Afishionado’s Aquatic Antics and Adventures

[Afishionado]

Hi all!

As I am planning the eventual “overhaul” of pretty well all of my aquariums in the near future, I figured this was a good time to start my journal, and follow the progress on all of these tanks. I‘l introduce each of my tanks as I come to them, but I currently have running a 75 gallon, 20H, 10 gallon, 5 gallon, 10 gallon quarantine, and a 2.5 I’m considering setting up at some point or another. The 75 will be the main focus of this journal I’m sure, as it has been my favourite tank thus far, and I’m always experimenting and trying new things, so I am sure that I will have questions galore. I should also mention that I am hoping to keep my tanks relatively low maintenance, and am hoping to eventually get each tank down to maybe one waterchange a month. Anywho, here’s my first tank to introduce:

The 10 Gallon Dirted Tank:

So after using this tank exclusively for breeding projects, grow out, and quarantine up to this point, I decided it was time it finally got set up a long term planted tank. After a solid scrub down, I used Krylon Fusion Gloss Black to paint the back of the tank (my first time painting a tank!!), and was quite happy with the results. I set a layer of egg crate on the bottom to try and prevent dirt creep. For the “dirt” layer, I ended up using worm castings, which I think should work similar to potting soil, but without paying for the huge wood chunks I had to sift out. I capped this with a generous inch or so of well washed traction sand - I wasn’t able to find pool filter sand locally, and in the spirit of experimentation, decided to give traction sand a shot. From there I filled the tank, and that is where it has been left since. I still want to add water movement of some sort, and was considering just a small water pump, but am now thinking it may be worth it to just throw a sponge filter in there to make it easy.  Lighting is a Nicrew LED btw.

My plan for this tank is either endlers livebearers, or more likely microrasboras and some little shrimps. Probably some ramshorn snails too. In terms of planting/scape, I’ll take any suggestions I can get. I really love Dwarf Aquarium lilies, but I feel like they reach such a size that they may be more well suited for my 20H or 75 gallon. Any advice at all is welcome!

Just Dirt and Egg Crate:

Add Sand and Water:

Edited March 26 by Afishionado
Typo (overall -> overhaul)

[CJs Aquatics]

This is going to be a good thread, things are off to a good start, I love journals, the egg crate idea seems brilliant