Journal 🌿My accidental dive into the Planted Aquarium 🌊

[Adibee]

Hey, fellow aquarists! I was recommended to this awesome forum by @Jhardee85 and since I have learned so much about planted tanks! This will be my build-thread post and journey. It all started when I came across someone looking to get rid of their 36-gallon bowfront aquarium setup for free.

The setup had a bowfront tank, a canister filter, and a stand. It came with lots of fake plastic plants and decor and a tote full of aquarium stuff like an API master kit, water clarifier, quick start, etc.

I can't wait to see this fish tank come to life, and I hope you'll join me on this aquatic adventure!

Here is when i first picked up the tank

After scrubbing it a few hundred times it started to look good.


Decided to resilicone the tank just to be safe. The scraping and cleaning was the hardest part.

After that I left it to cure for about two weeks and then stress test it with water in my bathroom for 2 more weeks along with the cannister filter. You can see i put in a spiderwood too so it can get waterlogged

Me second guessing the size of the spiderwood...

 

[Adibee]

Some more test fitting


For substrate I used Organic Potting soil mixed with osmocote plus, Fluval stratum in meshbags and capped everything off with Black Diamond Sand.


This is how the tank looks like now after planting the cuttings from @Jhardee85 and some that I picked up locally.

 

[Count Krunk]

Looks good! What light is that?

 

[Adibee]

Looks good! What light is that?

Thanks! It's a Current USA marine led that I borrowed from my bioactive terrarium setup. I'm waiting for a week aqua l900d pro that's taking a very long time to come lol.

 

[Burr740]

Thats quite a transition. Aside from the silicone job the best thing youve done is change the background!

Nice job on the hardscape too

 

[Adibee]

Thats quite a transition. Aside from the silicone job the best thing youve done is change the background!

Nice job on the hardscape too

Thanks Burr! It's crazy how changing the background makes SUCH a difference. I was nervous about the silicone but read up lot of posts and took my time cutting and cleaning the old one out. I also sanded the edges so that the silicone adheres better.

 

[Art]

Hi @Adibee! First and foremost, welcome to our growing community! So glad you’re here.

Second, I love the amount of planning and work you’ve done to get you here. Resealing isn’t easy and you seem to have done it the right way. Good for you!

Many of us started the exact same way and have reused equipment (like your lights) until we get a chance to upgrade to the right choice. I used a marine full spectrum light for a few years back in the day.

I’m interested to see how it goes for you with the compound substrate you put together. I experimented many years ago with mixed substrates trying to emulate Aqua Design Amano’s Power Sand. My results where good for aquariums that I didn’t disrupt the substrate with constant replanting.

Lastly, I love how you took the time to plan your aquascape. This is something that, IMHO, not many do. Do you have a look you’re going for?

You’re off to a great start and I look forward to following along with your build. If you would like, get yourself a cool Build Thread banner under your name that links to this post.

 

[Adibee]

Hi Art, first of all wanted to thank you for creating this wonderful community! Resealing tested my patience, I was seeing so much different information on how to do it and how long to wait for it to cure. It was ranging from overnight to 7 days, so I decided to go with 14 days to be safe. It did help because I was able to research other stuff like lights and substrate etc. I have a bioactive terrarium and one thing I realized is patience is key to a successful ecosystem.

The aquascaping was the fun part, if I did do it again I would get my dragon stones locally like I did with the spiderwood. I realized it was very hard to picture how the tank would look like by buying hardscape online. I don't have a particular look I wanted to chase, but I wanted a light vs dark theme where the left side is all dark and ominous with "mountains" and red plants and the right side is more green and lush.

I have about four nerite snails in there that is taking care of the biofilm and algae and once the tank is more stable, I am planning to add some red cherry shrimp. The only thing is I noticed that the tank has hydra now, which I read is bad for shrimps.

 

[*Ci*]

Quite a beautiful job on the tank, and I would love to see a thread on your bioactive terrarium in the Lounge section … I have a small one going, but it is a bit of a struggle and could use some inspiration : )

 

[GreggZ]

Nice opening post and welcome to the forum.

I enjoyed following what you have done so far and it looks like a great start.

One thing to keep in mind is that tanks change and evolve over time. Keep the updates coming as I am looking forward to seeing where this journey takes you.

 

[Adibee]

Quite a beautiful job on the tank, and I would love to see a thread on your bioactive terrarium in the Lounge section … I have a small one going, but it is a bit of a struggle and could use some inspiration : )

Thank you . I should post my build thread for that terrarium. It's been running great for the last 4 years, it is a bigger terrarium for my corn snake so maybe like fish tanks the bigger it is the more stable it stays. here is a recent pic of it:

 

[Adibee]

Nice opening post and welcome to the forum.

I enjoyed following what you have done so far and it looks like a great start.

One thing to keep in mind is that tanks change and evolve over time. Keep the updates coming as I am looking forward to seeing where this journey takes you.

Thanks @GreggZ . It definitely is a journey and I am sure I'll change up stuff in there as time goes by.

 

[Adibee]

It's time for some tank updates with what has been going with the tank, I added some buce, anubias and microcarpea minima.

 

[Adibee]

Full tank pic: