# Wall Mats



## neonfish3 (Feb 12, 2004)

In Nature Aquarium world book 2, Amano mentions using wall mats in the small tanks.
What does this mean?


----------



## James.......... (Feb 8, 2004)

neonfish3 said:


> In Nature Aquarium world book 2, Amano mentions using wall mats in the small tanks.
> What does this mean?


In many small tanks, Amano makes use of every available inch of space. A "wall mat" is merely a device intended to increase the area available for planting. You can use coir matting, cut to size and glued in place (in a dry tank, before you set it up). Coir matting is available in a variety of thicknesses from dealers in reptile supplies. You could also use cork bark, treated in the same fashion. The beauty with either of these materials is that they won't hurt the water quality (cork may leach some tannins at first) nor the fish and you can easily attach plants like Java Fern, Anubias, or any of the many species of Moss now availavle using pins or stapels (the metal will rust away shortly, leaving the plant firmly attached to the background - a small amount of rush will do no harm).

Amano also uses matting as a substrate in many very small tanks, in place of a real substrate.

Hope that this clears up your confusion.

James Purchase
Toronto


----------



## John P. (Nov 24, 2004)

Suction cups & clips meant for feeding herbivores are great for growing mosses on aquarium walls, too, FWIW.


----------



## neonfish3 (Feb 12, 2004)

James.......... said:


> A "wall mat" is merely a device intended to increase the area available for planting.
> 
> Amano also uses matting as a substrate in many very small tanks, in place of a real substrate.
> 
> ...


Thank you, yes it does clear up some of my confusion.

{Quote Amano, NAW book 2 p.14} "Because there is no sand on the bottom of the tank, the long stems of aquatic plants are *entwined *around wall mats and give a living quality to the tank" {end quote}

I would love to see how this is done. Guess I'll have to try to find the mat your talking about and try it myself.


----------



## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

You can try a few different methods for this, Cork is one, lava Rock, any rock for that matter, driftwood, anything that you can attach a plant too or that will entangle roots. 

Cork is nice as it can be cut to size and glued to the bottom or sides of a tank or weighted with a piece of flat slate and either grown out in a larger tank ansd transferred or grown in the tank itself.

I'd warn you with tanks less than 2 gal, they need tended to often due to evaporation, much like very small bonsai(Mame). Stable CO2 is also an issue, I go non CO2 or perhaps Excel for Carbon enrichment.

The cork can be layered and built up to make a variety of shapes also to suit the scape.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


----------

