Re-scape
27/03/26
Wow it’s been more than three month since I started this project! Ok lets get strait into the recount.
Shortly after my last post, my friend donated some of her red root floaters to me. They looked beautiful but they soon spelt doom for the aquarium.
I went away in mid-January for a few days and when I returned the floaters had clogged the filter. By some mechanism this resulted in the death of
almost all the immersed plants, a massive bacterial bloom and a foul smell. The snails were also missing in action. I cleaned it up, replanted what
was left of the plants, and added some more house plant cuttings to the top. Then, disheartened, I lost interest in the project for 3 months.
Last week I decided it was time to get back to it. I had felt the tank was looking really boring,
and what better way to renew my love for the aquarium then a re-scape.I really enjoy scapes with large partially emersed driftwood like these:
Big pieces of wood like this cost crazy money from an aquarium store so step one of realising my vision was hunting down some free wood.The general advice
for finding your own aquarium-safe wood, is to look for old, sun-dried hard woods, with no bark left.I live in an area where eucalyptus is abundant but the
jury still seems to be out on its safety. Personally I feel like it should be fine but, not wanting to risk it, I hunted down some elm.
I smashed the branches up against my driveway concrete to break off any soft rotted bits, then baked to them in the oven for about an hour at 150C. I
then boiled what ever would fit in my pasta pot.
As I was draining the aquarium I found a single remaining snail. What a trooper! There were also lots of worms living in the sand.
I decided to build the scape around my larges piece of elm. Because it was too big to be boiled, I weighed it down it rocks.
I nested the house plants around the wood, added a few botanicals back in and BAM! Scape complete. I like the aquarium much better this way. And look at all those tannins!
But is the water safe for fish? Maybe, maybe not. I’ve been getting different results on ammonia readings. My recently purchased
aqua one test kit (I do not recommend btw) says I’ve got around 0.5ppm anomia, but a test I did using the API kit showed no detectable ammonia. Hmmm……
Setting up
9/12/25
This week I set up a new 54L tank! But before I get into that I must address the shrimp
jar. It failed, all of the shrimp died :(
I’m still not sure what exactly killed the shrimp, but it may have been a lack of pH
stability. Due to the small space and all the photosynethis, the pH would swing from
7.5 in the morning to 8.3 in the evening. While everything I’ve read states that cherry
shrimp can tollerate a high pH, a stablility is emphasised. It may also have been
realated to hardness or nutrition. Three of the shrimp died molting. My tap water is
very soft, but I suplimented with aquarium stalts. The forth shrimp was only only one
who ate his shrimp food so that may have contributed to his longevity.
I'm disapointed, but I was my first time keeping shrimp and I did keep them in a very small volume.
Anyway, on to more cheerful things. I purchased a tank used off gumtree for $20, a good
price in my area. After testing for leaks, I cleaned it up and painted a black
backgorund with acrylic paint.
I desided to embrase my soft water and go for a blackwater setup. I gather my own
botalicals. I love seed pods and feel lucky to live a country with so many unique
flowing plants to forage from. I gathered gum nuts, bankisia leaves and cones,
casuarina cones, bamboo leaves, kurajong pods and elm twigs. I boiled them up and
soaked them over night to clean and water log them. I also gathered my own rocks. I
tested their stablily using some API nitrate test reagent, I trick I got from this
youtube video. The rocks also got boiled.
For subtrate I used playsand. I washed it vigourously to remove the really fine stuff.
I sandwitched a layer of soil withing the sand. I chose to use a smaller proporton of
soil to sand compared to the shrimp jar, since this set up will have comparitivly
fewer plants. Plus I can always add more fertiliser later.
I arranged my rocks and botanicals, then added the plants from the shrimp jar.
Because the tannins block light, submurged plant don’t always too to well in black in
black water aquariums. Playsand is also not an ideal substrate, but we’ll wait and see.
Some house plant cuttings were fixed above the waterline with wire. I’m hoping they’ll grow in to a jungle.
I chose to use a filter for this set up. Just a little hang-on-back. I replaced the media
cartrage with some sponge and ceramic noodles. I also bought a heater, though I’m not using it yet.
Now this tank actually already has some trumpet snails as residents. I had read these
hardy snails can survide in high amonia conditons and that cycling your aquarium with
snails in it can give better results. Since these snail were pests from the pet shop
and would have been killed anyway, I desided to put these claims to the test. I plan
to keep the amonia below 0.5ppm for the plants anyway. A few bits of cuttlefish bone
went in for the snails too.
To get the water dark right away, I placed a rooibos tea bag in the filter. I’m not
sure what fish I want to keep yet. I’ll probably choose them based on the water
paramiters once the tank is cycled.
54L Blackwater Aquarium
