# Planted Tanks > Aquascaping >  32 Litre "Bucephalandra Garden" Tank

## Urban Aquaria

This started as a side project to consolidate some of the bucephalandra variants that i've been collecting. It gradually evolved into an opportunity to try my hand at aquascaping a simple layout based on these types of plants.



I noticed that many of the bucephalandra tank photos online tend to be rather dark and shadowy (perhaps its the type of lighting or camera effects used?), so i figured it might be a nice change to showcase a bucephalandra tank that has a brighter tone instead.

Initially i wanted to leave the sand area in front open with plans to keep a group of dwarf corydoras fishes... but i'll probably end up just filling up the space with more plants as i collect them. 

Currently there are around 15+ varieties of bucephalandra in this tank. All their individual rhizomes are tied to small pebbles which are then partially buried under the sand and hidden, so it looks as if the plants are just sitting on top of the sand. This method also allows for easy shifting and relocation too.

I guess the top-down view could be reminiscent of what the plants may look like submersed along the edges of a jungle stream...



Its a low-tech setup, based on a 2ft low-profile crystal glass tank (L60cm x D30cm x H18cm) illuminated with just an old generation Up Aqua Z-Series Pro LED light set and filtered by an Eheim Ecco Pro 130 unit. I dose Tropica Specialized fertilizer weekly to maintain a steady nutrient supply.

Cherry shrimps, horned nerite snails and zebra otocinclus help to keep algae in check.



One of my favorite variants, Bucephalandra sp. "Elegant Blue".



Another interesting addition, Bucephalandra sp. "Mini Skeleton King".

Looking forward to collecting and adding more plants soon!  :Very Happy:

----------


## Ryan Peh

Yet again another amazing scape... *in awe*

----------


## jackychun

Oh man! The "Elegant Blue" looks awesome!!!  :Shocked:  It looks more like a shade of purple, too.

----------


## aquaticlover

Really awesome!!

----------


## Realcaster

Nice tank of Bucep, I have a few variant but it's nothing like yours, awesome collection. Did you trimmed off all the leaves with holes and imperfection?

----------


## Urban Aquaria

> Yet again another amazing scape... *in awe*





> Really awesome!!


Thanks!





> Oh man! The "Elegant Blue" looks awesome!!!  It looks more like a shade of purple, too.


Yeah, the blue bucephalandra variants do sometimes tend to vary in shade from bluish to purplish according to the viewing angle. Many of those with green leaves also sport some shades of blue or purple at certain angles too. Very interesting plants.





> Nice tank of Bucep, I have a few variant but it's nothing like yours, awesome collection. Did you trimmed off all the leaves with holes and imperfection?


Yes, i usually try my best to regularly trim off those deteriorated leaves with too many holes... only keeping the good leaves, though sometimes i also close one eye and still retain those leaves that have one or two holes but are otherwise healthy.

----------


## Zep

Your buceps look fantastic, especially the elegant blue. I have a couple of stalks and looking for more. Can I know where do you get yours from?

----------


## Apistoinka

Awesome will keep following.. i notice there is no chiller or fan.. thought they said bucep need to be in cooler water.. bro UA please advice..

----------


## Urban Aquaria

> Your buceps look fantastic, especially the elegant blue. I have a couple of stalks and looking for more. Can I know where do you get yours from?


Thanks! 

I source my plants from various sellers, fellow hobbyists and from overseas suppliers too... sometimes have to hunt high and low for specific variants as they are not available all the time, since the majority of bucephalandra are still wild harvested.

----------


## Urban Aquaria

> Awesome will keep following.. i notice there is no chiller or fan.. thought they said bucep need to be in cooler water.. bro UA please advice..


Well, i've been keeping bucephalandra plants for around 2+ years in non-chilled planted tanks and they have managed to grow well so far, hence i guess they can adapt to a wide range of temperatures. Cooler water may be a bonus, but from my experience it doesn't seem to be a strict requirement.

----------


## popimac

Never fail to amaze us! May I ask if you encounter any algae problem with buceps? Mine are always faced with bba issues. Argh

Sent from my ONE A2003 using Tapatalk

----------


## Apistoinka

Thanks for enlighting.. guess i can give it a try.. did not try as many said they need chiller..

----------


## Urban Aquaria

> Never fail to amaze us! May I ask if you encounter any algae problem with buceps? Mine are always faced with bba issues. Argh


Thanks!

I pre-treat all my plants with anti-pest and anti-algae chemicals, and also quarantine them for observation, before introduction into a tank. So i usually don't encounter those types of pest algae issues nowadays.

You can check out an example of my process in this thread: http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...amp-Quarantine

Due to their wild harvested origins, i notice that bucephalandra tend to harbor a surprising amount of pests and algae, so you really do need to treat them beforehand.

In addition, make sure the tank itself doesn't have pest algae already present the tank in the first place too. If the tank already has existing pest algae issues, they will tend to affect slower growing plants like bucephalandra alot more (especially when they are weak and melting during transition), so its best to solve and totally eliminate those pesky algae issues before adding such plants. It will save alot of hassle trying to solve algae problems after the plants are introduced.

As always... controlling of light, nutrients, parameters, circulation etc do affect algae growth too, so you have to work at keeping everything in balance.

Common algae like green dust algae, brown diatoms or green spot algae will usually still occur in all tanks at varying levels... but those are easily managed and cleared away by algae eaters like cherry shrimps and horned nerite snails (very effective against GDA and GSA), hence the mandatory stocking of those helpful livestock in all my tanks. This combination has so far helped to greatly minimize algae in my tanks and plants.

----------


## Ryan Peh

Hi UA, may I know what sand are you using and how much sand is that actually?

----------


## Urban Aquaria

> Hi UA, may I know what sand are you using and how much sand is that actually?


I'm using Sudo Reef Sand, just around 1 liter of sand... creates a thin 5mm layer of sand. Its mainly for anchoring the pebbles attached to the rhizomes and helping to keep the plants sitting upright.

----------


## Ryan Peh

> I'm using Sudo Reef Sand, just around 1 liter of sand... creates a thin 5mm layer of sand. Its mainly for anchoring the pebbles attached to the rhizomes and helping to keep the plants sit upright.


The colour of the sand is really bright and the grains are very fine. I'm looking for different options for my upcoming rescape!

----------


## Dscheng

Very nice setup UA!! Impressive, you got bucep from Allan? So this setup without any chiller?

----------


## Urban Aquaria

> Very nice setup UA!! Impressive, you got bucep from Allan? So this setup without any chiller?


Thanks! 

So far, i haven't gotten any buceps from allan, mine are mainly from overseas suppliers and other local sellers/fellow hobbyists.

Yeah, this setup doesn't use a chiller. In fact, i've not used chillers on any of my tanks keeping buceps over the past few years.

----------


## ZIr

Yea I'm one of those who like to photograph buceps in the dark  :Opps: . but seems like your bright and 'airy' setup also brings out the colors pretty well. Simple yet gorgeous setup  :Well done: . Maybe getting some red variants will add more color.

Btw, what are those 2 yellow balls on the right?

----------


## Ryan Peh

> Yea I'm one of those who like to photograph buceps in the dark . but seems like your bright and 'airy' setup also brings out the colors pretty well. Simple yet gorgeous setup . Maybe getting some red variants will add more color.
> 
> Btw, what are those 2 yellow balls on the right?


If I'm not wrong, those are golden clams which UA bought awhile back!

----------


## Urban Aquaria

Yeah, i'm looking out for red variants too, hopefully can add some to the tank soon.

The 2 yellow balls are freshwater golden clams.  :Very Happy:

----------


## scouserganisen

Simple yet looks natural.....the Elegant blue ones look great....

----------


## exo

Hi UA, may I ask where u bought the bucephalandra elegant blue from?

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

----------


## Urban Aquaria

> Hi UA, may I ask where u bought the bucephalandra elegant blue from?


I got mine from a friend last year, managed to get a few rhizomes to slowly grow out over time.

----------


## exo

Oh OK. .. then good luck to me searching then... 
Is sp.velvet blue and elegant blue the same?

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

----------


## Urban Aquaria

> Oh OK. .. then good luck to me searching then... 
> Is sp.velvet blue and elegant blue the same?


That i'm also not sure... all these different trade names flying about are really confusing, i mainly base my plant IDs on what the sellers label them as or closest ID from online photos. 

Until now i still have bucephalandra from separate batches that were labelled as the same variants, yet when kept in the same tank after a few months, they grow out and look different. I guess many times alot of the plants are given "best guess" labels.  :Grin:

----------


## earthworm

my buceps are tied to small lava rocks and i have a sand substrate. did u also bury the roots in the sand?

----------


## Urban Aquaria

Mine had the roots partially buried in the sand with the rhizomes above the substrate, that seems to work well. Its more for aesthetics anyways (since its sand substrate), as in such setups the roots take in nutrients mostly from the water column.

----------


## aquarius

What fishes did you add in eventually and how is the clams doing? What do you feed the clams. Hope you can take some updated pic of this beautiful tank.

----------


## Urban Aquaria

> What fishes did you add in eventually and how is the clams doing? What do you feed the clams. Hope you can take some updated pic of this beautiful tank.


I didn't keep this tank for long as the plants were eventually bought and traded with other hobbyists.

As for the clams, i fed them with powdered foods (ie. crushed pellets and wafers) which i administer with a pipette near to their "intake" mouths. The longest i kept such clams in a tank was up to a year or so, but they didn't really grow much during that period. I guess our aquarium tanks are probably too "clean" for clams to sustain food intake to grow long term, unless they are constantly fed alot in a mature large tank.

----------


## rogerlim

> I didn't keep this tank for long as the plants were eventually bought and traded with other hobbyists.
> 
> As for the clams, i fed them with powdered foods (ie. crushed pellets and wafers) which i administer with a pipette near to their "intake" mouths. The longest i kept such clams in a tank was up to a year or so, but they didn't really grow much during that period. I guess our aquarium tanks are probably too "clean" for clams to sustain food intake to grow long term, unless they are constantly fed alot in a mature large tank.


So is there any tanks on this forum that you still have running?

----------


## Urban Aquaria

> So is there any tanks on this forum that you still have running?


It's been a while since i posted up new tank projects, all the ones posted here before have been changed to new setups a few times since.

My latest setups are all very low maintenance tanks with mainly moss, nothing fancy. Currently i mostly just try keeping different types of fishes in community tanks. Not much time to maintain planted tanks nowadays.

----------


## rogerlim

> It's been a while since i posted up new tank projects, all the ones posted here before have been changed to new setups a few times since.
> 
> My latest setups are all very low maintenance tanks with mainly moss, nothing fancy. Currently i mostly just try keeping different types of fishes in community tanks. Not much time to maintain planted tanks nowadays.


That's a pity, you got quite a few nice tanks on this forum.

----------


## torque6

> That's a pity, you got quite a few nice tanks on this forum.


Sustainable tanks do have little algae, thus minimising the time needed to do maintainance than most planted tanks. Having the correct plant selection helps in the long run. Soil with high CEC (volcanic ash) instead of the popular Ada soil is more favoured, since ADA soil has been known to break down into mulm just under 12-14 months of use.


Opposite to what UA is doing, I've stopped using traditional low maintenance, slow growers plants like moss, ferns, anubias in my tank. I've since replaced them with lower light requirements stem plants like wisteria, palustris, bacopa, etc, because in my opinion, it takes less time to cut, trim, uproot, propagate these plants than separating, tying and gluing moss, ferns or anubias to rocks and drift wood. Having lower light means the stem plants grow slower. I only trim them once during my monthly water change nowadays.

----------


## ross.chang

> Sustainable tanks do have little algae, thus minimising the time needed to do maintainance than most planted tanks. Having the correct plant selection helps in the long run. Soil with high CEC (volcanic ash) instead of the popular Ada soil is more favoured, since ADA soil has been known to break down into mulm just under 12-14 months of use.


How do you know if a particular soil contain high CEC (Volcanic ash)?.

----------


## Ryan Peh

Hi Urban Aquaria, 

Any updates on your tank? Also please post more often on your blog!!

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6010 using Tapatalk

----------


## bellybigtummy

That's a nice setup, may I where did you get your tank from or where can I find low-profile tanks in Singapore?

----------


## jackychun

> That's a nice setup, may I where did you get your tank from or where can I find low-profile tanks in Singapore?


You can find many sizes of low-profile tanks in Aquatic Avenue at Red Hill.  :Smile:

----------


## mdkhai25

So much changes after very long didnt came here to visit this forum.

----------

