Tropical Fish Hobbyist - October 2010

Planting short aquatic plants in the front and tall ones in the back of an aquarium is one of the basic rules for creating an aquatic plant layout—clearly, doing it backward would create obvious difficulties in viewing the layout, with the tall plants in front blocking the view. This is especially significant in the Nature Aquarium, in which a layout is composed primarily of three distinct areas from the front to the back of the aquarium: foreground, midground, and background. Naturally, the foreground is planted with short aquatic plants, the background with tall aquatic plants, and the midground with those that are in-between in height. Doing so not only makes viewing easier, but also enables the expression of perspective.

The Typical Foreground

The foreground is typically planted with short aquatic plants, such as Glossostigma and Cuba pearl grass. There is a method to build the substrate in order to grow these plants

more attractively. With this method, a substrate that is prepared with a volcanic stone-based substrate material and a granulated, nutritive soil substrate material is finished by applying a thin layer of powder-type nutritive soil. The substrate is prepared in this manner because the short aquatic plants in the foreground have fine roots, and they tend to develop a better root system in a powder-type soil than in a granulated soil with larger particle sizes. Another purpose of this method is to create an attractive foreground with the powder-type soil with its fine, uniform grains, since the foreground substrate remains visible even after the plants grow and fill the area.

A Foreground Variation

Another way to create a striking foreground is by not planting aquatic plants in the front area at all. Just as nutritive gravels and soils are used as a substrate where aquatic plants are grown, cosmetic sand is used in places where the substrate is purposefully left exposed with no aquatic plants growing from it. New

cosmetic sand types that come in a variety of textures and colors are now available, and these are naturally occurring sands that have no properties for promoting plant growth. As a matter of fact, the purpose of using cosmetic sand is to produce a foreground that can be maintained easily over a long period of time by taking advantage of its inability to sustain plants.

The foreground of a layout appears less overpowering and more balanced when it is maintained as thinly as possible. However, when the substrate is prepared with a combination of volcanic stone-based and nutritive soil-based substrate materials and planted, the Glossostigma and other foreground plants grow quickly, and without frequent trimming the foreground will become too thick. When cosmetic sand is used in the foreground, frequent trimming or replanting of foreground plants is no longer part of the equation. Once the foreground is prepared with a thin layer of sand, it can be maintained as-is. Considering the very small amount of care it takes to maintain, cosmetic sand is a good choice for the foreground of an aquascape that is intended to be maintained for a long time.

Separating the Substrates

When using cosmetic sand in the foreground, the substrate must be prepared by separating the foreground clearly from the midground and background section where aquatic plants are to be grown (where the nutritive stone-based and soil-based substrate materials are laid). Cardboard is typically used to accomplish this task.

Strips of cardboard, which are cut to match the lengths of boundary lines ahead of time, are placed along the predetermined boundary

Using cosmetic sand in the foreground enables the expression of perspective, making the layout appear as though it is extending far into the back of an aquarium.

DATA Aquarium: Cube Garden W120 x D45 x H60 cm Lighting: Solar I (NAG-150W-Green) x 2 units, turned on for 10 hours per day

Filter: Super Jet Filter ES-1200 (Bio Rio L, NA Carbon)

Substrate: Aqua Soil Amazonia, Bright Sand, Power Sand L, Bacter 100, Clear Super, Tourmaline BC, Penac W/for Aquarium, Penac P

CO2: Pollen Glass Beetle 50, 3 bubbles per second via CO2 Beetle Counter (using Tower)

Aeration: For 14 hours after the light is turned off using Lily Pipe P- 4

Additives: Brighty K, Green Brighty STEP2

Water Change: 1/3 once a week

Water Quality: Temperature 25ºC (77ºF), pH 7.0, TH 20 mg/l

Aquatic Plants: Eleocharis acicularis, Echinodorus tenellus, Glossostigma elatinoides

Fish/Invertebrates: Hemigrammus ulreyi, Otocinclus sp., Caridina japonica

[Note: The hardware itemized above represents the author’s specific choices; equivalent results may be obtained with other equipment and accessories—Eds.]