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Typically the water will indeed turn yellow or brown for a while. Several deciduous trees are fine. pH may drop. Soaking is good to make it sink. Boiling, cleaning and sterilizing - I guess the jury is out on that! Probably an old root or decaying branch will have various life in it that will die, so ammonia. Very fresh and very old pieces of wood are likely the worst. /Please get second and third opinions./

Made "night lights"!

That's excellent! My perspective is most often woefully theoretical.

It's the other way around, you dont want lead where there are plants but plants do absorb lead so if you need to clean up the water plants might help. But if you didn't want it there why put it there! Plants don't benefit from it but may develop roots and what not more poorly. And, again, why help distribute this problematic element? It's not that the plants somehow make it go away from the world. Somewhere over pH 7 less lead seems to go into solution, somewhere still over 6 it drastically increases. I advice nobody to take my word for it, I am no chemist and my Google is about as good as yours. Look, most industries are trying to replace lead, I don't see why aquarium enthusiasts of all people should be less concerned. I am not at all suggesting that these weights are a massive (pun) problem, in fact I can't tell. Bottom line: The lead will to some extent disperse, and that is a problem because of its toxicity and indestructibility. If it did cure cancer it would be worth it, just being rather heavy isn't good enough. That's my take.

I think I said all I had to say 😀 I should add that I in no way have the impression that Aquarium Co-Op are careless with product quality. Still.

I was going for gravel, my 11 yo suggested sand, and sand it is. A natural reddish kind. I just got it, or some of it, today actually. ("I'll shove the bag into my backpack. It will be fun".)

Plant Weights WWW.AQUARIUMCOOP.COM Lead weights to help make sure your plants stay where you want them! These are aquarium safe. They are a much higher quality than your average plant weight. A package contains 10 weights. These contain lead but we... ^ For reference. I wouldn't put bare lead in an aquarium. Certainly not in a planted aquarium. Positively not if pH is on the low side. But I wouldn't regardless. Small amounts doesn't appear to be too bad for fish though! Or we don't notice they getting dumber or more susceptible to infections as readily as we do in humans. Being an element it will of course not "go away" but go somewhere. Just my 5 cents.

4 tabs a plant a month 😮 sounds massive. (I wouldn't know, just learning.)

The coarse sponge prefilter doesn't cover though. I would guess it doesn't do much? What small plant is it bottom right? Interesting gravel 😎

Thanks! Looks not too shabby in this pic:

Ha, yeah, lights from below could probably produce an interesting looking tank! Using narrow beams, and some tenacity, sections could be separately lit from different angles to make some plants droop or lean. For now, I'm quite more into basics though. Also, I suspect most plants cannot go down, being hardwired to ascend, like.

I'll look into this weeping moss, cool!

I'm not properly in the hobby yet. Honestly, a large part of the allure is the opportunity for technical tinkering. Growing up, I desired what I now know is called a paludarium. Ultra natural, no exotic species. Recently, my daughter said she'd like an aquarium, and I was ready! Planning and prepping as we speak. 🙂 an ordinary tropical community, more or less, I imagine.

Hi! I think I haven't seen aquatic plants with hanging stems or leafs, are there any? It wouldn't make much sense for a water plant to do this, I guess, but it would nevertheless suit some aquarium ideas, like plants hanging from the background or large hardscape objects. Cheers!

This is the sand I am strongly considering. Related: learned the word esker.

Finding my roots The blob to the right is a rock that I got with the tank. It really looks more like beat up styrofoam than the beat up styrofoam does in this photo.

The right part of the background. I didn't cut it much, relying more on hot air (+ the shape the piece already had). This softer foam shrinks away quite willingly. I think I'll sculp it up a bit with cement instead where needed. It still looks a bit too much like the packing material it is...

(If or when I write awkwardly it's either because I don't master english or because I enjoy being out there. Likely both. Sometimes Autocorrect is to blame, lol. At any rate, I'll welcome criticism and pointers regarding use and abuse of words and grammar. Thanks!)

Current (half of) background. Foam polystyrene is glued, cut, hot air gunned and a first coating of a cement based product, not sure what you'd call it. Later coatings will have dark pigments mixed in. I plan not to clear coat it, not 100% sure that is wise

Thanks all for the nice reception, I appreciate it! I enjoy the technical and diy side of this aquarium business, so I aim to exploit that beyond the strictly neccesary. When it comes to the fish and other life, I am considering various fishes, plants and, likely, snails. I have nice tap water; high alkalinity, a bit hard, pH on the high side, non-chlorinated. Currently I am awaiting a heater and an air pump. I've (more or less) gotten lights sorted. I had led tubes at hand and managed to 3D-print a simple fixture. I have also begun making a foam background. Lots of fun!

The kick in the butt was the upcoming holidays and no sensible gift ideas for my daughter of eleven. We've been talking in passing about fish and aquariums. So, I looked into it and decided to go for it. (And who can honestly wait for Christmas!) Anyhow, while I hope she will have ideas and so on, it's pretty much, in effect, my tank and responsibility for now. I found a used 220 liter (yes, I'm with metric, I'll convert sometimes, not always folks) tank and an affordable fluval external filter.

Actually, I said it. While I have been looking (shyly?) at the aquarium stuff for a long time, I just recently committed. Never had a tank before. So yeah, trying this forum for advice, admiration and laughs 🤨