Aquascaping in the wall street journal

[Mugwump]

Nice!!!...Manny and Cecil would be right into that set up....LOL...

[Jo]

Hey this guy has cats too. One of the photos shows a little pot of the cat grass or pet grass. It really is an amazing set up. There is a whole thread from where they bought a new home and he took it down from rental house and moved to new house and started over. I constantly sat with my mouth open and drooling looking at pics!

[Jo]

That is what I want too, low tech.

I think I have the most fun playing around with small tanks, I'm partial to the glass 5.5 gallon rectangle shaped tanks.  For next to nothing you can pick-up a 5.5 gallon tank and get started playing with all kinds of substrate.  You can use a halogen desk lamp or make your own single bulb CFL fixture on the cheap too!

If you want to try some harder to grow plants, it's easy enough to DIY a simple CO2 system for a small tank.  A 1 liter bottle a bit of yeast and some sugar, a short piece of silicon air line and a fine bubble air stone or CO2 diffuser and away we go!!!!!

and if it all goes south... it takes about 10 minutes to clean out a 5 gallon tank and start a new project.  Go for it Jo!  You'll have a ball.

Dennis

Dennis I totally missed this post in my excitement over big tank. You are so right though I never really thought of it like that. I am kinda doing that in a little way with a 10 gallon. I just have a sponge filter, heater, regular gravel, I have 2 sword plants, duck weed, moss and a couple of plants I don't know the name of. I also have 5 harlequin rasbora's in there. It is one of my favs. I also have heard of people using plain kitty litter, have you heard of this? This tank I posted a pic of. The guy put a layer of kitty litter in there.

[PaulineMi]

I had 4 gallon low tech planted tanks and enjoyed little fish that would fit in them. 

Here are inhabitants of one of the tanks:

Microdevario kubotai


Axelrodia riesei


In the other tank I had these little pseudomugil furcatus

[Mugwump]

I like little fish too. I sometimes wish that we'd set up more tanks for them..or even a different section of the fishroom....HHMmmmm..

[BallAquatics]

I also have heard of people using plain kitty litter, have you heard of this?

Yes I have, but I've never tried it my self.  I've also read a lot about a product called "SoilMaster Select".  It's made for baseball fields but has quite a following among planted tank enthusiasts.  It's inexpensive and comes in several colors, just Google "SoilMaster Select"...

Here's a pretty good piece on substrates.....  http://www.guitarfish.org/2009/02/04/substrate

Dennis

[Jo]

I had 4 gallon low tech planted tanks and enjoyed little fish that would fit in them. 

Here are inhabitants of one of the tanks:

Microdevario kubotai


Axelrodia riesei




In the other tank I had these little pseudomugil furcatus

These fish are beautiful! I especially like the green one!

[Jo]

I also have heard of people using plain kitty litter, have you heard of this?

Yes I have, but I've never tried it my self.  I've also read a lot about a product called "SoilMaster Select".  It's made for baseball fields but has quite a following among planted tank enthusiasts.  It's inexpensive and comes in several colors, just Google "SoilMaster Select"...

Here's a pretty good piece on substrates.....  http://www.guitarfish.org/2009/02/04/substrate

Dennis

Nice video. I will check that out.

[BillT]

Microdevario  kubotai. Cute fish, looks nice Jo.
I have often considered getting some of those.
How are they doing for you?

[Jo]

Hey Bill,
Not mine they are Pauline's. I'd be interested to know where they came from also. I've never seen them before Pauline's pics.
They are all 3 really beautiful!

[Jdmcfast]

From what I've been able to find soil master select has been discontinued and is no longer available:-[

[Jo]

Oh bummer! Just when you learn about something new you wanna try!

The planted tank says Turface is replacement for Soil master
Thesy say to check with these people for it.
Lesco/John Deere Landscaping dealer for Turface products