Andrew's Dry Start Experience

"Please find attached some shoots of my aquarium I said I would send. It shows the planning stage, dry start stage and submerged stage.

There isn’t much information for fertilizing in the dry start. I think that there was a shortage of potassium at that stage. I cut the yellow leaves off the pigmy anubias prior to submerging. All the leaves grew back with a solid healthy green colour.

The dry start helps build up bacteria and gives good root attachment to the gravel for the dwarf baby tears. This plant is normally difficult to plant. You also get more bang for your buck. I started out with 10 pots of plants but grew them to much greater extent prior to submerging. I had to experiment a little with the plant with fertilizers and water depth in the soil. The water wants to come just to the surface of the gravel and no more or less. Plants higher on the gravel didn’t grow that well.

The photos are a little old and the mat of baby tears is now thicker. There was some long hair algae but that is starting to come under control.

The light green stones (the light green colour is sometimes caused by a copper content) are Haida Gwaii river rock that I did multiple tests on for carbonate and copper content. The stones haven’t affected hardness/PH in over four months of use. There are lots of cherry shrimps (sensitive to copper) that multiply quickly and are doing well. The Christmas moss and dwarf baby tears provide lots of cover for the shrimp.

I wasn’t concerned with the green of the rock clashing with the black eco gravel. I knew the green mat was going to cover the gravel anyways. The black gravel matches the black edge of the aquarium. A different colour of gravel would cause another line of colour (between the black plastic edge of the aquarium and green mat of vegetation) which would have been a more obvious visual distraction".

Fauna: Furcata, Glass Cats, Siamese fighting fish, Cherry Shrimp, Gobies (more to come)

Flora: Christmas moss, Repens, Ludwiga Aquatica (I think), dwarf baby tears, riccia, anubias etc.

GH/KH/PH:  4/4/6.9
50% wc each week

Kendall's Fluval Edge 6 Gallon Aquarium.

"Here are a few photos of my Fluval Edge that I promised to send to you. The lighting store is GBL Lighting. I converted the stock lighting to MR16 LED (a little bit of know-how required). The silver bars have LED strips in them. I painted them to blend in. I didn't want to ruin the aesthetic of the Edge. I'm trying to learn how to achieve a good carpet, so I haven't trimed the Hairgrass yet. I hope you like it," Kendall

How would you like to have a personal assistant that never talks back, is always happy to see you each morning, entertains you, works diligently on his computer, and is extremely handsome? This is Jake the Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta splendens) who has his own desk, laptop and research books (thanks to Barbie). He has been working side by side with his boss Karina for a year at the Vancouver Foundation in Vancouver, B.C.

He just recently had his office redecorated with some fabulous plants.

Crinum calamistratum flowering.

The crinkly, spidery looking plant is Crinum calamistratum which does really well in low light, grows slowly (so it won't crowd Jake out of his office) and provides a sort of hammock where Jake can hang out during his breaks. When the leaves end up too long they can simply be cut from the top. Under the proper conditions when the plant is well established, is given some direct light and aquatic plant fertilizer, it can actually flower! The flower will appear on a shoot above the water and only blooms for a day, so have your camera ready. The other plant is Dracaena sanderiana (commonly known as Lucky Bamboo) which loves to grow in the water where it's roots help provide filtration and oxygen and will continue to grow out of the water to provide shade and privacy for Jake. Lucky bamboo is native to Cameroon in West Africa and is a popular Feng Shui plant and although the name implies that it is a bamboo, it actually is in no way a member of the true bamboo family.

Hey Jake, thank your boss for sending me your picture. I want an assistant like you!