180 L Planted Aquarium Journal

Through building and maintaining beautiful nature aquaria people re-learn the intricate connections between forms of life, plants, fish, microorganism and humans. Riches and beauty come from harmony, from balance. Aquaria are great teachers of this truth. Takashi Amano

1/16/2006

Planning my 180 L nature aquarium

This is my first choice for the aquascape.

My second choice. After approx. two years of researching ( books & net ) and one year of planning what kind of aquarium, fish and plants I wont, here I am, ready to start!I decided to have a 180 liter tank even though I was quiet hot about the 240 liter one. The reason I picked up the smaller one is the pure design of my living space, it fits better. I had a lot of problems and doubts about which fish to decide for this tank. First I was into a cichlid lake idea with lots of stones as an aqua-scape, but the cichlid temper is to boisterous that it doesn't suit me at all. Than I decided to have a community tank with gouramis and such. I dropped this idea because the gouramis can be as well a bit bully towards the others and I do not want to have any fish that is harassing the rest of my aqua-life. Than I realised that I should probably go for a tetra habitat tank that will, for sure, give me the pleasure of harmony I desire.

Fauna list ( initial ) : 10 rummy nose tetras, 5 Bleeding Heart Tetras, 3 Corydoras adolfoi, 3 Oto's & 1 SAE. ( Later might add several Amano shrimps & 1 Botia sidthimunki to keep the snail population down )
Flora list ( initial ) : eleocharis acicularis ( grass-like 10 cm plant medium growth ), cryptocoryne wendtii ' tropica ' ( 12 cm medium growth ), microsorum pteropus ( java fern 15 cm growth slow ), riccia fluitans ( 5 cm carpet plant growth medium ), ludwigia arcuata ( 30 cm medium growth ), hygrophila polysperma ( 30 cm growth very fast ), ceratopteris cornuta ( 35 cm growth fast ), ceratopteris thalictroides ( 15 cm growth very fast ), heteranthera zosterifolia ( 30 cm growth fast ).

List of needs :
180 liter aquarium Jewel ( I realised tonight that two years ago I bought my first 22 liter aquarium in Dublin for 100 euro and now I am paying 230 euro here in Sweden for 180 l. Now that is not normal !!! )
40 kg plain gravel
plant fertiliser ( tablets )
2 x net
vacuum
bog wood
4 x lava rock
DIY CO2 ( tubing, check valve, air stone )
2 x thermostat
dechloramin
fish food
algae scraper