Pepper's Aquascape Journal!

Hi, so I started a journal for my tank on another website, but I thought you guys might be interested as well. I'll do a big post of everything I have at the moment, then update it everyweek or so. I think it's nice seeing how something like this progresses, I'm still learning and I hope it will interest you guys as well

Ok so here goes, tank specs - it is a second hand Juwel Rio 180 liter. It has 2x brand new T5 45W plant bulbs and they're running at 12 hours a day at the moment. As I'm growing emersed, there is no risk of algae, and CO2 is much more readily available from the air. It gives some plants (not all plants can be grown emersed) a great head start so they have the best chance to survive once submerged.

This is a picture of the hardscape I created, there is about an inch of pond soil in there capped with an inch of play sand and also Unipac black sand.


There is a lot of wood as I'm trying to keep pH on the acidic side for the SA fish, I have a big bag of almond leaves to help as well. There is some slate I broke up myself from a large piece and sanded the very sharp bits and some coconut houses.

I planted some HC Cuba, java moss, hydrocotyle and dwarf hairgrass after the hardscape was finished


After one week the hydrocotyle has really shot off and grown quite a bit, lots of new shoots emerging all the time. The HC is starting to sprout a bit but hasn't done much.


I'm also starting to see some new shoots from the DHG. Hoping to get both the DHG and HC to carpet then fill the back with taller plants.

Then a week later we have this



Unfortuneatly the HC Cuba doesn't look like it's done much growing this week, bit of a shame as this is the main plant I'm waiting for! I want a lush cushiony patch of green - why won't it grow faster?! Patience I think is key here, hopefully by next week I'll be able to see a bit of growth



The hydrocotyle is still going strong! Very fast grower in my tank, beautiful green leaves. Really pleased with how it's doing, might even have to chop some of it back when I get to planting the taller background plants.



Getting new hairgrass shoots still, good sign, hoping for a lawn effect so a long way to go still!

I learned this morning I actually had too much standing water in the tank, so I've gentley dabbed away the water around the HC with a cloth. If anyone wants to do this themselves, don't put too much water in because it's a pain to get out again! More pics next week, hopefully will show an improvement now I've fixed a problem :bounce:

Looking lovely very skilled

Thank you it's all a big learning curve, I've only been keeping fish since August and this will be my first proper aquascaped tank but I'm really enjoying it, and can't wait for it to be finished! I hope the fish will enjoy it as well :D

I am sure they will you are doing really well since you haven't been keeping fish long I have been keeping fish a few years now and wouldn't be able to manage to scape mine as creative as yours.

Very nice indeed! Did u see my post about the drift wood in boro for a fiver? Just in case u looking for more

Lovely aquascaing!

@Siamese Aww thanks, I've done a lot of research and have a whole folder on my computer with designs I like which has really helped. Then I kinda just played around with what I had until i liked it.

@Debnel Yes I did, thanks for pointing that out. I did get a piece from Johns place 4 pets which cost me £4.99 but they didn't have any big pieces. Think it's all set for wood now, got some left which is going to go in the betta tank I will be setting up after Christmas! So I'll be asking you lovely people where to get a real stunner

Lol lorna is a likely bet for help there! If u want my babies will be ready to rehome in a couple of weeks. They are standard veils tho. Mainly red.

Great post Coral, I will be watching with eager eyes to see how this goes, I never seem to have a great deal of luck with plants.

looking great miss pepper it is stunning can not wait to see it when finished i will be keeping an eye on this thread as you have got me very intrigued

So it's been another week. I did my best to soak up all the standing water in the tank, but I still think there is a bit too much water in the substrate.
Here's how the HC is looking now, it is sending out new plants so here's hoping.

Hydrocotyle still going crazy, might end up trimming it already!

Unfotuneatly I've been getting some BG algae, I've put some kitchen paper on top of the bits worse affected in hopes it won't get much light but we'll see if it goes away


I've bought a Nutrafin DIY CO2 kit off ebay (used for £10) which wasn't bad as I needed a diffuser regardless. So I might start filling the tank up soon and blasting with CO2, everything should have a good root system by now and I'm hoping it will continue growing nicely once filled.

this is about the most interesting post i've ever seen from a relative newcomer to the hobby and you should be proud as punch with it! i have been keeping fish for over 2 decades and don't actually think i could have done as good a job so like i say this has impressed me from start to finish
please could you keep the thread going with lots of pictures as i am fascinated with it
WELL DONE YOU!

Ditto! Keep the posts & pics going please!

Very kind both of you, thank you I'm blushing haha. I will certainly keep the pics and info coming! I've decided not to fill it up until the algae is gone, as I can't seem to find anything that eats that kind! Hopefully a weekend of being covered with kitchen roll will fend it off

credit where credit is due as i also have been keeping fish for a long time and have not had a tank look like that also am waiting in anticipation to what comes next

Well the problem with the bluegreen algae got worse I've covered the tank with black bin bags in the hope it'll be gone by Friday. And I've just spent £30 on plants, damn £8 delivery lol. I've read red ramshorn have been known to eat bluegreen, anyone know if that's true or just wishful thinking? Cause they're pretty cheap on ebay.

from what i have managed to google i dont think anything will eat it.
only things i have read other than introducing chemicals is increase oxygen as this is toxic to it. and black out.
sorry but i really couldnt find much other info and not had to deal with this myself.
good luck!

Sooo my baby is finally all filled up with water! Was very excited this morning when my plants came from aqua essentials (excellent, beautiful plants I highly rate this company over plants alive). I couldn't wait any longer, it looked like most of the algae was gone and I'm off to Absolute Aquatics tomorrow so it seemed like a perfect time. I got some echinodorus species, some crypts, some smaller hydrocotyle and some more HC cuba because I'm impatient haha.

Unfortuneatly I got a bit over excited and ended up messing up my substrate. The water flow was too strong and it pushed the soil up and out (it's still all over the sand, nothing I can do )

Still, I've set it all up, I need another filter on there for flow I think. I have a very large filter spare but it's too much of an eyesore so I might see if anyone wants to swap that one for a smaller one. DIY CO2 is also set up. Bought a second hand nutrafin kit, mixed my own sugar and yeast and it's making bubbles! Very exciting. Hopefully the fish are looking on in awe and can't wait to move in! Which will be as soon as everything settles down :D ...or if I can't contain myself tomorrow and I do a little shopping.


On another note I set up a little 15l tank for some shrimp and a betta, but the heater is broken! Hopefully it will get replaced but I bought online so that's a lot of faff :/ which is a shame but I'll be using cuttings from this tank as soon as stuff starts growing in .

That is looking excellent not surprised you got too excited I am the same drive martin nuts I think too impatient lol hopefully we will get to meet tomorrow so we can put a face to the name, yours tanks are coming on beautifully very inspiring.

We'll be there in the afternoon I think, I'll be the shy lady with purple hair haha if anyone wants to introduce themselves :D hopefully someone else with purple hair won't turn up and confuse you all

Lol! I used to have purple hair! And green, red and silver!
Love the tank
Am hoping to be there this aft but depends on combination of coughing kids , weather & buses so fingers crossed..

me and fighter will be there soon just need to walk dogand that before we set off see you all soon

Hey guys, so it’s been roughly a week since I filled up my 180l with water. I’ve had some growth, and a lot of algae growing!

I’ve already reduced my lighting by a couple of hours but I’ll keep an eye on it and lower it more if I have to. It’s on about 8 hours now down from like 11 haha (forgot to change it from emersed times doh). Main growth from the tall echinodorus and the hydrocotyle but nothing has died off which is nice. The dwarf hair grass on the right has a lot of brown shoots that were dying before I submerged but they’re still pulling through :D.

So I have this kind of algae:

I’m not very up on algae names as this is my first time getting any, looks wise it’s actually not bothering me. It looks natural but I do have MTS in there on cleaning duty. Will otos eat this kind? I really want to get some of those cuties. Also getting this kind:

Looks like little brown dots on the leaves, falls off if I shake the leaf. Stuff eat this up as well? I don’t like this kind so much since it’s ruining the look of the plants .

I’m having some problems with one of my plants.

It was sold to me as an echinodorus impaii where it looks gorgeous. Big waxy looking green leaves. But here’s mine it’s been growing huge browny-red leaves that are very thin but are visably growing each day. New reddy leaves are being produced as well, so it’s still growing rapidly but looks like it’s dying?! I really wanted it to look like in the picture, can anyone tell me what’s going on and how to fix it?

Same species, different plant you can really see the red leaves outgrowing the green ones and look really weird.

Added my 6 neon tetras from my smaller tank today, still very skittish and unsure of what's going on poor things but hopefully they'll get used to the space lol.

if you phone colin at absouloute aquatics he might be able to advise you and if he does not know he will try and find out for you
he has a lot of knowledege

Ok thanks I'll send an e-mail to aqua essentials to ask first, then see if Colin can shed some light on it