My aquarium

October 28, 2019

I'll tell you what's inside in my aquarium.

First, my substrate - aquasoil.

Aquasoil is a substance designed to best imitate the natural substrate of which many river systems and lakes. This substrate has the ability to soften the water of the aquarium using particles in the substrate itself.

Here are the pros and cons of using aquasoil as your substrate in your aquarium:

PROs

1. Simple to use.
2. Great for growing deep rooted plants and carpet plants.
3. Relatively good value for money.
4. Those that use it swear by it.

CONs

1. When initially used it results in a massive ammonia spike, great for establishing nutrients but not so good as adding to an established tank.
2. Not always readily available.
3. Needs a good amount of time to settle as it can make your aquarium quite cloudy.

Second, my carpet plants - aquaseed.

After my professor suggested that I should change my set up, I thought of planting some carpet plants. We went from aquatic store to another until I found a "low tech" carpet plant seeds. "Low tech" means it doesn't need to have a CO2 for it to grow. I planted my carpet plants and waited for them to grow for a month. I am not really sure of the name of the exact plant but the seller told me it's called aquaseed. On my previous posts, I shared there about how I grew them.

My final set-up is composed of driftwood with javamoss, rocks, aquasoil, and carpet plants.

My driftwood was surrounded by java moss. I put the java moss on my driftwood for aesthetic purposes. Hehe.

Java moss is one of the easiest to grow, and hardy, aquarium plants around. Due to its low requirements regarding water quality and lighting, it is perhaps the most common moss among freshwater aquarists and is widely available both in shops and online. It is commonly used for aquascaping and can produce beautiful results. It also has many other benefits such as providing protection for eggs and fry, improving tank health, and providing food for breeding fish.