The leading actor 1 x Tetra AquaArt 60 (1 x 15w T8) including the standard filter and heater. The background are covered black, with this effect you didn`t see the filter so much.

At first step we fill in a fertilized bottom material. In this case is doesn’t important from which manufactor. The most of them very similar in the content and effect of the plants.

About 2-3cm from the front and side pane we don’t put fertilized bottom in the aquarium. Thats prevent that the plants grow too close at the panes.

Now we are ready for the main bottom ground.

At the beginning of 2009 available in Europe: NatureSoil by Oliver Knott. A natural bottom special made for planted aquariums. On the picture you can see the brown version in the size fine.

The size of the fine NatureSoil was about 2-3mm. Beside this they will available a Normal size with about 3-5mm. The package size a available in 3 Liter and 10 Liter and we will offer also a second colour: black.

As next step we fill in about 8 Liter NatureSoil, with the fertilized bottom enough material for a standard 60cm aquarium. Start first at the front to avoid that the fertilized bottom don’t come in front. Using the NatureSoil with no washing and dry.

For optical reasons we put more soil behind then infront.

We start with the decoration. First we prepare a root with some Javamoss. For best choice we use a green cotton wool (for example ADA Moss cotton).

Cover the moss a little bit with water and lay them on a end of the root (or where ever you want).

You can wrap round the moss really strong don`t worry. After few weeks you didn`t see anything from the cotton.

The root is ready for the tank. Please make sure that the roots doesn’t flow in the water, in case of emergency you can keep them under water before.

Put the root deep in the soil and cover it a little bit with the soil.

As next decoration some rocks/stone will be set up in the layout.

With a thick brush you can high lightning the structure of the stones in this layout. A big fortune was that the soil is dry and you can work very easy in the layout.

The main layout is finished: only one roots and beside 3 stones. The layout will be complete now only with some small “Moorkienwood” roots.

The “Moorkienwood” roots are all watered to aviod that the they floating later after filling the aquarium with water.

Some of them will be covered with Javamoss too.

Now the small root pieces will be decorate in the layout, the plan is to give the layout a more wilderness view.

The dry layout is finish, now we only need some aquatic plants to finish the whole layout.

Some layers of Pogostemon helferi.

Remove at the single stems the leaves and plant the plants with a pinzette in the soil.

As you see the aquarium wasn’t fill with water before planting. After planting the aquarium will be fill with water smoothly. Important when you plant your aquarium like this, please make sure that the plants a keep wet (water sprayer).

The next plant: Echinodorus tennellus (submerg growing by Tropica)

Take 2-3 single plants together and plant it in the soil.

In this aquarium the plant will be used in the middle and left sector as background plant.

What we still now miss is a plant who will cover the filter a little bit.

For this we use a kind of fern: Ceratopteris thalictroides.

This plant will be plant beside and in front of the filter. This will be finish the layout.

With a thin hose the water will be filled very smoothly over the root into the aquarium. In this case we use very hard water: KH 12 and TH 18. But influence of the NatureSoil make sure that the water stabilize in optimal water parameters for this aquarium with a KH 6-7 and TH 9-10.

If the aquarium will be filled very slowly the water will be crystal clear from beginning. The NatureSoil had relative strong density and don't floating.

The aquarium is filled with water and ready to bring fun to the owner. Please enjoy and note the care instructions (at the start side of this gallery).

2 month later - the result: The dominant plant after 2 month is the Ceratopteris with the fastest growing in this layout. The Pogostemon helferi grow slow but healthy without any algae, only on the right side the have to less light because of the big Ceratopteris. The Echinodorus tennellus are growing slow but very healthy and solid as background at the left and middle sector. The Javamoos also growing very well and slowly at the roots.

The résumé:
- Very easy to handle especially for beginners
- Control able plant grow
- Low maintenance and energy costs
- 100% algae free