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Welcome to ScapeCrunch, @otkata!
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?

Welcome to ScapeCrunch, @LavaGiant!
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?

Since the tanks have been in such a state of disarray, I’ve been focusing on moving everything to emersed until life sorts itself out.

How I transition from submersed to emersed depends on the growth form of the plant.

Plants that are primarily basal form (not stems) go in square nursery pots with one of two substrates. First choice is long fiber sphagnum (dried and then rehydrated) topped with aquasoil, straight aquasoil, or a mix of peat moss/perlite/coco coir/aquasoil. The sphagnum wicks better than aquasoil. Alternatively, I use straight aquasoil, I line the bottom of the pots with a coffee filter to keep the substrate from falling through. Both work equally well. The bin needs to be filled with a little more water than if dried sphagnum is used which is why the first method is preferable.

The nursery pots are kept in a clear plastic container. Sterilite are the typical go-to, but I actually prefer the tall clear shoe boxes from Walmart. They have built in ventilation holes which is handy because I need to drill holes in the sides of any other container near the lid rim. Ventilation is key.

The shoe boxes are cheap too. I fill the bins as much as possible but a little leftover space is okay.

After filling the bins with pots, I fill all the voids with live sphagnum and fill with enough distilled water to saturate the sphagnum. The sphagnum has antimicrobial properties (so I’ve read, and it seems to check out in practice). This keeps the water from developing algae almost entirely. I dress the tops with live sphagnum too if something needs a little help rooting. Depending on the space, I throw rhizome plants right into the sphagnum as well. They develop excellent root systems and are very easily removed and cleaned when needed compared to conventional soil.

I fertilize everything with a foliar spray of Maxsea 16-16-16 diluted to 1 teaspoon per gallon. It’s a kelp based fertilizer with micronutrients. I highly recommend it.












I’ll follow up with emersed stem plant propogation and other methods for the full greenhouse.

Inspiration, Goals, & Considerations

I've had an interest in aquariums since a young age and had my own aquarium with fish like Angelfish and Mollies around middle school. Growing up, my dad had a bigger tank with Blood Parrots and Silver Dollars. Over 10 years ago, I had a low maintenance 55 gallon planted tank. I was pretty proud of it, but always envied the high tech tanks I saw on forums/social media and told myself when I broke that tank down that the next time I set up a tank, it would be like what I envied. At the end of 2024, I set up a small low tech 5 gallon planted tank to help scratch my aquarium itch, which really only reaccelerated my desire for setting up a high tech tank. And now, here we are!

The size of the tank was mostly dictated by the space. I originally planned on something around 30 gallons, but my LFS had the UNS 75P in stock and after measuring and discussing with my wife, we agreed it would work for the space. The tank is between the kitchen and living room, which is essentially a play area for my son, so lighting needs to be adjusted to make sure he's not blinded by the light when looking up at the tank.

Generally, I'd like to have a visually pleasing aquarium with lots of fish and plants that's peaceful to enjoy. I'd like to automate / reduce as much friction as possible and I realize there's still plenty I need to learn, so I'll need to have patience when things go wrong. I want to keep away from anything that's hard to get out of the tank once it's in (duckweed, moss, pest snails, etc). I felt like sharing prices below might give value to anyone in the future that's looking to start where I did with a high tech tank.

Specs (prices include sales tax)
Tank:

Lighting:

Filtration:

Co2:

Inflow & Outflow Pipes:

Substrate & Hardscape:

Fertilization:
Battery Backup & Power

Other Misc Equipment:
Chihiros CO2 Drop Checker
5 x Oase ShutOff Valve 16/22
Inkbird WiFi ITC-308 - $38
SwitchBot Leak Detectors - $15 each

"Stand"
Because the guts are located in a kitchen cabinet, I didn't want to screw directly into it and damage it. I was also concerned silicone would not be able to dry and outgas properly when sealing the edges. I opted to line the cabinet with contact paper. It's essentially a giant sticker, so I lined the sides, bottoms, and a second layer over the bottom edges/joints. I built a 3 panel "stand" inside of the cabinet so I could house everything and screw into the plywood without any concerns. I used 1 sheet of 3/4" Maple plywood and coated 1 side with a latex primer followed by a layer of latex white paint. This is mostly for water resistance and not necessarily water proof. I placed a silicone cabinet liner under the right side equipment. I made a shelf to place the EcoFlow on so if there's a catastrophic leak it's off the bottom.

One consideration I hadn't thought about was how "cramped" the cabinet would be since I placed the EcoFlow on a shelf with a "wall", which essentially made the work area much tighter.

Cable Management: Raceway and cable clips
Water
Express Water RO5DX - $160
55 Gallon Brute Trash Can, 44 Gallon Brute Trash Can, 32 Gallon Greenmade Trash Can, and 2x dollys.
Plants (all UNS TC)

• Homalomena Sp Sekadau South (babysitter)
• Hydrocotyle Tripartita (potentially babysitter)
• Alternanthera Reineckii Rosanervig (initially planned as babysitter, but may keep some in long term)
• Hemianthus Callitrichoides 'Cuba'
• Rotala Rotundifolia Blood Red
• Anubias Nana Petite
• Micranthemum 'Monte Carlo'
• Alternanthera Reineckii 'Mini'
• Echinodorus Rose

Livestock:

Coming soon

• 25x Red Neon Blue Eye Rainbow
• 7x C005 Corydoras pantanalensis
• 3x C123 Yellow Cory 'Rio Nanay'
• Aphyosemion bivittatum 'Funge' Pair
• 5x Stiphodon rutilaureus Goby
• 1x True Siamese Algae Eaters
• 1x Bamboo Shrimp
• 8x Amano Shrimp

I have been inspired by everyone’s awesome planted fish bowls. I have been researching and toying around with the idea of setting one up. I was working on building a nano frag tank set up for my saltwater side and got the itch to try something. So I started building the pedestal for a fish bowl. Now down the rabbit hole, I am bending a piece of trim to wrap my 12” platform.

This is the future home for the announcements when someone obtains an achievement badge. Let the games begin!

FB says it's @Art 's birthday

Inspired by @Naturescapes_Rocco ’s no-tech bowl thread, I decided to set up something similar.

With all the highs and lows of running a high-tech planted tank, I was hoping to put together something much simpler—a small bowl with no filter, no CO₂, and minimal equipment.

Bowl​

WGV Large Glass Bowl Vase
12" diameter × 10" height
Approximately 3 gallons

Light​

AREPK Aquarium & Terrarium Full Spectrum LED
5 watts

Substrate / Hardscape​

• APT Feast
• A single lava rock

I’m not actually sure what type of lava rock this is maybe @FreshTides_Neal can comment, since I picked it up from his shop. These rocks have a really interesting shade and texture to them.

Water​

RO water remineralized with APT Sky

Fertilizer​

None so far.

Dark Start​

I did a dark start for about 2 weeks after squeezing some mulm from an established filter into the bowl.

At the end of the two weeks, ammonia remained super high.

I eventually got impatient, did about a 90% water change, and planted the bowl.

Plants​

My initial goal was to use relatively fast-growing plants to help stabilize the system. Some of these may not necessarily remain in the bowl long term.

Current plants include:

• Limnophila heterophylla
• Pearlweed
• Rotala ‘Blood Red’
• Helanthium tenellum
• Trident Java fern
• Mini Bolbitis
• A few assorted stems from my main tank
• Some nice floating plants

I was also happy to get several of the plants locally from FreshTides Aquatics. Great-quality Tropica plants, and I’m glad to finally have access to a local aquascaping store.

Water Changes​

One of the biggest advantages of a bowl this size is how easy maintenance is.

A 75% water change takes less than 10 minutes.

For the last couple of weeks after planting, I’ve been doing water changes approximately every 2–3 days.

Experience So Far​

So far, the water has remained crystal clear.

Maybe it’s the fresh aquasoil, but the pH has been sitting around 6.6. For comparison, my main high-tech tank with APT Feast (about a year old) sits around pH 7 before the CO₂ comes on.

Plant growth has been surprisingly good. I also frequently see the plants pearling, which I wasn’t necessarily expecting from a little no-tech setup like this. The L.heterophylla has been trimmed once.

What has been particularly interesting is how easily plants taken directly from my high-tech tank seem to have transitioned to these very different conditions.

A bladder snail somehow hitchhiked in with the plants. It seems perfectly happy and has already started reproducing.

With the relatively low pH, I suspect much of the measured ammonia is present as the less-toxic ammonium form, which may also explain why the snail seems completely unbothered.

I am starting to see the power of frequent water changes with the lack of algae so far (fingers crossed).

Things I Might Do Differently Next Time​

1. Use a less nutrient-rich substrate or cap the aquasoil.

For such a small volume of water, APT Feast may simply be more nutrient-rich than necessary. I’m curious to see how things evolve once the bowl matures.

2. Choose a different light.

The light itself works fine, but the built-in timer is frustrating.

If I turn the light on at night just to look at the bowl, it interrupts the timer cycle, and I then have to reset it the following day.

I’m not particularly handy with electrical work, but ideally I’d love a simple light that could just be plugged into a Kasa smart plug and controlled externally.

If anyone has recommendations for a good small bowl light that works that way, let me know.

Overall, though, I’m really enjoying the simplicity of this setup so far.

Looking forward to letting it mature a little more and hopefully adding some red cherry shrimp soon.

Browsed the Sreepadma booth at Aquashella briefly today. I'd not heard of them but they are the largest aquatic plant farm in India and have been selling their TC offerings in the US for about 2 years. I was actually impressed with the qualty I was seeing of their TC cups and wish I had room in a tank for some (and some ADA TC). Has anyone else purchased any of their plants. One of the first that I spotted was Red Tiger Crypt which was a coincidence since we have a thread discussing it.

Well...let's spend more money! I had thought about attending Aquashella - Chicago a few months ago but decided to pass this year. When I was thinking about it, they still didn't have the specific VIP guest list posted. Out of curiosity, I checked today and to my surprise, the man himself, Yusuke Homma, will be presenting the masterclass on Saturday. I can't pass that up when it's only an 8 hour drive. Ticket purchased, room booked. Anyone else attending?