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Started a new tank with the idea of show casing Lagenandra meeboldii which I have not showcased before. Wanted to feature Hygrophila lower Hlaingbwe, but I removed it later as I think it would be too large for this tank.

New substrate, new filter, squeezed filter mulm from the other matured tank, then ran the tank one week day before planting. 100% water change after planting, then 100% water change every other day since then. Dosing 1ml APT3 after water change day, and remineralizing to 5dGH using APT Sky. Trying out the low water column dosing approach for the initial period.

Filter: Oase 250
Lights: Week aqua a430 80%
Substrate: APT Feast

Was going to Journal about startup issues, however, it seems like the tank has already stabilized, skipping diatoms and green dust phase.

Freshly planted for a couple of days:
13/2/2026


Replanted the tops for Myriophyllum roraima, Cut and replanted Rotala blood red to begin building up the bush form. Trimmed old leaves
Foreground seems a bit blocky for now, so I think I'lll move stuff round again. Probably when the BV grows out some more.
Pic on 23/2/2026

Readings at this stage:
Potassium: 2.3ppm
Ammonia: 0.1ppm

reduce water changes to 2 times a week.

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!

I’m starting this build with no experience in aquascaping other than keeping a large low tech community, fish focussed tank many years ago. I’m pleased with my hard scape but I think that will be the easy part. I’ll document all my ups and downs here and hopefully end up with my dream scape

Aquasys 230L 90x55x53cm
Week Aqua L series lighting
Oase bio master 2 thermo 350
CO2 still to add
Stainless steel Lily pipes
Local basalt pebbles
Spider wood
Tropica Aqua Soil
Sand Foreground

I’m planning a dark start which gives me time to plan the planing and fish. I have some ideas but welcome suggestions!

Over the last couple decades, many aquarium products have become "smart". every decent light these days seems to have an app. Filters have apps now. Dosing pumps. Even simple plug in timers have apps. Some of these products come from companies with long-standing reputations (Aqua Illumination, Fluval etc.). Some come from new (at least to the USA) brands with limited presence outside of China or their home countries. And these are often the best products that are either completely unavailable or significantly more expensive from the established brands. But what happens if X Lighting Brand ceases to exist, or stops servicing their apps, or their app has a security vulnerability? What happens if a company pulls out of the US market because of tariffs or simply market uncertainties? What are the chances you pay $500 for a light that is rated for 50,000 hours, but stops working in a year because of some software issue? What happens if a company changes the app into something worse?

I'm not trying to pick on foreign (to me in the USA) companies. I recently sunk a lot of money into AI Prime lights that started making awful high pitched whining noises. Sent them back and forth to the company for repair, finally they told me that it was a firmware problem that they didn't really understand, so they authorized my app to rollback to a previous version. Fixed the problem, but now I can never update the firmware unless they fix the issue in a future update, but I will never know when that happens, or if a future update will create a new issue. (Side note why does a 6-year old product need regular firmware updates?). Plus, it took over a month without my lights as they were in shipping and diagnosis.

Are you concerned about this issue? Do you have brands you trust? Are there workarounds to use a product without the app?

My wife and I agreed we'd ideally be moving in the next 6-12 months. There's the possibly it could be sooner if the right place pops up, and could possibly be longer, although not ideal. This has made me pause and reconsider setting up my 120p in this house (and a 20 gallon too!). The thought of having the tank up and running for possibly a short period of time before having to break it down and move it sounds pretty terrible compared to moving all of individual components. I currently have my 75p, so I'm not tankless and would need to move that.

Location would still be in the same general region (20-40 mile radius) and we'd likely maintain overlap between homes for a 1 month.

What would you do?

I recently set up my first big (to me) tank. I've been into this hobby for a couple of years but limited to a 20 gallon and a couple 10 gallon tanks in my office. I decided it was time to splurge and set up a nice 75 gallon system that can become a more appropriately-scaled Dutch tank. Here it is shortly after planting:



I like to save money where possible, so I ended up building my own tank stand as well as a Yugang reactor. I wanted to document these things to show everyone that it is quite attainable with a set of tools and a weekend of work.

So, here is the first post. Tank Stand Build:

When researching simple lumber stands, I found this great video:



I used it as a guideline to build a simple dimensional lumber stand. My stand is 49" long, 19" wide, and 28" tall. This gives approximately 1/2" of clearance around the 75 gallon aquarium footprint and keeps the tank low enough that I can reach over the rim and touch the bottom substrate without straining. As shown in the photo, I used 2x6 lumber for the upper frame so that I could avoid using a centerspan support. This makes it so much easier to access the space under the tank. I used two 8ft 2x6 and six 8ft 2x4 studs. Total cost at home depot was under $50.



Once the structural frame was complete, I started thinking about how to dress it up as a piece of furniture that I didnt hate to have in my home. I ended up deciding to do a very simple trim with 1x3 boards on the bottom and 1x4 on the top. The top trim is offset upwards from the frame such that it covers the plastic trim on the tank when it is on the stand. I also used a piece of scrap plywood from my garage to act as a back panel and shear support to prevent racking of the frame. The 1x3 and 1x4 boards came out to $15




To finish it off, I bought a sheet of 1/8" "utility board" plywood for another $15. I cut it to wrap around the sides and front.



Now how to access the bottom? I thought about this a lot and ultimately decided on the cheapest/simplest/most lame approach. I bought some magnets from Harbor Freight for $5. I lucked out and these magnets were nearly the same size as the heads on the screws I used, so I simply put them on 4 corner screws and then added matching magnets on the front plywood panel at the 4 corners. It actually works really well and makes it simple to take the front panel off for filter access. It saved me hours of work and the cost of building actual cabinet doors, and I like how clean the final product ends up looking.



Lastly, I stained using dark walnut stain. Pine needs conditioner, so I did that first and then did one coat of stain. I then did about 4 coats of spray on oil-based polyurethane to seal it up.



The last thing I did was add a sheet of styrofoam insulation on top of the frame to help even out any bumps in the lumber. I made it as flat as possible, but dimensional lumber is not meant for this kind of thing and has imperfections. The styrofoam is peace of mind for me to make sure the tank rim gets fully supported all the way around.



I'm really happy with how it turned out. Total cost for me was around $110, but I had some scrap plywood at home for the back panel and the bottom shelf where my filters sit. If you need to buy a sheet, figure another $40 bucks or so. Total time investment was maybe like 8 hours over the weekend and then the hours of waiting between coats of stain and poly. Tools used were a miter saw, circular saw, drill, driver, nailer, and sander.

Trying a true journal format. Let me know if it's too much writing. My natural tendency is to bullet point everything.​

The Mishap That Started It All​

This whole project began at 6:30 a.m., courtesy of my Oase Biomaster Thermo 250 deciding to serenade me with impeller noise while I was trying to work from home. Biofilm on the impeller — nothing dramatic — but the sound was maddening, especially with an 8 a.m. call with our London office looming. So I did what any aquarist does under pressure: a lightning‑fast pre‑filter and impeller clean.

That’s when the universe decided to intervene.

While disconnecting the hoses — the same routine I’ve done countless times — the lock failed. Suddenly a vacuum of water blasted across the floor of my upstairs alcove “office.” I yanked the intake and outflow from my 60U, stopping the torrent, but not before a solid gallon had soaked into the floorboards.

My wife woke up to the sound of chaos and the sight of me standing in a puddle. Understandably, she was not thrilled. The alcove has cathedral ceilings, so every noise echoes, and the massive 8‑foot cabinet we built with her dad years ago makes cleaning underneath nearly impossible. It’s not a space designed for aquariums, humidity, or early‑morning filter geysers.

As we cleaned, she admitted she hated having tanks and equipment out in the open upstairs. Fair enough. When we built the house, the plan was always for my “stuff” to live in the downstairs office while she had the rest of the house. But during COVID she needed privacy for patient calls, so I gave her the office and moved my stuff upstairs. Now her role has changed — two days in the hospital, one day from home — and the need for that arrangement is gone.

So I floated the idea: What if I moved everything back downstairs, consolidated the two smaller tanks into one larger, beautifully executed setup — something like the living room tank she actually likes? Less noise, less humidity upstairs, and I get a proper scaping space again.

To my mild shock, she was completely on board. From a mishap came opportunity.

Choosing the Tank​

Once the idea settled, I had to pick the right aquarium. I landed on the AquaEl Ultrascaper 90 — the dimensions are perfect, and I’d been eyeing it ever since researching the Skylight Hyperspot and AquaEl’s filter lineup. The tank was designed with the scapers at AquaShow in Poland, and their sample layouts are right up there with ADA, ADG, and Green Aqua imo.

Finding one in the U.S. was the next challenge. I reached out to the AquaEl rep, asked about the Hypermax for my living room tank, and inquired about Ultrascaper 90 availability. He pointed me to Fish Tanks Direct — and with a discount code in hand, I placed the order for the snow variant. My only quandy was to go for the cheaper one and get a Netlea AT5S to hang or try their newer attractive but inferior light option (RGB vs WBG). I chose to try their light as it looked interesting and the PAR on paper is more than enough.

Link for reference:https://fishtanksdirect.com/aquael-ultrascape-90-with-ultra-slim-snow-tank-light-cabinet/

Atlanta Weekend & Tank Comparisons​

Right after ordering, we had a weekend trip to Atlanta for one of my wife’s appointments. On Friday we visited the botanical garden, grabbed food, and while she was at her appointment Saturday, I made the rounds to three local fish stores. The Aquarium was an option but a Saturday solo but spending roughly $100 to be around 10 million families sounded less enjoyable than exploring ATL suburbs and seeing the stores and their tanks.

Premiere Aquatics had a beautiful setup UNS 90U and one for sale as well but at nearly $2,000 out the door it wasn't a great deal. Plus the tank is taller than I wanted, it wasn’t the right fit. I did pick up two gorgeous rose swords and a great piece of ghost wood.

I went to one store in Alpharetta but it was out of literally everything, not sure if they are doing poorly or just sell out fast and under order. I did buy a crinum there. Plus I liked driving from Premier to their.

Then I got lucky at Optimum Aquarium — they had an AquaEl Ultrascaper 90 in stock that had arrived that week, priced at a very respectable $1,000 (without the light). If the cabinet had been white, I would’ve bought it on the spot. They also had a wide range of tanks, which let me compare my choice to the Fluval Opti White 90 (a very reasonable $700) and several Aquatlantis rimless tanks I didn’t even know were available in the U.S. Their shallow 80 is especially cool — tank, stand, and light for $830, I would get a different color but I like the concept. They also had a bunch of healthy Dwarf Sag for $3 dollars so I bought a 4 bunches to use as I couldn't find dwarf chain swords easily online and heleiatium tenellum is a little too small.

My takeaways:

• Fluval Opti White 90: Nice tank but a bit small and too tall, the stand feels cheap and lightweight. Attractive for the price, but not my pick.
• Aquatlantis: Surprisingly impressive. I’d choose them over Fluval at similar price points.
• UNS 90U: The stands are unquestionably superior. The tank mitering is spectacular.
• AquaEl Ultrascaper 90:
  
  • Stand: Best flat‑pack stand I’ve seen, though still a flat‑pack.
  • Glass: Equal quality to UNS but no mitering.
  • Dimensions: 90 × 60 × 45 — absolutely perfect.
    
    • Incredible depth
    • Lower height makes it ideal for seated viewing
    • Easier to work in
    • Better top‑down perspective

I left Atlanta feeling completely validated in my choice and excited for delivery day.

This is the future home for the announcements when someone obtains an achievement badge. Let the games begin!

From

With the death of Christel Kasselmann, the global aquaristics community loses one of its most significant pioneers of aquarium botany. We, the aquarists of Berlin-Tegel 1912 e.V., mourn the outstanding expert and long-time companion and friend of our hobby.
On her numerous expeditions to the tropics, she explored the natural biotopes of Echinodorus, Cryptocoryne, and others. Her insights into water values, light, and substrate at the natural site revolutionized plant care in the aquarium.
Her book "Aquarienpflanzen" combines botanical precision with practical value and has been a staple of reading for countless aquarians for decades.
Through her first descriptions, lectures, and publications, Christel Kasselmann has shaped and enriched aquarium botany like few others.
As aquarists of Berlin-Tegel 1912 e.V., we bow to her life's work.
Her knowledge, passion, and work will live on in our aquariums and in the hearts of our association family, in every wave and bloom of the plants she dedicated her life to.

The theme for this month's contest is: Shades of Green

Please take a picture of shades of green in your aquarium. Be as artistic and creative as you like.

The rules:

• Submissions are allowed between August 16 and August 23.
• Voting will start on August 23 at 12:01 am Eastern time.
• Voting will end on August 30 at 11:30 pm Eastern time.

The prize:

A $25 store credit from BurrAqua thanks to @Burr740!

Good Luck!