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Since these are starting, here's a thread.

Starbond, the makers of Cyanocrylate Adhesives, has a few items on sale. Black Friday Starts Early 2026 | Starbond. I'm a fan of their Clog Prevention Stoppers. There are some sanding discs on sale for the woodworkers in the crowd too.

With our basement finally completed, I’m looking forward to moving my Waterbox Clear Mini 25 downstairs and, importantly, away from direct sunlight. That tank has gone through several iterations of algae, and I feel the direct sunlight has been a significant contributor.

With the Waterbox moving downstairs, I’ll now have an empty spot in the first floor that receives plenty of natural sunlight and is a tall space

Enter the Pondscape.

My inspiration is MJ's recent pondscape in his Big Shallow. His setup relies entirely on natural light, with no dedicated aquarium light. I’m planning something along the same lines, although I will be adding a light, for some control and for viewing the tank when there isn’t much natural light.

As with one of my previous journals, this is going to be an “as I build” journal rather than presenting a finished setup. I’d love to get everyone’s input as I make decisions and inevitably change my mind along the way.

My current thoughts​

Tank:
ADA 60F — 60 × 30 × 25 cm

I considered the FZONE shallow (60 × 36 × 18 cm), but ultimately decided on the ADA. MJ’s Big Shallow is 120 × 40 × 25 cm, and I liked retaining that 25 cm height while still having a relatively shallow tank. This would allow good amount of space for fish/underwater plants.

Stand options:

Archaea Modern-Nature Aquarium Cabinet
Fluval 60P stand — walnut​

Lighting Options:

Netlea - 6S- 635Z - 35Watts - Backet light
Fzone Axone 72W
Since i would have a open space on one side, i will likely just need the light on one side. Need something tall to support emersed growth.

Filter
Oase biomaster II 250
will likely use smaller lily pipes to allow gentle flow

Hardscape:
Still undecided.

I’m leaning toward a wood-dominant pond-bank/root structure, with some of the wood breaking the water surface. I’d like a substantial amount of negative space/open substrate rather than filling the entire 60F with hardscape and plants. Likely a triangular layout. Lava rocks as well.

Substrate:
Current thought is aqua soil in mesh bags capped with cosmetic sand. Rationale is so that there is no mess created if i decide to replant.
I see lot of pondscapes with base layer of compose or clay such as the one from Dennerle which we don't have in the US. Curious what others would suggest. Main goal is to have long term nutrition for plants but also allow replanting without causing a mess on the cosmetic sand cap.

Inhabitants:
A betta fish
Some corys
Amanos
Cherry shrimp
Snails

Plants:
This is probably where I have the most questions. Emersed growth selection need to take the low humidity into consideration (lot of cool options such as the P.decannensis flowering, Bolbitis, Java ferns emersed seem to go out the window)

The general idea is predominantly green, relatively low-tech plants with a transition from submerged → marginal → emersed growth.

Current plant list
Submerged -
Cryptocoryne, Blyxa, Anubias, Buce, trident Java fern, Bolbitis mini.

Submerged and Emersed (Marginal)
Hydrocotyle verticalatta
Maybe some Amazon swords - smaller variants
Initially thought of C.Helferi but reading @Naturescapes_Rocco post on this, seems like quite a difficult plant

Emersed
Still researching, not sure if this is needed and could just use the marginal plants.

Lots still to figure out. Suggestions, especially from anyone who has maintained a similar pondscape in a dry house are very welcome.

Assuming many here have seen UNS' Limited Edition tank line which is distinguished by having the back panel glass infused with a frosted blue color. Wondering if anyone had purchased one, seen one in person or just generally, what thoughts are from seeing them online? I'm still rethinking some of my earlier tank purchases both new and used, and considering selling a few of those for some different footprint tanks and have been intrigued by these but haven't seen one in person. Black Friday is getting close after all.

UNS Limited Edition Aquarium

These plants have been sitting in this container in the dark for 9 days. They are still wet, but the container isn't 100% air tight.
Plants look great. They are crispy and green. I removed them from the tank on Oct 11. It's Oct 20.
I haven't had a chance to do hardly any tank maintenance since my trip, but I needed to get some stuff out to make room for some tc plants I ordered.
I thought someone might want some of this, so I put it in this container, and was going to offer it all up if I thought I'd have time to ship. (Too late now)
I can't believe how long they've lasted.
So if you need a way to store some plants for a few days. This might be an option.
Note: Both things were pulled up roots and all. If I had cut stems, they might not have lasted?

Ive reorganized the order of my tanks so I can better keep track of them ie. Tank 2 moss tank is now tank 3. This helps in any confusion I had when tracking tanks they are in a sort of order now. Rather than taking time editing my old journal id rather create a new thread. Pics will be current (for the most part) as they are posted. I am not aquascaping. I am just farming.

This thread is for the general discussion of the classified ad Oase Biomaster Thermo 250. Please add to the discussion here.

Welcome to ScapeCrunch, @fordohio!
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?

Santa came early this year with a new 75g tank. I've never owned a 4' tank ever been stuck on the normal 30" wide 29g and 20g's forever. I wanted the uns 90u 36x22x22 but 750.00 is nuts to me I don't have that much in all tanks and equip I own so went cheap route.
Saw the 75g at PetSmart the imagitarium brand for 150 on sale. Those cheapos have bad reviews on leaking and I believe it as I actually picked up a free leaky 75g imagitarium at petco last week and sold it for snake terrarium for 40.00. Went to petco they also have the 50% off sale on marineland and aqueon. The tank was 159.00 out the door. Got lucky the manager said take this set of new glass tops for free, were a return they cant sell it.I assume the made in USA marineland is a better tank than the other cheapos and I actually don't mind the black silicone.

Went to Lowes today for some wood 4- 2x4x8 and 2- 2x4x10 and sheet if 1/2 osb for top and bottom shelf and for extra strength. When I get done I'm sure it would hold a 300g tank. Will wrap the tank in either bead board wood paneling or 1/4" plywood with some nice moulding on corners. Def gotta make a lip to hide the bottom plastic rim as well so its not so ugly. probably build a hood to why not hide some rims! Just gotta build or find a pair of doors on something else I can steal and use for this stand. I don't plan on getting it setup for few weeks but want stand base 1/2 done now so I can try some diff dry scapes with wood and rocks in it. This will be replacing my 20long I was scaping in other journal its now a plant farm full of ludwigia and plants for sale.
Still not sure on the name on this tank, Whipple landing is where I took some pics I want to copy for the tank. Its feed by the great pee dee river here so name may change later.

MTS creeps into your home, one 2 tanks at a time. This one is a UNS 45SA. I don't have firm plans for it yet, but I have some ideas. All the bits have finally arrived. Today is a "where will this fit and let's see how it runs next to the sink in case there is an issue" day.

I have some ideas of where I may want to go. Hillstream Loach / Goby with epiphytes is one direction. Submersed Buce growout idea is floating around in my head, too. Once I figure it out, I'll start a journal that will probably be updated a lot at first, then languish until I get Art's automated reminder email to post.

Hardware
UNS 45SA AIO /w Lid and Intake Screen
Hygger Submersible Heater 50 Watt
FZone Solo Series Nano LED
N-Fill Smart ATO

The ATO has a funny story. I'm using the Tunze Osmolater 3 Nano on the 6 and 10-gallon tanks, but the sensor is large, out of scale for this smaller tank. Plus, the green light is obnoxious at night. A BRS video on the N-Fill Smart ATO popped into my feed. For 70 bucks, I'd give it a try. The ATO arrived with 2 power plugs, no pump. Called BRS, who have real live people in their offices in Minnesota that you can speak to, amazing, I know. The agent had a good laugh. Earlier in the day, they had a caller with 2 pumps, no power plug. They said they'd ship another, keep the one I have. A few days later, an email letting me know it was back-ordered arrived. A quick call to the helpful BRS folks informed that it would be about 2 weeks before a new shipment would arrive. In the meantime, I went on the N-Fill site and saw they had them in stock, with free shipping and 10% signup for email discount. Asked BRS for a refund; the money was back in my account before I hung up. Ordered the ATO from N-Fill and wrote with my tale of woo, asking to purchase a pump. They sent a link to the hidden spare parts page and ordered a pump, $20 shipped. Wrote them back and asked that they make it one shipment. Their support wrote me back, apologizing for the missing pump and refunded the pump price. To be clear, I did tell them that BRS let me keep, at no charge, the unit with all the bits, sans pump. They even sent it with 2-day shipping.

The Blank Slate


A cramped AIO section.

Hi guys!

I'm new here, but not entirely new to planted tanks though I've been out of the hobby for the better part of the last decade between kids and moving a couple of times - but finally in a spot where I can do something again. I'm mostly going to be making things up as I go along, but plan on a lot of automation (I want to integrate everything into home assistant) and a lot of DIY as I love the challenge of building things out myself.

The starting point:

I picked up a 90P rimless, low-iron tank on a great deal.



I have a rough idea in my head for a stand to be built from plywood - just have a couple other house projects to finish off before starting that built.

Wife says I can only have one aquarium, so for this tank, I want to go all out with a sump to allow for auto top off, and auto water changes, auto fertilizer dosing etc. etc. I have half a plan in my mind.

I've also started on the light fixture which I've modeled up in CAD, and plan on making out of an 8020 extrusion, and some 3D printed bits.

I'm using bridgelux gen 3 thrive CW (3000k) and WW (5000k) LED strips which have super high CRI at 98+ along with some specific XPE2 wavelengths that I'll solder onto some starboards. Far Red (730nm), Red (654nm), Cyan (495nm), Blue (455nm), Visible UV (415nm). Each segment of the white channels will be on its own driver so I can adjust left to right brightness in thirds, and each colour channel on its own driver so I can vary each channel on a time-based approach.

These will be run from a custom PCB board with Meanwell N-LDD drivers, and will run ESPHome on an ESP32 so it can link up with my Home Assistant installation.


That's it for now, this will probably be a very slow build so be warned if you follow along!