As I’ve said before, an aquascape is as much about what is outside the glass box as what is inside. Rich’s (Uptown193) awesome “peekaboo” setup is a great example of what I mean.

As you can see above, Rich’s ADA 60P looks great. He’s obviously a talented aquascaper. However, and with all due respect to his aquascaping skills, I love his out of the box (pun intended) thinking when it comes to his overall setup. Check out what he did with his stand!

Oh no he didn’t! Oh yes he did! That’s a plexiglass door on his cabinet. Peekaboo! He’s letting it all hang out and it looks great! He even threw in some colored LEDs to really showcase the innards.

I got a chance to trade messages with Rich over at Planted Tank and he was kind enough to tell me a little about his tank.

Hey Rich, thanks for taking the time to tell me a bit about you and your tank. How’d you get started with planted tanks?

I started this hobby in August, 2009 when my girlfriend Cassandra bought me a Betta fish. From there a month later I bought a 10g tank setup from Petco. I played with that for a about year and learned a lot about fresh water fish, plants and aquariums. I then started buying real plants because the fake plants were boring and I always had to clean off the algae every month. Then I got into the CO2 setups and bought a small 80g setup. I got tired of refilling those little tanks so I purchased a GLA CO2 setup with a 5 pound tank.

What gave you the idea of setting up your ADA 60P and doing that unusual stand?

In August, 2011, my girlfriend bought me a ADA 60p for my birthday. So I then decided I wanted to build a stand for the 60p. I did some research on many threads about fish tank stand building and got so much information to be confident I could do it. I wanted the stand to mimic the one from ADA, which are sleek and shaped the same way as the tank.

The inspiration for the Plexiglass front door was from me wanting to show off the guts of a successful fish tank. I knew I wanted an excellent and nice looking filter so after research I chose the Fluval 3G. I also felt that it would be cool to show off the CO2 because it is an important part of having successful plant growth. I also felt that when people would come visit me it would be a good conversation piece. I feel that my Fish tank setup is a piece of art in my home. I was not afraid to show off the inside of my stand becasue I knew that it was going to look interesting to people. I think people should show off as much as possible. I know there are aqua-scapers who rather just show the tank because to them that is the focal point but to me everything is a focal point, plus when the light is out you can barely notice it. (Giggle)

And the lights inside the cabinet? That’s awesome! It reminds me of those custom computer rigs.

I do have a remote control RGB LED light bulb, yes I did say remote light bulb that can change colors which I purchased from ElementalLED.com. It is the perfect size for the inside cabinet of my stand and will help show off the guts of my setup.

I see you use a lot of ADA products.

I used all of ADA products when setting this tank build. I learn at lot about this hobby from them, but I have learned more from forums like Plantedtank.net where I have my build thread.

There is not much I would do different other then purchasing a bigger tank next time, lol. No, but seriously, the thing I didn’t like most about the ADA products was their Power Sand Special because it would keep rising to the top and there would be tiny white pebbles on my ADA AquaSoil substrate and I would have to pick each out.

So next time I will not use that one product, everything else they have is excellent. I say they have excellent products because they work. My new 60p tank cycled in 2 weeks, that is not a bad turn around time considering it usually take 4 weeks.

Any tips for new aquascapers?

I recommend that everyone just take their time and plan everything out on paper. When you build a stand write out all the measurements so that you can refer to it when need to because, trust me, you will need to refer to it many times when cutting wood. I also recommend purchasing the right tools and equipment, this is a must in this hobby.

As always, to be successful in what you are doing you have to have a passion for it or you will not succeed.

I couldn’t agree with you more. Thanks again for agreeing to be interviewed for Scape Fu.

Here’s some details about Rich’s aquascape:

Title: Subterranean Passage of NYC
Year: Late 2011
Location: New York City
Tank Size: ADA 60P (24″x12″x14″)
Volume: 17 Gallons (Approx.)
Lighting: Catalina Solar 2x24w (Geissman Midday (1) and Geissman Aquaflora (1)
Filtration: Fluval G3 using ADA inflow and outflow glass lily pipes
Filter Media: Seachem Purigen 200ml Bag (Chemical)
Substrate: ADA Aqua Soil New Amazonia and ADA Power Sand Special
Substrate Additives: ADA Bacter 100/Clear Super/Penac P + W
CO2: GLA Pressurized CO2 System (14 hours/Day) 2 bubbles per second
Decorative Materials: ADA Sarawak Sand
Water Parameters: N/A
Water Maintenance: 30% water change bi-weekly
Plant Fertilization: Pfertz High-Tech Solution includes one bottle each of [m], [n], [p] and [k]

Plants: Red Nesala, Erio cinereum, Crinum Calamistratum, Belem Grass, Sunset Hydrophila

Fish: 7 Japonica Shrimp (Amano), 6 red shrimps, 1 Bamboo Shrimp, 5 Neon Tetras, 2 Mickey Mouse Platy (7 are babies), 2 Pristella Tetra, 6 Rasboras and a lone Leopard Snail.

Here’s some more eye candy and two great videos of the setup. The videos are the best for appreciating the cabinet LED color change.