Slight Improvement

I've been struggling with keeping my tanks as natural as possible. It has been a while since I deliberately used cheesy decorations or colored gravel in any of my tanks. This one though was meant to be temporary so I didn't really care what color gravel it would have. It has been a year since I set it up and I just fell in love with it so I decided to change the blue gravel for good. It is a 2 gallon hexagon tank that I use as a "cultivator" tank, meaning I use it to grow out and cultivate plants that I want to propagate rapidly. It is near a west-facing window and it gets some direct sunlight during autumn and winter which allows for a faster growth rate.

Before:

Blue gravel + black stones = one ugly combination

After:

Black sand makes a better medium in my opinion.

Malaysian Trumpet snails investigating the new baby java fern

This tank is oddly shaped so aquascaping is definitely a challenge. The flora includes: Taxiphyllum barbieri, Microsorum pteropus, Rotala rotundifolia v.'marsh', Hygrophila polysperma v. 'sunset',Ludwigia repens, Egeria densa, Echinodorus tenellus, & Hygrophila difformis. Fauna includes: Poecilia reticulata v. 'wiltype' (feeders), & Melanoides tuberculatus.

What triggered the change:

These are my friend's tanks, she recommended that I try black sand which is said to improve plant growth due to its high iron content. She doesn't fertilize her tanks which is sort of amazing considering that her plants look extremely healthy.

I noticed a big picture quality difference even though all these pictures were taken with the same camera. Anyway, I hope you liked it.

New blog

This is my blog, I'm fairly new to aquascaping but not to fishkeeping. I've kept fish ever since I was 4, now I'm 19. You do the math. I like it because it keeps me occupied and I like nature in general. I'm also hoping that one day I'll make a career out of it. I'm aiming for ichthyology.

At the moment I have a 10 gallon tank with some black neon and glowlight tetras and a bunch of baby guppies that I will get rid of as soon as possible. I also have a six gallon tank which is basically a endler and RCS sanctuary. Plus several smaller tanks.

For the moment I only have these images. I will get some of my tanks as soon as the aquascapes improve a little bit. I hope that with this new thing I will learn a little bit more and be guided in the right direction. As time progresses I will add more stuff and hopefully I'll get some feedback.

Hemigrammus erythrozonus

Hemigrammus erythrozonus

Hemigrammus erythrozonus

Betta Splendens-King of his 5 gallon bowl