Back 2 Basics - Blackwater Edition

[fr499y]

The time has come! Its time for a dark, dimly lit aquascape.
The plan is to keep minimal amount of plants ( Water lettuce, my tiger lotus and maybe a crypt or two ) and fill it with litter, twigs, pods and other botanicals that I can find.

It's going to be a strange one, mainly because I'm keeping the gravel and not changing it to sand, but I'm hoping with it being rather fine gravel that it looks ok!

So far we have the wood on order:-


I just need to figure out the lighting. I'm thinking of using my E27 pendant and creating a 'bracket' out of some 10mm round wood i have floating around.
This should give me the flexibility to choose the colour temp and style of light bulb i want to use to create the dim look I'm after.

[Andys temperate tank]

Not half going the other way here Fr4ggy. It will end up just as good.

Will you not miss all the colour?

[BigBen]

Love a black water tank! What fish are you planning?

[fr499y]

Not half going the other way here Fr4ggy. It will end up just as good.

Will you not miss all the colour?

Still got the nano which the co2 will go into. Thats full of java fern trident at the moment though so will need so planning. Plenty of green in that one with a hint of red. I will put the other plants in there as well so they will grow out the top and flower

Love a black water tank! What fish are you planning?

Sticking with the current stock of neons, endlers and the harlequins.

[mantis]

Looking forward to seeing another TOTM winner in the making

[Ricrhys]

Looking forward to this.

[fr499y]

I thought I’d test a few light ideas out and post the looks.

First up is using a single 3w Cree XPE LED



I would use 2 or 3 in total if going this route.

Will try another setup tonight and see what it looks like.

[Andys temperate tank]

That looks cools fr4ggy lad.

[Ricrhys]

Also love the shimmer effect.

[fr499y]

Yeah, the shimmer effect is what I really want. As the tank has front and back brace bars, its proving a little difficult to find a suitable light that gives off the shimmer effect. It needs to be a 'high powered' single chip or cluster of LED's in a tight array ( Matrix Array ) *Sigh* I'm slightly put off using a E27 bulb, purely for the fact its 240v inches above water..