Wanted: input from the forum on beginners articles.

Garuf · Apr 4, 2012

As per title, I am currently writing up a set of guides dealing with the basics, from choosing tanks, filters, light through dosing and co2, maintainance and methodology and into getting a grips with scaping and I'm looking for your input!

Here is my rough plan I've drawn up and started to flesh out, have a read, what's missing, what would you like me to add is anything too ambiguous?

So, you want to start Aquascaping?

The first step is daunting, isn’t it? Never fear, Aquascaping World is here to make sure your first steps are made on a firm footing.
First things first, what are your goals, what is your budget and how much time can you spare for the hobby?
Do you have a limited amount of time or do you not want to go down the route of the high maintenance, hi-light set ups? Then Low Tech is for you, there are two methods, “standard” low tech and zero water change. What makes these different to “hi-light” setups? Simply, it’s the amount of energy in the system that comes from the amount of light put in, low tech is low light and as such lower maintenance. There is a trade off however, slower growth, limited plant choice and limited potential for scaping, carpets are all but out of the picture with “true” low tech. Low tech in gross generalities is limited to jungle type scapes full of crypts, moss and ferns. Because less is needed for these types of set up they are also cheaper to set up and run.
This brings us Hi-tech. You may be thinking if it’s just the light that makes it different why is it hi-tech? In the most basic and cut back explanation, hi-tech has Co2 injection, is dosed with fertilizer and has the largest variety of plants available to choose from, the trade off however is these systems require much more in the way of effort and input. If we think of the light as the throttle to an engine and Co2, Fertiliser and flow as the fuel tank and the plants as the engine, the more you press on the throttle the bigger the fuel tank needs to be to and the quicker the fuel needs to get to the engine to stop the it from stalling. Now, if we reword that back to plants, the more light there is, the faster the plants grow and the more fertiliser and co2 they need, to get that co2 and fertilizer to the plants the more flow we need as well as a larger fuel tank/more fertiliser and co2, not enough fuel in the tank or too small a fuel pump/insufficient flow, the engines stall and we get poorly, sickly plants and algae. Furthermore the more energy there is in the system the less wiggle room you have to leave the system alone and the more maintenance you need to undertake to keep the tank running well. They are also financially more expensive to set up and run.

There of course, is a middle ground way too, liquid carbon has made a big impact on the scene lately and this for many people represents a good middle ground. The two biggest are Seachems Excel and Easylifes Easycarbo, these work by adding glutaraldehyde, a bioavailable form of carbon to the water in small measured doses meaning co2 injection isn’t necessary. But as with any aspect there are tradeoffs, it’s really only suitable for low to medium levels of light, growth is slower and there is a number of plants that it will cause to melt. Also, the bigger the tank for more expensive it becomes to use and is there for only really suitable for nano tanks.

It’s worth mentioning that aquascaping isn’t just the preserve of plant enthusiasts, there’s a growing movement that stems from the biotope community that we refer to as “hardscape only”, these are aquariums in which aquascaping is wholly reliant on the use of materials to create impact or where plants wouldn’t be a wise choice, some consider Mbuna scapes to be a subset of hardsape only tanks, black water aquascapes are common in this field too. The positives of this type of scape are great, zero light demand, zero carbon demand, sometimes more biotope correct, sometimes more easy to maintain, cheap and quick to set up. The tradeoffs however are that the scape can become boring quickly with nothing changing, this however is where fish come into their own, choose the most charismatic fish suitable for your scape and you’ll be rewarded by their behaviours, shell dwelling cichlids, “oddballs”, that wouldn’t be considered for traditional scapes being the perfect candidates. A further trade off is though people perceive that these tanks will have reduced maintenance, a diligent aquarist should still seek to do week water changes to some degree and substrate maintenance needs to be much more thorough, as will monitoring water parameters.

Another form of minimal scaping is erroneously called Wabi-Kusa in the west*, these tanks have zero or close to aquatic planting but instead have an emergent section growing aquatic plants. These tanks are relatively simple and easy to set up and maintain, but be aware they have very low carrying capacities so if you want fish, these probably aren’t for you. A lot of people do not have filters on these tanks claiming uptake by the plant roots to be sufficient but this is known to be misleading as such one should always aim to have a filter on these setups as it provides a further safeguard for any inhabitants and will help control mulm, treat these tanks as you would a hardscape only tank for best results.

*Wabi kusa isn’t actually a type of scape parse, it’s a product sold by ADA that is a ball of clay with stem plants already present that is then grown either submerged or emersed, people have since emulated it due to its unavailability outside of Japan giving rise to its erroneous use.

Low –tech isn’t the weapon of choice for many aquascapers and it isn’t what many new to the hobby are aspiring to so for the purposes of the remainder of this article I will be talking about universal truths but with a bias towards Hi-tech set ups.

At this point let us talk about equipment and the requirements of the equipment.
First of all you’re going to need a tank; you can’t scape without one really...
So what makes a good tank for scaping? Well, any really, it depends on your creativity, but some tanks are better suited to certain types of scapes than others. Some of this is going to sound deceptively simple but it’s often overlooked.
Tall tanks tend to work best for tall scapes, this normally means wood-scapes, rocks-capes are exceptionally challenging in tall tanks.
Shallow tanks are much better suited to rock scapes, woodscapes in shallow tanks are for the seasoned aquascaper and are a rare beast indeed.

What is meant by tall and shallow? Well, a tall is any tank where the depth is more than around half the length, for example the widely available 60 length x 30cm width x 45cm depth would be considered a tall tank.

A shallow, is any tank where the depth is less than around half the length of the tank, likewise, the similarly widely available 60 length by 20cm width x 20cm would be considered a shallow tank.

Visual depth (not to be confused with physical depth) is something that can be difficult to achieve so narrow in width tanks are generally avoided by the scaper, the larger the width the better is the general consensus when talking about tanks. Standard tanks tend to be as wide as they are tall at around half the length of the tank, there are tanks out there we consider hyper deep, these tanks are those in which the width is more than half the length and more than the height, for example the increasingly common 60lx45dx36h would be considered to have hyper depth. Confusing I know.

What about cubes? Cubes are great for scaping but do pose something of a challenge for the scaper, your personal ingenuity is vital when dealing with them but the results can often be outstanding.

What sizes are common and what are good choices for scaping and what tanks are best for the new scaper? The most common tank size largely depends on where you are in the world, in the United Kingdom, as in Japan, the 60centimetre tank is the most common. The US the “10gallon” with varying dimensions but always around the same volume is most common, and in the EU it’s a pretty even cut between 90cm+ tanks and around 30cm nano tanks, particularly cubes.

So what is the best to scape with? This largely depends on the amount of time you have for the hobby and the amount of money you want to spend or if you’re dipping your toes or going in who hog straight away.
Generally speaking the old adage of the bigger the better still stands but for the beginner making their first steps in the world of aquascaping it is my experience/opinion that the three best readily available sized tanks are the 30cm cube (often 30x30x35 depending on your geographic location), the 45x30x30 “ten gallon” and the 60lx36/30hx30d.
My reasoning for these? The 30cm nano is readily available globally, the equipment to set one up as a hi-tech is easy to get hold of and being slightly larger than most nano’s it allows for easier maintenance while providing a vast scope for scaping regardless of layout choice. The 45x30x30, for similar reasons, equipment is easy to find, cheap, being wider front to back means you have the chance to try scaping a hyper depth tank without splashing out on a larger custom tank and the size lends itself to both rock and wood type scapes. Finally the ever present 60cm tank, In the UK the most common size is 60x30x30, everywhere else it tends to be 60x30x36, the reason for this one like the others being cheapness to obtain everything needed while also being big enough and versatile enough to do just about anything with, I would always steer people towards the largest of the trio if they can find the space because they’re a great tank to learn to scape with and being the most common size have huge market support.

This brings us to the age old argument of off the peg vs custom setups and secondarily second hand vs new and diy vs off the peg.
Straight away it’s worth saying though things have got a lot better in recent years, there are very few off the peg “complete” type tanks out there that are suitable for our needs. Either having insufficient filtration and/or insufficient lighting, having to re-buy these can make what initially seem like a good purchase more expensive than buying individual elements so unless you’re very savy in buying the tank then selling off the light and filter that came with it to fund their replacements, if you’re looking for the open top aesthetic there are few “complete” options available. That isn’t to say they’re most expensive, this is the point where you need to decide what you want from the equipment and what it means to you, do you want a traditional fishtank with a lid? Do you want the Amano ADA aesthetic? Is the scape more important to you than the equipment? Do you mind second hand, are you able to diy equipment? These are the questions you should be asking yourself at this point. Things can easily get expensive if you buy things you don’t need so read on and I will outline what planted tanks really need.

Here perhaps it would be wise to talk about our needs and some rough guidelines we live our aquascaping lives by.

Filters and water flow, 10x rule etc why so much flow, lily pipes vs spray bars/outlets. Filters vs sumps/wet and drys.

Choosing lighting How much and explaining PAR needed, denounce ultra high light for the beginner.
Choosing co2 + drop checker all the rest
Choosing a substrate explain substrates
Ancillary stuff people often forget. Buckets, nets, cloths, algae razors, tubing, brushes, pipe rods, pegs things worth keeping in duplicate, spare co2 diffusers lily pipes etc
Talk about methodology, forget the “what do I need to grow X plant” type non-sense focus on growing everything/good methodology is universal.

Next time scaping.
lay out the merits of a learner tank for learning to grow plants before jumping into scaping. Remember to touch upon wood coming out of the tank and emersed scapes needing balance. Negative space, positive space, types of scape, golden section substrate colours and depths, slopes and focal points. Avoiding mismatching materials imitation of nature and "super nature".

abhradip1986 · Apr 5, 2012

nice write up Garuf. But wanted to highlight something: I personally faced huge challenge when I started with planted tanks to understand which plants are best suited for low/high tech tanks. My opinion on this say if you plan to make it a sticky post, why not categorize them based on what type they could be used, a person has to then read up on their requirements. The reason why i'm saying is, if you go ahead in setting something up like this ASW would tend to become the one stop knowledge depot for all and questions such as these would be asked even more. Other than that again, nice write up man!

ShadowMac · Apr 5, 2012

Hi Garuf, great idea and so many people will find it helpful.

How about a section on common myths stumbled into by beginners?

Garuf · Apr 5, 2012

Thanks guys, great feedback.
I'll add myth busting to the list.
Adhradip, can you please expand on your point? It's of my opinion that a hi-tech set up can grow anything (generally speaking) it's only low tech tanks that have a limited plant choice? It would be a mammoth undertaking to list all plants suitable for hi-light, I assume this isn't what you mean? I hadn't really planned to draw up any articles on low-tech husbandry at this point, it's something I don't really know so much on so would be foolish for me to try and explain though I can try and steer people right.

Flo · Apr 5, 2012

Hey garuf,

great idea. may you could add a Part about trimming technique and tricks,
cause to grow plants sucessfull means that you have to trim them.
i think this whole trimming technique Part allways comes to short and you could add a Part of different trimming and planting equipment too.
attaching methods for moss and ferns etc. may also be helpfull.

cheers
Flo

cheers

Garuf · Apr 5, 2012

Cheers Flo, another for the list.
If anyone would like to help gather resources that'd be really helpful. visual aspects such as trimming techniques will need photographs explaining them to be really successful.

abhradip1986 · Apr 9, 2012

Garuf said: ↑

Thanks guys, great feedback.
I'll add myth busting to the list.
Adhradip, can you please expand on your point? It's of my opinion that a hi-tech set up can grow anything (generally speaking) it's only low tech tanks that have a limited plant choice? It would be a mammoth undertaking to list all plants suitable for hi-light, I assume this isn't what you mean? I hadn't really planned to draw up any articles on low-tech husbandry at this point, it's something I don't really know so much on so would be foolish for me to try and explain though I can try and steer people right.

Hi Garuf,

Let me explain what I faced as the issue: I started out with a low-tech setup with minimal knowledge on what were specific low/high tech plants. Now I bought the fauna based on my LFS experience which turned out to be a total bummer once I read up and realised these were all high-tech specific plants. So in my opinion listing low-tech specific plants would be fine as you rightly said "hi-tech set up can grow anything", I personally had to shift to a high tech setup following that goof-up. Hope this helps in what I tried to mean.

randy0319 · Apr 9, 2012

Also best to include basic water chemistry information. One of my problems is that I have inject CO2, etc. but I have no steady source of R.O. water. My Gh and Ph out of the tap are high and even usiing buffers, certain plants just won't grow for me. If you can include Water Chem for dummies like me I would really appreciate it. I really like what you are attemping and know that you will be successful.

Garuf · Apr 20, 2012

Wrote more of this today. Will post on Monday.

ianho · Apr 22, 2012

hey garuf, help yourself to my article (if it's of any use) on tff

Carbon Dioxide And Diffusion - Tropical Fish Forums

Garuf · Apr 22, 2012

That's very kind Ian! It's years since I've been over to tff, the start of ukaps almost I'd say.

ianho · Apr 22, 2012

no probs G...there is still a decent small planted community over there. Andy gets over there when he on internet duties. We do our best.

jasonperry · Apr 23, 2012

grate work garuf this will very useful for me as i am a biginner my self in planting when i started before xmas i didnt have a clue untill i found this forum and now im keeping mid tech co2, lighting etc and improvments like thses will be awsome for people like me when i first started keep up the good work :rock:

Garuf · Apr 25, 2012

Update in the first post.
As always, feedback is actively and openly encouraged.

Hideout · Apr 30, 2012

As a complete newbie who just happened to come across some Takashi Amano pics last week, i appreciate your work. The only thing i can pinpoint so far are some grammatical issues in the main body. I can help point them out once the guide is completely finished. Also, since this will be my first attempt and i am HORRIBLE at do-it-yourselves, i can provide a small writeup of my journey into my first tank. I don't even know what the point of size in gallons is!

Also, how do the members take such cool pictures of their tanks? How would one go about setting up their tanks to be more photogenic? maybe a small guide to tank photography?

Garuf · Apr 30, 2012

Yeah, grammatically it's a bit of a mess still, it's trying to get everything out and then tidy it up, it was only ever a working plan to get things moving.
As good a place to start as any!

You're asking the wrong person for tank photography I'm afraid, I think I'm possibly the only person on here who doesn't care much for the subject. :loco:

I'll take it on board and perhaps some other members will contribute, I'll try and get some input, I know of some scapers who scape using a camera so their layouts are only ever viewed in 2d, this to me is taking it too far, aquascaping was always about the 3d and "super nature" in my otherwise pretty dull home but people have different goals.

ShadowMac · Apr 30, 2012

Just a thought, Garuf...

First I like what you have going. I was thinking about the variety of questions presented to a newby and thought a visual aid, flow chart, or algorithm would be extremely helpful. The paragraphs can get wordy and tough to follow, I think. A flow chart to go along with the article could really set the bar and be something no where or no one else has on their site.

For example. First question could be a range of budgets or time/maintenance that then goes to experience level, then CO2 system pressurized, DIY, liquid, or none. all of which lead to other questions based upon the previous answers...finally leading to recommended equipment and plants with design suggestions or a scape example.

A choose your own adventure aquascape... It could accommodate hypothetical builds. Heck sponsors could pay to have their equipment highlighted in the recommended section...of course it would have to be applicable product.

What do you think? I know it might be a lot of work, but I would be willing to help out with it.

Garuf · Apr 30, 2012

It's a thinker, I'd be glad of the help though. Shoot me a pm and we'll swap Emails and sort something out. A flow chart would definitely cut out a lot of the wording.

Garuf · Sep 4, 2012

Dump. 'Gonna try and get this back on track. All input welcome and wanted.

Stickling100 · Sep 5, 2012

I’m over the moon you’ve decided to give this another go, I think the information is brilliant this will be helpful to so many. I’m certain it will be of help to me!

I don’t envy you, it is a difficult task presenting this type of information while keeping it clear and concise. I like ShadowMac’s idea but I think maybe you could make it simpler for yourself by presenting the layout with titles so each section is easily identified and digestible for the reader, this helps if you need to re-read anything later as well. For want of a better phrase an “idiot guide” something that somebody with absolutely no knowledge of the subject could understand, follow and refer back to.

For instance when you hear the words “high-tech” & “low-tech” as a newbie with little understanding of plant requirements, it’s difficult to understand that all this means is light output! Maybe start with a brief overview of the different types of aquascaping like you have done further down, then list the different sections in logical order starting with what “high tech” and “low tech” means. To me the logical next step would be basic plant needs broadly so the reader has a starting point, or a platform of information.

Common Misconception section I feel is a must. Maybe you could include a link or good books of plant species with the scientific names so people can start learning them. I bought a Tropica plant guide which was useful but that’s it really I haven’t been very successful finding good information.

Thanks
Sam

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