# With this shape, can my fish tank be awesome? Newbie here!



## Potato (Apr 30, 2011)

*With this odd shape, can my aquarium work? Newbie here, need advice!*

Hi, I need some help with setting up a nice planted tank!
But since this is my first post i'll just give a general background just so you know a little more about me. This probably isn't the right place but oh well it might help.

I'm an asian kid @ 16yrs, i'm well read in the sciences and humanities, but I have no practical experience working with a biological system like the tank i'm currently attempting.

So anyway, one day my mother saw this beautiful picture of a planted tank and well i could tell she really loved it so eh, i like it too, why not give it a shot?
Well we had a tank from long ago stowed away empty in the store room so I decided to use it instead of buying a new one (damn they're expensive.)

Problem: Its base is a square and its ----ing taller than its wide. Seriously?
Filled the bottom up with some sand and pebbles that came with it. 0.5" pebbles and 1.5" 2-3mm sand, filled it up with tap water that was left to stand. Pretty sure there aren't chloramines in my tap water (I'm from singapore). Told my dad to do a fishless cycle (i live in a hostel and can only come back on weekends), and after a week and a half it cycled (i introduced silt from my school's eco-pond into my filter medium (coral), the pond was self sustaining so i figured the bacterium there would help).

the tank contains, in order of addition:

Hydrilla, a buncha guppies.
Water wisteria, unIDed plant but looks common, 2x armano shrimp.

I have no test kits and no CO2 system, the light is some recycled fluorescent bbs5000K light.

My wisteria isn't doing well - it looks nutrient deficient. Same for my hydrilla and the other plant. I know my lighting isn't good enough because the unknown plant lost its red colouration. But the problem is, just this week there was a massive fish death. 1/3 of my fish died. The shrimps survived. I brought some water to the school lab to test for ammonia but it turned out negative at 0ppm. What could be wrong? Fortnightly water change at approx 10% each time

I'd say i would be going for a Low-tech self-sustaining i-wanna-see-nature aquarium...
*but since i live in a hostel in school i have limited access to the tank, and only my.. somewhat silly(but nice) parents are the only ones who can care for it for most of the week.. i desperately need advice on what i'm doing wrong!*

i can use a layer of soil below some of that sand if you guys think that there's really insufficient nutrients. I'm worrying about that algae too, i'm leaving it there to see how aggressively it grows.
I intend to plant the tank more heavily (shorter plants tho, so it doesn't self-shade to much), any advice?

pictures, half week:
tank in general:








tank in general:








shrimp:








an odd snail that came from idk where (probably a hitchhiker. idm, adds variety! i think its a ramshorn.)









oh god, long post. *TLDR: New fish tank, total noob.*


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## Potato (Apr 30, 2011)

bumpity, anyone has any advice? at all? :l


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## Error (Apr 16, 2004)

Hi Potato, welcome to APC.

In a tank that deep I would be worried most about light.

Most plants prefer soft water.

Your substrate is just plain gravel, right? Might want to reconsider that if you're not going to use CO2.

That said, your Wisteria looks good and should be OK. Keep us posted and we will help you. Look in the 'El Natural' forum here on APC for low-tech advice.


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

Ditto on El Natural. Since you can't be there to mess with the tank except on weekends, that would be a great option for you. You can use the same substrate you have, just put a layer of soil underneath it. Plant heavily and keep some floating plants as well (Salvinia, Riccia, duckweed, whatever).

By the way, you hitch hiker snail looks like a ramshorn. You'll probably start to see many of them, but don't worry...they won't kill your plants. They only eat algae and dead portions of plants and any bits of leftover fish food.


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## Skizhx (Oct 12, 2010)

The coral you're using in your filter will raise your pH and hardness.

It might be a good idea to test your pH just to see where it's at.

I also suggest looking at the El Natural forums, as others have, and think that would be an ideal method for you to look into.

If you need more light you could place the tank somewhere where it will get a bit of extra light from a window.

Since you ask about whether or not you can make the tank look good... Absolutely. The tank looks quite nice now as it is. Though if you're looking for advice in the scape, I would maybe add some more of the wisteria, or some hygrophila polysperma behind the center rock in the back. Maybe move the rock forward a bit if you have to. Work with what you've done already though, cause it's looking good.


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