Rahman Ibrahim was not very happy with his previous aquarium setup, where we had used garden sand in his aquarium. This tank was originally setup around 5 years back, me and mahasin had come very far as gravel was concerned. I had also failed in using garden soil effectively, the problem is that the roots do not get enough oxygen and they turn black and die. only mahasin was using it with success and that also because he planted his aquariums densly. which i was not able to do, anyway, our recent successful experiment with beach sand, not the fine grain, but the few cm stones that you find on the top layer of the beach where the waves meet the beach. so all four of us, Rahman Ibrahim, his trusted side kick Rehan, yours truly Khurram and my brother danish went on an expedition in November last year to the beach to collect the gravel.

we have setup this tank a few weeks back with the material used.

still Mahasin was adamant that we use garden soil, so what we have done now is used 1 inch of garden soil first, then topped it off with  around 3 inches of well washed beach sand,

in a few month, the soil will compact and will take up less than 2 inches.

i will keep updating the progress pictures of this recent project.

i have started planting this tank and it will take a few months to set it up right.

we have recently come across a new Philips PL light (pdf), read more here  . Which is giving us good results and in the following weeks, i will be upgrading all my light to this one. we have placed 2 of these lights in this setup, plus one tubelight. Rahman think that 100 Watts bulbs are best, and i agree with him but they consume too much electricity and give off alot of heat.