The war has begun: Army of bladder snails invade my nature aquarium!

I remember typing my first blog post and saying something along the lines of ‘I’ll make a load of mistakes but if you don’t try, you don’t succeed’, or some kind of mumbo-jumbo to that effect.

How I wish I had heeded my own words, as a small army of snails have snuck into my tank and multiplied in their droves.  Hundreds of bladder snails, small enough to escape the human field of vision until they all miraculously appear in their tens of dozens all in one viewing.  A lot of tanks have snails, and it is true that they are helpful algae grazers and mini cleaners.  But, the problem most aquarists find with snails, is the absolute boat-load of near-invisible eggs they lay in their trail.

BRIEF UPDATE: The tank is successfully braced and this wild journey continues

I’m pleased to type this with my tank still very much intact.
The brace was a complete success.

As previously posted, I thought I had conquered the worst of this nature aquarium experiment until I realised my fish tank – which I had purchased for £30 from someone’s workshop – was bowing out at each side under the weight of the 115l of water it was holding.  Again, online searching for answers did nothing to quell my worry, as several posters replying to people’s same problems offered two pieces of advice – fix it or leave it.

Fantasy vs reality: The nature aquarium – and several disasters – emerge

It has been more than a month since I last posted anything about my nature aquarium project.  So here is an update as to where I have got.

I had planned to do a post explaining my plant choice and layout but thought it would be better to plant it quietly, leave it a month to mature, and show you the results so far.

The tank design is born! (+ dry start method with dwarf hairgrass)

It had come to the point where my procrastinating would result in my tank never being created.  I would have doodled a million designs, each with their highlights and flaws, and Googled a million questions to try and create the perfect scape.

Eventually, I looked at what was in front of me and envisaged my design on paper, as shown in my previous post.  The copy in physical form was, in my opinion, a pretty good one.  My tank is quite narrow, which proved difficult when originally placing my very wide pieces of bogwood, which had sharp spears sticking out at every angle – almost like wooden ferrofluid.  I decided to give myself a bit more freedom in scaping my nature aquarium, so hacked at the wood with a saw until two pieces because five pieces.

The concept: What will my £30 nature aquarium finally look like?

Ryuboku is my favourite form of aquascaping.  From what I have gathered, it’s basically a practice where the scaper pays homage to the wood they are using in their design by using it as the primary hardscape.  I am a firm lover of wood, I much prefer it in fish tanks.  I have seen a lot of aquascapers neglect the use of wood, preferring to dominate their scapes with expensive dragon stone or seriyu stone, adorned with the fickle carpeting plant micranthemum ‘Monte Carlo’.