Classical Nature (272 Litre)
by Jan Marsal
I made this aquarium for my friend who asked me
to make “winter hotel” for the huge amount of fish
living outside in his garden pond during summer. It
is mixture of all kinds livebearers (Gupies, Platies,
Red swordtails, Black Molly, etc. ) and therefore
we had to approach this task accordingly
As a base for our project we used JUWEL RIO 350
Aquarium set. This type of set contain an
aquarium with a built in filter and light. The lights
and filtration are quite simple but as you can see,
when you choose right plants, substrate and add
pressurised CO2 you can achieve nice healthy
growth.
As substrate I used Tropica aquarium soil and
small amount of decorative sand used in the
foreground. The and is a mixture of Dennerle
Crystal Quartz sand and different variations of the
sand from hobby market. Stones were taken from
a nearby mine which saved us significant amount
of money. In local hobby market we also
purchased 3 bold mangrove roots, which are fill
the space in aquarium nicely. Don't be afraid to go
big with hardscape, it gives nice character to
overall picture
If you have so many livebearers
with fast rate of reproducing you should reflect it in
your plant selection and fertilser regime. This is
why I selected easy and fast growing plants, all
this fast plant growth is helping with filtration in this
heavily stocked tank. It turned out to be right
solution and even with the basic build in filter we
don’t have issue to keep the aquarium clean and
healthy. Down side of using fast growing plants is
that they must be cut more often. On the other
hand cuttings can be planted back to aquarium
and help with filtration
Regular water changes and
glass cleaning are must have, but that
maintenance routine applies for all aquariums. In a
temporary winter storage for pond fish like this,
which will be taken down at the end of the winter it
is not necessary to fertilse the plants as they will
receive nitrates as a biproduct of the fish and fish
food waste.
Said Jan Marsal
Download list of plants used in this layout: Download pdf