What is a landscape while building an Aquarium? A landscape stands for the bottom of your aquarium which is always decorated with
Sands (Can be both white or Black sand)
Gravel
Rocks
Which is also known as the substrate of your aquarium! The beauty of your dream aquarium doesn’t only depends upon the size of the fish tank or the fish you are keeping. There is another two or three factors here which also falls upon increasing the beauty of your aquarium! I will today describe one of them which is landscape of your tank. A lot is depended upon the landscape of your aquarium !
So you should know how to build it properly my friend!
Many people will talk about how to build an aquarium landscape beautifully but I believe from my personal experience that not many people will describe it in an affordable way! So here I stand! I will help you to build an affordable landscape for your dream tank. Firstly you have to decide are you going to build a live plant oriented tank or only a landscape build with rocks and artificial tanks?
Here is a suggestion from myself !
If you are willing to keep territorial fishes like the Oscars or Flowerhorns , I will suggest you not to build a heavily Planted oriented tank cause these type of territorial fish will destroy your plants.
If you are also willing to pet a Turtle (Which stays inside water only) or a Tortoise( Stays both under water but maximum time on the land) I will never recommend to have a planted tank. I once bought some live plants for my aquarium which had turtles, Trust me maybe the plants didn’t even lasted for 1 hour! They just ripped of the plants like nothing!
For them I will suggest you a landscape with rocks and gravels or may be some Artificial Plants. These type aquarium doesn’t requires UV light or heavy maintenance as they Only have fish inside which needs maintenance! And some cleaning of the Algae!
Usually you can use some suggested rocks for your non planted tank
1. Knife stone which starts for a KG at 5.66$
2. Green jade stone starts for a KG at 7.55$
I believe that you will get these in a little bit lesser rate when you will visit your nearest aquarium store!
Okay the rocks are done! Let’s talk about the Substrate! For this build I will suggest you white sand as black color stones will go good in contrast with the white sands!
A pack of white sand will cost you around 4.5kg bags for 16$. You don’t have to buy the bestest of the best sand at the starting. Okay Rock and sand is done. After that I want you to get a tank which has a dark background. And if possible try to get a 50 gallon tank which will cost you around 200 to 500 dollars. The bigger your tank is the bigger the possibilities are of decorating the tank. Besides the more the space the more your fish will grow.
As we are building a non planted monster tank aquarium , The basic is done.
Now you can add your fish but After using the sands keep the aquarium like that for 7 days before adding Fishes to your aquarium.
Okay the about non-planted aquarium is done.
Now let us talk about the planted tank which I am most curious about the planted tanks are very useful for your fish as the waste produced by the fish is useful for the plants and the plants help in maintaining the PH level of your tank. So let’s build a tank which will be planted and will be affordable for anyone!
For building this tank as I am not taking any Monster fish here, I will go for a smaller tank, Nearly 20–30 Gallons tank.
So let us get started
1. We need a 20-30 Gallons tank which will cost us near 200 to 300 dollars.
2. For substrate and as we are building a Planted tank, we will take a black sand as substrate. You will get it at 17 dollar with 4.5KG bags
3. We will be needing a UV light as plants needs light for surviving and growing properly. It will be 23 to 50 dollar range.
4. And Finally let’s talk about the aquarium live plants. There are various options. Let me suggest you some plants.
*You can get Rotala Wallichii plants in 3 or 4 in quantity.
* Second Suggestions will be Cabomba Caroliniana. My favorites these are!
* Cryptocoryne Balansae will be a better option
I believe this 3 plants will be the the better option.
Planted aquariums naturally looks beautiful as they are natural in every perspective.
Okay, Tank checked, Substrate checked, Plants checked, UV light checked. Filtration system is a must, you can buy a filter from your nearest shop! And lastly what we need is Fish. For this 20 gallon tank we will be requiring small fishes which will at adult stage will be not more than 2 inch at maximum.
As we have a black background for our aquarium, Black base as black sand, Green Plants, But Rotala Wallichii has some reddish vibe to it, I would want some colorful options. How about Neon Tetra’s? They will be around two dollars per pair or so on! They will enhance the beauty of your aquarium at the maxium level!
At the end, If we summarize our total then the total would be less then 500 dollar in total! Every thing is covered up in this budget my friend!