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TYME CAPSULE
Aquascape
Bringing a piece of nature
into my home
Why fish keeping and aquascape?
Well, it started with a Siamese Fighting fish or betta fish. I became curious about this fish when I discovered that Thailand has promoted Siamese Fighting fish as the national aquatic animal of Thailand. What kind of fish is this? So I started to look into it and little did I know, I had acquired a new hobby that I will enjoy and continue to learn for the rest of my life.
Since the pandemic started in 2020, my parents decided that it’s best for me to sign up for a virtual program. Needless to say, my life changed drastically. Stay in my room all day for classes without physical interaction with friends made me depressed. I needed to find activities that my family and I can enjoy doing together.
Also, in the past 16 years of my life, we would all travel back to Thailand during school break to reconnect with my extended family. For that reason, we could never have pets. No one would take care of them while we are gone.
This year is different, we are not going anywhere. I decided to keep a fish as my first ever pet! And in honor of Thailand, what would be a better choice than a Siamese Fighting fish. My parents gave me a green light.
I started to do some more research by watching a lot of Youtube videos on how to take care of Betta fish. I then realized having fish is not as easy as I thought. I always thought that it’s as simple as buying a fish, getting a bowl, adding water, and done. But that’s not the case at all. There is beautiful science behind keeping happy fish and growing healthy plants. I became extremely intrigued with the relationship between the science and the design aspect of the aquascape and wanted to try creating my first aquascape.
Let me take you through my experience of how I turned my first boring-looking tank into a lush green beautiful tank.
To set up an aquarium where fish and plants are thriving, you need to understand one very important thing and that is how to create a beneficial bacteria colony in your aquarium. The newly set up aquarium will go through a natural process called Nitrogen Cycle.
During this process, the ammonia level will rise from the excess fish food, fish waste, and nutrients leaching from the substrate. Then the beneficial bacteria will consume the ammonia, turn it into Nitrite. Next stage, they will turn Nitrite into Nitrate. At the end of the cycle, the Ammonia and Nitrite should be at 0 parts per million, whereas Nitrate should be at a very low PPM. A high level of Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate will kill fish. Allowing time for the beneficial bacteria to build a colony to convert all these toxins is the key. This process will take about 3-4 weeks.
But since I didn’t want to wait that long, I chose a “Fish in Cycle” method, which means, I just added fish in during the cycle process. However, with this method, I had to do a 50% water change every day for the first week and every other day for the second week. I used a water testing kit to test the water daily. I also picked up fast-growing stem plants called "Pearl Weed" as they helped convert Nitrite to Nitrate as well.
It took me about a month for my tank to cycle. During this time, some plants meted back, but most of them were doing well. Most importantly, the betta was doing really well. I decided to find him a tank mate, so I went back to the pet store and picked up a few new fish and shirimps.
I got 3 Cherry Shrimps ( Neocaridina ) and 6 Neon Tetras. Oh, and one of the shrimp came with lots of eggs in her tummy! After adding the new members to the tank, I monitored them closely for several days hoping that everyone would be fine and healthy.
Unfortunately, after a week, one of the shrimp died. On top of that, the Betta kept chasing the Neon Tetras nonstop. The next morning, I found one Tetra laying on the floor. It was a sad day. I thought I had created a stressful environment for them. I have learned my lesson the hard way.
I then decided to remove the Betta from this tank. I set up a new tank for him. After all, Betta fish is an aggressive fish. This tank is a 3-gallon cube. By this time, I have watched many famous aqua scapers set up tanks from Youtube and I wanted to apply some of that knowledge to my tank. I prepared 6 different types of plants and 4 pieces of Dragon stones. This is what it looks like after a couple of months.
Meanwhile, the shrimp and the fish in the other tank have been doing really well now that the Betta was out. They seemed much more active and happier. The shrimps even started to breed and produced a lot of babies.
Regular maintaining of the tank is what I enjoy. I like getting my hands wet. It's soothing to relocate the hardscape and trimming the plants. The aquarium is like a living nature art piece in my house.
I am going back to my boarding school this fall 2021. This will be one of the things I miss the most. I am worried about them, but I know that I can count on my family. For sure, they will be taking great care of our pets.
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