New Mini Microtope

[bitteraspects]

The holding area is roughly a 2.5-3"cube
Ada aquasoil (amazonia II) mixed with a little eco-complete
a sprinkle of natural gravel for color
A few tiny pieces of slate
driftwood branches
And a couple of java ferns

Now sitting on my desk at work, getting Lots of sunshine. Depending how it goes, I might be adding more plants shortly. I need to do some trimming in my other tanks, so I should get some small plants out of it. Lol.

 

[Bufo Bill]

That's really nice. I have one of these myself, it's a UK biotope, with some small Gammarus species or Crangonyx species amphipods. the plants are Eleocharis acicularis Callitriche species from the C.hamulata group, and some willow moss varieties, the mosses and the Callitriche sp. are from a friends pool in wales. The Amphipods are from my pool at home. It has been running for three months now. Below is an early photo. Not as nice as the example above, but I would appreciate your comments.

Hope it's okay to butt into your thread, if not PM me and I'll remove it.

All the best from Bill.

 

[bitteraspects]

How big is it?

 

[Bufo Bill]

How big is it?

Not as small as your one; 3inches x 3 inches x 4 inches tall. It's about five inches in all because of the thick glass bottom. It was a vase, but the square shape said aquarium to me.

All the best from Bill.

 

[Littlemonkey]

I do love the look of that, could I do something like that in an very tall open top glass vase?

 

[bitteraspects]

You could do it in just about any container. In a tall vase you would just need some really long planting tongs (tweezers), but it could work.
Hopefully today I can make it down to the Aquaacaping store and see what they have for me.

 

[Bufo Bill]

Hi again. Littlemonkey: you can use any glass or plastic container, but a tall glass vase would be great. Make use of the height, so tall plants like vallis or maybe a stem plant like cabomba or bacopa, and maybe a smallish crypt down the front.

bitteraspects: I have had lots of success with Cryptocoryne parva and HC, both of which I had in the vase in the picture above in the previous life of this "aquarium".

All the best from Bill.

 

[bitteraspects]

Yeah, I'm trying to stay away from crypts. Sometimes they have a good section of mosses and stuff, so we'll see in about 20 minutes or so.

 

[llamalord305]

You have a dedicated aquascaping store? Lucky!

Do you always have the top on you first pic? Wouldn't it get quite hot with the greenhouse effect and whatnot?

 

[bitteraspects]

yeah, we have a few good LFS out here. one is centered around aquascaping (aptly named "aquascapes". lol). they do carry equipment and livestock as well, but they specialize in plants, substrates and equipment for planted tanks. they carry a pretty good selection of DW and scaping rocks too. i went yesterday after work and picked up some things for my other planted tank that im working on,
but i have to go back again on monday for the rest of my stuff. the shipment hadn't come in yet. i may just pick up a few obsidian rocks while im there.

i leave the cover off during the day, and put it back on when i leave my shop. it sits in a shaded area, so even with the lid on, i dont think it would get too hot. this is my first saturday away from my shop in a while, so i guess ill find out for sure on monday.

 

[bitteraspects]

*** 12/14 update ***

removed some of the java fern starters.
added a couple of stem plants
added some java moss

 

[Bufo Bill]

Very nice, very well photographed too. Did you collect the wood yourself, or was it part of a larger piece that you cut up? Do you know what type it is? I could do with some similar pieces for mine, but I haven't had chance to get out and find any just lately.

All the best from Bill.

 

[bitteraspects]

The driftwood are Manzanita branches. I picked up a whole bunch of smaller branches from the local aquascaping shop a little while back. They were originally for a 1g pocotope project, but even after scaping that tank, I had a bunch left over.
Manzanita is a pretty common DW in the aquascaping trade, so I wouldn't imagine it would be too hard to find. Though I have never personally seen the smaller branches sold in most places.
You should be able to find them online if nothing else.

 

[bitteraspects]

*** 12/18 ***

 

[bitteraspects]

got a few of these to add to the tank when i get back to my shop on monday