Budget Friendly Aquascaping - Tips
Budget Friendly Aquascaping - How to Make Things more Cost Effective
If you're looking to dive into aquascaping for the first time but are concerned about costs, we've got you covered! Here are some practical tips to help you create a beautiful aquarium without breaking the bank.
Choosing Your Aquarium
Size Matters! Opt for a smaller aquarium to reduce costs on equipment and materials. Larger tanks require more expensive equipment such as larger heaters and filtration and materials like wood, rocks, soil, and plants.
All-in-One Aquariums
Some options are good quality, but many come with subpar equipment.
We recommend the Aquael Shrimp Set for its reliable filtration and adequate lighting for easy-to-grow plants. This is the only all in one set we stock as we have had great experience with it and even use them in our shop.
The Aquael filter is powerful yet basic, and it includes a sponge to protect small shrimp and bettas.
The heater is preset to 25°C, making it user-friendly and a good option for keeping small tropical fish and neocaridina shrimp. The 20L option is perfect from shrimp, a small group of nano fish or a long-finned betta whilst the 30L is better for short-finned bettas, and again nano species or shrimp.
If you want to go a step further and choose a more luxury aquarium, again keep smaller by going for a 60cm or below to keep overall costs lower.
Choosing Hardscape
Now that you've decided on your aquarium, you want to fill it without overspending! Consider using large driftwood pieces to fill most of the space. Corbo woods work well for this; for instance, a medium Corbo root can take up a significant portion of a 60 cm aquarium at an affordable price. It also has plenty of character and detail. If you prefer something less bulky, Talawa wood or redmoor root wood are generally moderately priced options.
Use rocks to prop your wood up or to gain additional height (don't forget you can get more again with your plants attached to wood).
When choosing rocks, some rocks are more dense than others and they are sold by weight, choose light weight rocks such as lava rock to get more 'bang for your buck'. To add small details, check out our own range of aquarium gravels and sand which are priced at £5.99 for 1Kg!
Choosing Aquarium Substrate
When choosing a substrate, a single 9L bag of soil is sufficient for a 60x30 cm area, allowing plants to establish their roots properly. This is why we recommend keeping the size smaller if you're working with a limited budget, as anything larger than 60x30 cm will require additional bags. If you prefer to attach all your plants to wood, you can skip the soil and use sand instead! You don’t need much; a thin layer to cover the bottom is purely for aesthetics. Just a light skim of sand will be enough.
Aquarium Plants
One thing we do say to everyone is don't skimp on plant quantity, we believe it's important to have as many plants possible from the beginning, to ensure a good and healthy start to your aquascape. Take advantage of our 10 + 1 deal in store or online! Get 1 plant free for every 10 you purchase!
Tissue Culture Plants
Although tissue culture pots may appear small, they actually contain numerous baby plantlets that will eventually develop into larger clusters. While potted plants may provide a more impressive initial visual impact, tissue cultures will ultimately produce more growth.