after many months of waiting, I got my tank today. The dimensions are 120cm x 80cm x 50cm.
At a 25 cm gap to the back panel, I had a 25cm high partition put in. This space is filled with soil (Kenyan red soil, compost and bone meal). In this, I planted Cyperus alternifolius, another smaller cyperus and a bog plant with blue flowers.
The tank will be absolutely low tech. It will have a heater for those cold Nairobi nights and a powerhead to create brisk circulation. I will have to see whether I need some lighting fixture (more for watching the fish than for the plants). The Cyperus will provide all of the biological filtration (tried that in a pond and it worked great)
The rest of the tank has a sand substrate (Kenyan river sand), loads of drift wood and river cobbles. The only plants will be floaters and java moss.
The aquarium builder advised me not to fill the tank until tomorrow... the first fish will be feeder guppies for mosquito control. By a very lucky chance, I will get 4 Polypterus delhezi. I also want to get Hemichromis and Synodontis petricola. All tank inhabitants will be from Central Africa (guppies are ubiquitous in Africa... )
So, in a way, it will be a natural planted tank - but modified to accommodate predators and cichlids. I'm rather confident that it will work, since I am only repeating what I already did with a pond (kept tilapia and guppies).
Update: The tank has been running for a week and a half now. It took two days for the water to clear up (there was still a lot of mud in that river sand). I had no bacterial or algae bloom.
I found some anubias, java moss and java ferns as well as salvinia. Still waiting for the Nile cabbage. On bits of drift wood that are above the water line, I tied some epipremnum and syngonium.
Since I didn't have Indian almond leaves, I added guava and mango leaves. They turned the water to a nice tea colour. Here is a photo of the surface (the only perspective from which my furniture isn't reflected by the tank...)
The cyperus has started bringing new shoots and covering the soil of the swamp section with roots.
Tank is stocked with 9 feeder guppies and their offspring. After one week, the first of the real inhabitants moved in, 4 Polypterus delhezi. They totally ignore the guppies, but they accept dried omena (Lake Victoria "sardines").
I am still hoping to add Hemichromis (bimaculatus/guttatus/elongatus... ).
Finally, I have decided against artificial light. Of course, in the evening, you can't see anything, but during the daytime, the result of natural light is fascinating. It's like snorkeling in a pond. The mood changes all the time, depending on the angle of the light.
)
