Sunday 20 January 2008

The layout















A rough guide of how i want this aquascape to look like.

This tank is meant to be viewed from 3 sides.








Legend :
  • Blue if the pipings, co2 reactor and accessories
  • Dark green is Bolbitis heudelotii
  • Light green is Blyxa japonica
  • Red is some form of crypt
  • Brown is the bogwood with pettie nana tied to it
  • Enpty area will be japanese hairgrass.

Hardscape arrangement


A sloping substrate with 3 inch at the highest point and 1 inch at the lowest point. It takes 6 packets of 9kg ADA to create this sloping effect.

Add in another matching BW buried both BWs partially to make them look like a single piece.



The plants i'm planning to have in my tank.

Hemianthus callitrichoides = moderate and medium light requirement

Microsorum pteropus v. 'narrow leaf' = easy and medium low light requirement

Glossostigma elatinoides = moderate and high light requirement

Bolbitis heudelotti = easy and low light requirement

Anubias barteri v. 'nana' = very easy and low light requirement

Pogostemon helferi = moderate and medium high light requirement

Cryptocoryne wendtii = very easy and low light requirement

This is to help me in deciding on the amount of lightings i will want to have in this tank. With high light requirement plant like glossostigma i need to go for high lightings. 2 x T5HO lights which is a total of 440 watt. This adds up to approx 4WPG.

Full height cabinet


A custom made full height cabinet to house the planted tank. This set me back by almost 900 SGD






















Lesson learnt:

  • The ventilation slots are too big.
  • Should cover another 1 inch of the top of the tank in order not to expose the water line.
  • Ventilation slot should be build for the lower cabinet for future upgrade to chiller.
  • The left hand side of the tank facing the wall should be pasted with oyama black paper to prevent exposing of wirings and hoses.

Hardscape : Bogwood


Plan for this planted tank is to have bogwood as it's focus point.

Finally found this piece of BW at a LFS after several weeks of searching. But this piece of BW is kinda bare.

Cost: 18 SGD

My 4 feet tank journal

Custom made this tank and it's stand.

Measurement: Tank: 4 feet x 2 feet x 2 feet
Stand: 3.5 feet tall

Aim is to get the tank to level with my line of sight . It's too high for initial planting as well as maintaining of those shorter plants.

Tank capacity: approx 430 Litres

Cost: 450 SGD