#AquariumUpdate Setting up a new tank. Walstad natural planted tank method, with a substrate of garden topsoil covered by sand. In this case I’m trying a hardwater variation, using aragonite instead of sand. Vallisneria & hornwort in there for now. Going for a vallisneria jungle. 
No heater so far (!). May try a room temp native fish tank with sheepshead minnows and mollies (!). We’ll see!
This is basically like my cooking photo threads, but it’ll take months instead of minutes and you can’t eat the final product. ;-)
Incidentally, I dreamed last night that I had some giant tanks that broke or leaked and I was desperately trying to save the fish and shrimp. Sounds like a nightmare, but it ended with me finding a GORGEOUS blueish/purplish crayfish with red edges. Amazing.
And YES I clearly see that my renewed obsession with aquariums during the pandemic is pretty obviously related to the comfort of a scenario in which science & reason & art & care can all contribute towards creating a beautiful environment where living things can thrive.
A SMALL CONTROLLED BEAUTIFUL ENVIRONMENT WHERE THINGS MAKE SENSE WEIRD HOW THAT WOULD BE COMFORTING THESE DAYS HUH
Incidentally, if you keep aquariums, I would LOVE to see them. Use the #AquariumUpdate hashtag and let’s share, y’all.
#AquariumUpdate Got some more aragonite, this time in a slightly finer sand. Filled in the thinly covered areas so the garden soil substrate is more completely covered. Water's still a bit cloudy; probably will take at least a couple of days to clear.
Haven't introduced any animals purposefully yet, but there are a pretty good number of pond snails and small ramshorn snails that hitchhiked on the plants and driftwood. And I saw one scud (freshwater amphipod - a tiny crustacean) zipping around.
Still haven't decided what kind of fish or invertebrates are going in this tank. I'm setting it up for hard water fish, so maybe sheepshead minnows? Maybe mollies or some other livebearer? Maybe some orange Mexican dwarf crayfish? They'd look amazing against the light substrate.
Maaaybe I could just use it as a molly grow-out tank. Fill it with interesting hybrid molly fry that come out of my big 75G molly tank...
A kinda nice thing is that there's no rush! The tank'll take a while to settle into a healthy nitrogen cycle. Nice slow-mo hobby here. Like gardening. Plenty of time to wait and think and observe and ponder and decide as things develop.
Okay, and just because, here's the current state of the 75G molly tank.
#AquariumUpdate The water on the new tank continues to clear. Not there yet, but a bit further along than I expected by now. So far, so good!
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