300L tank build – Wonder In Nature

When building am aquascape, the best place to start is with the hardscape. Hardscape includes all your rocks, driftwood and any ornaments you want to include in your tank. I like to set everything up in the empty tank and look at it for a few days. I tweak things and move them around as I see things I’m not 100% happy with it.

For this tank build, I was using some new items and some items from my 150L community tank that I was moving into this 300L tank. This makes it a little more challenging because I couldn’t put everything into the tank at once, I had to put in the piece I had and then imagine the rest.

I have used some big driftwood in this build. Many people are advised to boil driftwood, but this actually breaks down the wood, making it soft and reducing its life span. When I get a new piece of driftwood, I put it in a large tub or bucket, pour bicarb over the wood and then cover with water. Over the next two weeks, I change the water every two to three days, adding fresh bicarb and fresh water. When the water is nearly clear, I will add the driftwood to a cycling tank as the tannins are actually very good for the ecosystem the tank is creating.

For this tank, I have chosen a number of tunnels and hides to incorporate into the hardscape as I will be adding a number of bottom dwellers who like to hide.

Once I was happy with the driftwood, I added my substrate. When I chose substrate, again, I knew which fish you plan on adding and their preferences. For this community tank, I add a combination of a few different textures.  I like small pebbles that can be easily moved by Corydoras when digging and by my Bolivian rams when nest building.

I mixed in Fluval stratum as its is fantastic for plants, but is very light, meaning the plants can be easily uprooted by the digging. Mixing these two together keeps plants in place, but still gives them good nutrients. I add bigger pebbles for the khuli loaches as they like to hide from on thing to the next, but can easily move the stones.

When the tank has its hardscape and substrate, I added water and started the cycling process. Contrary to some information given out, it is not possible to have your tank ready for fish overnight or even after a week. It is possible to speed up the process by adding media from another tank, but you do still need to fully complete the nitrogen cycle before you can safely add fish to the tank. *Next weeks blog will be about cycling a tank, look out for that one if you’re not sure what I am talking about here.

Once the cycling process is complete I add plants and then fish a few at a time from the day after plants are in. Adding fish to the tanks capacity right from the start can crash your cycle. I add the peaceful fish first, nothing that is remotely territorial. This means that as you add more fish, the existing fish won’t feel its there territory you’re adding too.

As you can see from this shot, I added a little more driftwood and hardscape. I wanted to put my emerging plants into this tank to create height and depth. This tank isn’t complete as I feel the plants are too low at the top and I want a few more plants in the back.

Having ADHD, I can sometimes become overwhelmed and over stimulated, but I have found that maintaining tanks can be cathartic. When everything is overwhelming and the world is moving too fast, I stop and check my aquarium plants. All my tanks are a work in progress for this reason. Never quite right, never totally finished.