PANGKALPINANG -- The Covid-19 pandemic that has hit since 2019 has not ended until now, makes people faced with many limitations. However, there are many ways that can be done to get entertainment and reduce fatigue and boredom.
Well, one of the hobbies that has become increasingly popular during the pandemic is aquascape or the art of decorating an aquarium with plants or animals to present a beautiful view. Apart from being a hobby, this aquascape business is quite promising.
Aquarium is now not only used as a medium for keeping fish only. But, it is also used as a place to channel aesthetic art in the water.
Ujang Hasan Nurdin is one of them, the owner of Rinjani Aquascape PGK, who initially only had a hobby of making aquascapes. But, now his hobby has become a source of income.
He had learned about aquascape in 2016. At that time, learning about aquascape was very difficult to find.
Ujang said that the squascape business requires a lot of capital. Moreover, the payments are made when the aquascape has been completed, so that the ujang must have a large enough initial capital.
At first, he was constrained by the capital, but in the end, he took advantage of the Small Micro Business Funding program from PT Timah Tbk.
He admitted that after joining the PUMK program, PT Timah Tbk made him more confident because the ingredients for making aquascapes were complete and he was no longer confused about thinking about capital at the beginning.
"After joining PT Timah's fostered partner, I am more confident because I am not confused anymore about the cost for buying a lot of materials. Moreover, if I want to buy a material, I have to buy a lot, not just one ingredient at a time," he added.
According to him, the material for making an aquascape depends on the desired theme. There are themes that have a lot of material and there are themes that are not complicated.
Aquascape has many elements such as hardscape, equipment, accessories, fish and much more. For example, if you want to make a Minimalist Bonsai quascape, you need a materials such as basic fertilizer, sand, hardscape, sandstone, coconut shells, bacteria house and so on.
besides of a large capital, the obstacle that occurs in making an aquascape is that the materials needed are sometimes not available in Bangka. One of them, Rasamala and Risilam plants that come from high mountains, so they cannot be found in Bangka. For this reason, Ujang ordered and sent the materials from outside Bangka Island.
"The ingredients for making Aquascape are also sometimes difficult to find on this island, such as risilam and rasamala which must be found in high mountains. So, I have to order and send them here again," he said.
Ujang and his wife also often participate in a competitions. According to him, the most memorable competition is when he got the grand champion at ICE BSD Tangerang, which was followed by countries in Southeast Asia, made him even more enthusiastic to pursue the world of aquascape.
In addition to increasing capital, Ujang also wants to build his own mini farm and fish farm from Micro Small Business Funding obtained from PT Timah Tbk.
"My plan is to make a mini farm so that we don't depend on outsiders anymore and also make fish farms as well," he said.
According to him, the small capital business funding program is very helpful for MSME actors to develop their businesses.
"I see this program is very helpful for small businesses to develop, because the funds obtained are indeed for business capital," he said.
Well, for those of you who want to see a variety of aquascape collections made by Ujang, you can come to Rinjani Aquascape PGK located on Jalan Depati Hamzah, Bacang, Bukit Intan, Pangkalpinang City.*
