Pictures of our "all natural" tank setups...

[parker002]

Kagome inspired me with her awesome pictures, so I decided to take some and post them here.

My daughter and I are just about finished with converting our fish tanks to a completely natural setup. Outside of filtration and heating, we now have no man-made objects in our tanks at all.

We've got natural stones we've collected over time, live plants, and of course our fish. We've also become especially obsessed with Mopani wood.

Some of our plants look pretty unimpressive - we decided early on that buying more than 1 full-grown plant was a waste of money if we could be patient enough to let nature work. For example, I bought a Crypt for $2.99 at the LFS and when I took it out of the pot, it had almost a dozen viable, standalone crowns. So that's why our Java Fern looks pathetic - we paid $2 for a decent-sized specimen that happened to have two individually-viable and easily-separable rhizomes.

It's worth noting that my daughter did all the "design" in the 14G tank. I did the physical work but she determined the placement of the plants, rocks, and wood. I'm really impressed with what she's done, considering she's just 9.

Lemme know what you think!

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My daughter's 14G tank
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A view of the entire tank...	A closer view of the center of the tank...	A Rose Sword covers the entire rear corner of the tank...
A Java Fern and some Java Moss growing on Mopani wood...	A tiny Cryptocoryne, most likely a Green Wendtii but still too small to know for sure...	Some tall stalks of Cabomba...
Oto catfish enjoying the algae on a Dwarf Anubias...	It's not really a moss "ball" anymore...	A Madagascar Lace Aponogeton, just a few days after pruning all but 2 leaves...

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My 55G tank
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The left side of the tank where the full-grown fish are...	A closer view of the centerpiece pieces of Mopani wood...	This Amazon Sword had to be severely pruned but is recovering nicely...
These new Amazon Sword leaves have all started growing in just the last week...	Another view of the Mopani structure...	A Leopard Cory enjoying the shade...
A closer view of the Leopard Cory...	A Dwarf Anubias, covered with algae...	A couple of tufts of Java Moss, growing on the Mopani wood...
A Java Fern growing on the Mopani wood...	Several sprigs of Milfoil behind the largest piece of Mopani wood...	This Bronze Cory has already claimed one of the 6 new caves underneath the Mopani wood...
This Cory also likes the new caves…	It looks like a carrot top but this Water Sprite grows like a weed...	The right-hand side of the tank is currently protecting 3 Indian Glass Fish and several small plants from the hungry mouths of bigger fish...
These tiny Cryptocoryne plants came from a single pot - we bought 1 and got it home to find that there were actually 11 separate plants...	Like the Cryptocoryne, we bought 2 Corkscrew Val plants and turned them into 9...	These small Amazon sprouts were pruned from the larger plant...
These 2 hybrid Aponogetons started as dry bulbs...	This Hornwort was as good as dead 2 weeks ago...	This picture was taken when we bought the first 2 Indian Glass Fish. Unfortunately, 1 of them was nipped and died. We now have 3 of them in the nursery...

[Carl]

Wow, your 9 year old daughter did this all by herself?
Excellent job (on both aquariums)

In particular, the Madagascar Lace is looking really nice (this is a favorite of mine).

Carl

[parker002]

I did alot of the actual planting and placing, simply because her 14G is the same length and width as a 10G but much deeper so her arms aren't long enough.

However, she made 100% of the decisions on where to put things. She figured out how to fit the two pieces of wood together using the rocks so that her Yoyo would have nice places to rest. She even picked out most of her plants as you can probably tell by how different her assortment is from mine.

[parker002]

Did I mention I have a Mopani addiction? I saw these two pieces at the nursery today...

I couldn't resist the urge to buy these quite interesting pieces...	None of my other pieces have a knot like this one...	Some of my Mopani is two-toned and some is really dark. These two are very colorful...

[goldenpuon]

Beautiful pictures! Your daughter did a great job on deciding on the setup. As well, your plants look very healthy and the lighting looks very good.

Thanks for sharing!

[parker002]

My plants look pretty weak right now - we've really chopped them up. The key is patience. They'll recover over time and we'll have 10 times the number of plants that we paid for.

[Carl]

The key is patience. They'll recover over time and we'll have 10 times the number of plants that we paid for.

I agree, I have had plants get to a point where I considered removing them, only to see them bounce back not weeks but months later.

Carl

[babygeige]

Both of your tanks look great! Your daughter did a great job with the layout of hers!

I'm very interested to see how well your Madagascar Lace does over the long haul. I've read that they can be very difficult to keep for more than a year or so. TFH did an article about that topic and in the next issue someone wrote in to say that they were able to keep theirs alive for a long time.

[parker002]

Feb 19, 2011 11:45:17 GMT -5 babygeige said:

Both of your tanks look great! Your daughter did a great job with the layout of hers!

I'm very interested to see how well your Madagascar Lace does over the long haul. I've read that they can be very difficult to keep for more than a year or so. TFH did an article about that topic and in the next issue someone wrote in to say that they were able to keep theirs alive for a long time.

One of the guys here said that alot of the Apongetons, including the Lace, can go through dormant periods after they flower. He said he pinches them off before they bloom and has alot of luck keeping his going for long periods of time.

[parker002]

I hope to get some new pics up soon. We gave up on "planting" the water sprite (it floats so easily and the first time a fish nips at it, it's at the top of the tank in seconds).

With the new cover, the girls decided to each get a killifish and they're adapting well. I like the floating stuff enough that I have decided to try Anacharis again as well.

I also got a couple of Von Rio Tetras.