drove down and spent the next day with them. They were well stocked and were incredible people! Their lead designer Maddie lead the effort. The design uses large WIO black venom and jade rocks to support a hefty set of Galapagos and WIO Centurian wood. I packed up the hardscape, brought it home and put together the current design. I chose the larger Galapagos pieces as I liked the dark highly contoured lines.

The design is a triangular layout as the tank will be viewed from the right side as well as the front and we wanted to keep that right side looking similar to the front.

The left side and rear are filled with the ADA substrate set. In two areas just in front of hardscape there are areas of substrate set where I intend to plant dwarf lilies and crypt spiralis tiger. The remainder of the front and right side uses WIO Everglades riverbed which includes tan sand, pebbles, twigs, leaves, and cones. I also added WIO black venom and jade pebbles and twigs.

My friend and I primarily used seachem epoxy to epoxy the hardscape together. It was easy to use. It does put off quite an odor. We also used a glue product call R6000 which seems to have worked out quite well. The tank has been in water for two weeks now. Some of the putty connected to wood has come loose. Best I can tell the R6000 joints are holding.



This is the current layout and you can see there is the normal whiteish “stuff” growing on some of the driftwood.

My friend and I filled the tank and started up the equipment to check for leaks and flow. We encountered a few small issues that were quickly resolved.

In 1-2 hours it was obvious there were loads of tannins in the water. I had read an article on cycling on 2hr that suggested turning off the equipment, letting the hardscape soak for 48 hours, draining, refilling and restarting, so this is what I did.

Once I had that new water……

Oh, water here comes from RO water normally remineralized with APT Sky up to a TDS of 100-120, however I had read that it’s best to make sure.KH is present to support the cycling process so this water was remineralized with APT Sky plus to a KH of 2-3.

To help boost the cycling process I started with Microbe-lift gel filter inoculation in both canisters, and Microbe-lift Nite-out and special blend products.

Water tests show that two weeks in I have high ammonia and nitrite. Tank is running with no light.

I did start up the co2 reactor as I’ve never used the horizontal yugang reactor and wanted to see what sort of co2 levels I could reach. I measured 40-50 ppm with the Hanna test set which is great and turned the co2 back off for now.

I will continue to monitor ammonia and nitrite near daily.

In the mean time I will be working on a planting plan.

Please get back to me with any comments, suggestions for sustainability, improvement, etc.

Sounds like a joke question but for reasons unknown I cant get moss to grow period, Got a huge baseball of moss for free from shrimp breeder. I put some in 5g shrimp tank, low light no heater around 74 its dead. 3 other tanks 76 degree low to medium light its all dead or looks dead its grey color I'd say it's dead. water parms are pretty spot on no big shifts or other plants would have issues imo.

what do I need to do to grow java moss ? grew it for years no issues would take over now im lost! I can grow anything but moss?

I've seen several in the community mention purchasing an Archaea cabinet. I just recently purchased the 60x45 "Assembly Required" version in the Driftwood color and assembled it yesterday evening. It went together quite quickly without even downloading the instructions. I gotta say, I think it's absolutely a good option, if you're not wanting to build a cabinet yourself, but gag at the high cost of other aquarium cabinets sold by the high-end tank brands. I considered the slightly more expensive pre-built model, but it's cost doesn't include the freight shipping. Since this will be going in my living room, I didn't want to take chances on my own build and finishing skill. I think I made the right choice.

Archaea Modern-Nature Aquarium Cabinet

It will be tough to get away, but I have managed to finagle enough coverage for the weekend, so I did it! I have my ticket! I figure why not? It’s actually not that far from me. Daichi Araki from ADA is teaching an aquascaping masterclass on Saturday morning. Also interested in the ADA Shizuku workshop.



Juris Jutjajevs previously announced he will be attending the Jersey show.

I have never been to an Aquashella, so don’t entirely know what to expect, but I presume it is much like any large convention exhibit hall experience. Any ‘Crunchers thinking of attending the Jersey show?