/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Saw this thread and decided to try out a small aquascaping project.

I already have the tank, but need a new pump, heater and Co2 diffuser. It is a 54 litre tank, so I won't be doing anything huge, but a nice starter project.

For plants I will be using limnophila aquatica and eleocharis parvula and that is it. They will be seperated in each corner with a few stones seperating them. I made a rough sketch in Paint, so if you think it looks shit, I can only agree. The upper right corner, with the limnophilas, will be a raised level as I will look into the tank from bottom left to upper right. I will try to keep the limnophila as tall single stems of around 10 inches max.

The sand around the "grass" will hopefully create an island effect, even if it is just an inch. The grass itself will be trimmed when it reaches a height of more than two inches. I am hoping the grass will turn out as a bright green and release a lot of oxygen.
For gravel I will be using Akvastabil Merkur Black Gravel. Already have a bag laying about and I think it will compliment my shrimps.

As for shrimps.. They will probably be added once I have everything up and running and not straight from the beginning. As shrimps are new to me I have decided to use Red Cherry Shrimps. The word on the block is that they seem to be quite forgiving in terms of living conditions. To compliment them I will also throw in a couple of Yellow Shrimp, which have the same needs as the RCS.

Furthermore I might also put in ten neon tetras just so the aquarium doesn't seem totally deserted at first glance, and the notice of the first shrim will be an "uuuhhhh!" factor.

What do you think? Critique is very welcome. I am still not sure whether I will be using fertilizer or chemicals in order to remain the pH values etc. So any input on would be nice