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How to Use Pine Bark Stones for Aquascaping
Aquascaping can be a relaxing process. Have you ever tried Aquascape? If your answer is negative, you can have a try after reading this article. Generally, aquascaping includes various steps, like the layout of an aquarium, the selection of aquascaping materials, the preparation of aquascaping tools, the placement of aquascaping decorations, etc. And pine bark stones can be aquascaping stones, belonging to aquascaping materials. So, if you’re ready to dive deep into the aquatic world of aquascaping stones, and learn something about pine bark stones, then let’s begin.
What is pine bark stone
Pine bark stone is a distinctive stone applicable to aquascaping and landscaping. It commonly comes in gray, yellow, or brown colors. And it is a hard stone made of lime material. Pine bark stone looks like a pine cone or the bark of pine trees. Featuring an uneven, convex, and concave appearance, pine bark stone is not costly. Also, the reasonable price makes the stone be used widely in aquascaping. For instance, the pits of pine bark stones are beneficial for planting small aquatic plants, like Moss. However, pine shark stones may be sharp, which would cause damage to fish. Consequently, it is better to sand the stone surface in advance.
Why use pine bark stone for aquascaping
After learning what is pine bark stone, let’s take a look at the roles of the stone in aquascaping. Pine bark stones can build mountains, gorges, slopes, or others imitating natural landscapes. Besides that, adding pine bark stone is perfect for aquatic plants aquascaping, aside from plants preferring soft water. Because pine bark stones would increase the water hardness.
How to use pine bark stones for aquascaping
In this segment, we will mainly talk about how to use pine bark stones for aquascaping. Generally, you can place your pine bark stones in three different ways:
- Place pine bark stones vertically
- Place pine bark stones horizontally
- Or place pine bark stones aslant
Next, we will give you two examples of pine bark stone aquascaping.
Pine bark stones aquascaping
1. Build a Paludarium tank with pine bark stones
Firstly, choose an aquarium. No matter what the shape is, it should provide a viewing area of the right size above the water surface, and sufficient depth to keep fish underwater. Also, you can keep terrestrial plants in Paludarium tanks.
Next, put gravel on the bottom and keep a thickness of about 5 cm. If you want to plant underwater aquatic plants, it is better to add a layer of base fertilizer.
After that, you can stock the pine bark stones. You can use the stones to build a slope and create a tree with the help of wood and moss.
Also, you can add some aquatic plants. For instance, some aquatic plants can be submerged in the water, like the Amazon sword, Mosses, and Java fern. Additionally, you can place some plants above the pine bark stones to create a landscape overhanging plants on the top. Such as java moss, tree moss, and star moss.
Then, you can add water to the tank. It is recommended to test the water with water test strips before adding it to the tank. Furthermore, installing an aquarium filter is necessary. A small canister filter is an excellent alternative, which helps to remove excess substances and keep aquarium water in good condition.
2. Create caves by bonding pine bark stones
Add some gravel on the bottom first. Then you can bond the pine bark stones with aquascape adhesive. And it is recommended to keep the texture of pine bark stones in the same direction. Next, stock the stone in the aquarium. Aside from that, you can decorate the pine bark stones with some plants, like moss. Additionally, it is feasible to add an aquarium light to hence plants’ colors and improve the ornamental value of the tank.
Necessary aquascaping tools
Actually, aquascape adhesive and instant gel are two basic tools. The aquascape adhesive is used to bond the rocks or stones and wood. And the instant gel can bond with aquatic plants.
In addition, an aquascaping tools kit will make aquascaping easier, which can be helpful to fix or adjust the sand, gravel, rocks, and aquatic plants without putting all of your hands inside tanks. Commonly, aquascaping tools may include curved scissors, straight tweezers, curved tweezers, sand spatula, etc.
- Curved scissors: the scissors can be used to prune aquatic plants, bonsai trees, or potted plants.
- Straight tweezers & curved tweezers: the tweezers are anti-slip, which can be helpful tools for planting aquatic plants and picking up small gravels.
- Sand spatula: the long sand spatula can be used for shaping aquarium substrate (e.g. sand and gravel) and scraping algae.
Final thoughts
To conclude, pine bark stones are excellent alternatives for aquarium aquascaping, including small, medium, and large aquariums. Plus, there are some pointers about the selection of aquascaping pine bark stones. You can choose from three aspects – colors, textures, and forms. It is better to choose pine bark stones in the same color. Also, diverse textures and forms of pine bark stones will form various aquascaping styles.
That’s all about pine bark stones in this article. For additional info about pine bark stones, welcome to leave messages in the comment. We are happy to receive your sharing. Also, more blogs about aquascaping stones will be published, you can stay tuned to the hygger blog if you are interested. Finally, thanks for your reading, and we hope this article will help you out.