# Planted Tanks > Aquascaping >  "The Tiny Mighty Cave"- DSM

## jackychun

Have you ever heard about DSM before? That is not "Dover Street Market" as what you can see from the first Google Search. If you search the keywords "DSM Aquarium", probably you will get the right results for "Dry Start Method" for the planted tank.

This method starts with the emersed growth of plants in a high humidity environment. Once the plant root system is developed and plant healthy growth, water can be introduced into the tank and the submersed form started. It is quite similar to the nature of the river bank where water raises up and down and aquatic plants need to adapt to that. Emersed planting setup was mentioned in my other post on a small scale.

I finally decided to go for a super low tech tank in my outdoor corridor garden by using DSM. 

Since I already got a metal aquarium stand which is very sturdy, I just needed to hunt for the tank itself. It was no rushing at all. I normally enjoy the period of gather the equipment one-by-one. It is the joy of this hobby in my view. J I really enjoy the process of making something old/rusty/ antique becomes more aesthetic. It is like bringing a brand new life to it. 

And the chance came on Facebook Market. I found the aquarium size of 90cmLx40cmWx22cmH was perfect for my plan. I wanted to have a low-profile tank which I can enjoy it as an aquarium as well as a pond. J With this low profile tank, I can have a good view from the top and the fish still got benefits from the wide surface plus long tank to swim about.  :Smile:  So I quickly arranged with the seller and the deal inclusive of delivery to my block with a reasonable price.

I bought a white foam matt from a LFS in Serangoon North as a cushion below the tank and it was ready for setup.



Low profile tank is just nice for my outdoor plan  :Smile: 





It can be seen from the above like a pond  :Smile: 


To create the "cave", a piece of driftwood which has an existing hole was used and laid horizontally on the bottom of the tank. Since I would like to create a bay of sand at the front of the tank, some granite rocks were used to create the barrier of soil and sand. Granite rocks does not have very nice characters as seiryu rocks/ elephant skin / manten stones...etc. but it works very well to separate planting area and sandy area in your aquascape. I planed to cover those rocks with moss anyway, so the looks of it was not so critical.  :Smile: 



The bay was formed up with rocks and woods





Driftwood that create the " mighty cave" :P





Cave by The Bay. Haha! :P


To form the captivity and cave's dome, lava rocks were arranged on top to create the cave structure. Lava rocks is normally light and very porous which can house more beneficial bacteria for planted tanks. Since this tank was going for very low tech type, the more "in-house" bio media like those lava rocks in the tank, the better.



Forming cave dome by lava rocks

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## jackychun

Next, some leftover left over plastic bio-ball media also put in to fill in the bottom layer of the tank.



Plastic bioballs were scattered at the bottom





Bioballs can be good for bacteria housing as well


A bag of LECA balls was put at the tank bottom as well for beneficial bacteria housing. This tank would be the very low tech tank mostly running without filter, hence the more bio media placed in the better.


LECA balls were spread at the bottom of the tank.





LECA balls also filled in the gaps between the previous lavarocks to make the structure more solid







Garden soil was put on top of LECA balls layer to keep it down at the bottom and not floating up. Garden soil is very rich in nutrient and would be able to nurture the plants properly.






ADA Aquasoil was placed on top of garden soil to create a nice looking surface and also to contain the mess of garden soil after water being introduced into the tank.



ADA Aquasoil was placed as a top layer soil





The top layer was adjusted according to the desired curve of layout


Sand was introduced in the bay and the hardscape is completed. 




Sand was added in the bay  :Smile: 





The cave is now look quite nice by the bay ya?





The Tiny Mighty Cave is here.  :Smile: 





Overall hardscape view


Planting would be the next step:

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## jackychun

Lastly, the tank was covered with glassed to keep the humid environment for plants growing emersed. 








In order to keep the environment always humid, I used spraying bottles to spray on the plants once to twice a day in the morning and evening. The plants was then always kept in the fresh condition.

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## jackychun

Progress of DSM from Day 1 to Day 30 before it was being flooded. ^^


After a month of DSM, all the plants had grown very well in the humid environment. All of that was so lush and enjoyable to watch them grow. ^_^

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## jackychun

It's time to flood the tank! The plants roots have developed very well now! So it would be ready for the flooding submersed adventure! ^_^



Water was slowly added in the tank, by buckets lol












A timelapsed video was recorded this big event after a long wait! Haha.






Tada! Flooding done!





All is well!  :Smile: 





Plants looked lush






I hope that you enjoy the journal as much as I do. And here you go, the "Tiny Mighty Cave" is here  :Smile: 



"The Tiny Mighty Cave" ^_^

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## jackychun

Sorry for spamming in many posts. Due to the restrictions of the forum I could not keep the journal in one post (i.e. less than 10,000 words or less than 20 photos in one post).  :Grin:  I hope that it would inspired you to carry out some planted tank outdoor without any tech, or so call "NO TECH" tank.  :Grin:

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## toolkit

Great write-up!  :Well done: 

I am curious, if the tank is not flooded, how long will the plants live?
It looks quite good without the water too....

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## jackychun

> Great write-up! 
> 
> I am curious, if the tank is not flooded, how long will the plants live?
> It looks quite good without the water too....


Thanks toolkit!  :Smile: 

I believe it can thrive in the emersed set up as long as you keep the environment moist and humid. It may be even grow better when we slowly introduce more air in the tank once roots developed. I also hesitated to flood the tank cause the plants was so lush in their emersed form 

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## torque6

No need to flood the tank, this type of scape good for keeping crabs  :Well done: .

Or leave it semi submersed, so the steam plants can grow emersed form, can induce flowering.

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## jackychun

> No need to flood the tank, this type of scape good for keeping crabs .
> 
> Or leave it semi submersed, so the steam plants can grow emersed form, can induce flowering.


Haha. Thanks Torque6. The tank has already been flooded for about 7 months plus. It is the NO tech tank and very lush now. I will update it soon. 

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## apnatva

Hi Jacky, Please share latest pics plz.

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## BFG

I agree , I too wish to see an update !

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## jackychun

Hi Apnatva and BFG, 

Sorry for the delay. :P I have just taken a quick video of how it looks now. Please refer to the video below.
It is quite difficult to take a good photos during day time since it is very glaring. Night time, wow, too dark to take!  :Grin: 




Hope you all enjoy it!  :Grin:

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## jackychun

I got some rainbow fish (Bosemani) for this tank and I really love them. They are very active and friendly. 
Sometimes they are flaring at each other for territory and the dance is so interesting to watch, too.  :Grin: 















 :Grin:  :Grin:  :Grin:

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## apnatva

Wow Tank has matured very well. How are managing the temperature given it is a outdoor tank?

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## jackychun

> Wow Tank has matured very well. How are managing the temperature given it is a outdoor tank?
> 
> Sent from my LYA-L29 using Tapatalk


Hi Apnatva, 

Sorry for my late reply. The temperature of the outdoor tank is not controllable. I just place it at the well lit area without much direct sunlight (facing South, max 1-2 hours of direct sunlight). With quite good surface area (90x40cm), the tank is quite cooling most of the time.

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