It is not often in the entire world that an 1800 litre freshwater tropical aquarium is set up and it is rarer still that one is on public display. That is why it is with great pleasure that we at The Green Machine are publishing this journal to document the re-scape of one of our main in store display tanks.
Setup Specifications
- Aquarium – Custom made 150 x 150 x 75 cm acrylic aquarium.
- Stand – TGM custom build in red marble
- Lighting – 4 x 150W Metal Halides
- Filter – Eheim Professionel III External Filter 2080 filled with nine litres of Sera Siporax
- Substrate – ADA Sarawak Sand (x6), ADA Aqua Soil Malaya (x6), TGM Graded Gravels
- CO2 system – 3Kg pressurised cylinder, Aqua Medic pressure regulator, Aqua Medic Reactor 1000 inline diffuser filled with Sera Siporax
- Décor / hardscape – Petrified Wood, ADA Dark Iron Wood
- Plants –
- Hemianthus callitrichoides “Cuba”
- Hydrocotyle verticillata
- Staurogyne sp.
- Vesicularia dubyana ‘Christmas’
- Cryptocoryne undulata “broad leaves”
- Cryptocoryne beckettii “petchii”
- Cryptocoryne crispatula var. balansae
- Cryptocoryne parva
- Cryptocoryne X willisi
- Cryptocoryne Lucens
- Lilaeopsis brasiliensis
- Microsorum pteropus ‘Narrow’
- Microsorum pteropus ‘Windeløv’
- Microsorum pteropus ‘Undulata’
- Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata “Cuba”
- Proserpinaca palustris “Cuba”
- Anubias barteri var. nana ‘petite’
- Nurpher Japonica
- Vesicularia ferriei – Weeping moss
- Spiky moss
- Microsorum pteropus “Petit” – Mini Java moss
- Taxiphyllum barbieri – Java moss
- Barbula moss
Step by Step
After the big strip down all that is left is the messy substrate and lots of work ahead.
Once the existing gravel has been sorted and piled up within the aquarium, the enormity of the project normally hits home!
Half of the substrate was left in the aquarium for us to bed the main stones on. Here the first stone weighs in excess of 50KG.
The main stone formation is starting to take place. Scaping the aquarium from the inside can be quite surreal as it is not an every day occurence.
We chose to use ADA aquasoil Malaya as the planing medium. We chose the Malaya soil as it complements the soft tones of the fossilised wood and decorative sand. It creates a much more harmonious and natural display.
Here we use a two inch paint brush to work the sand into the gaps in the rock.
ADA Sarawak sand is added to the unplanted foreground.
The hardscaping is complete.
The planting is complete.
Photograph taken April 2010 by Tony Swinney