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Concrete Mountain Landscape

Basviola

Member
Joined
3 Apr 2019
Messages
122
Location
Denmark
The idea
A couple of mountains with a mountain range in the background. Spaces for aquasoil in built into the rocks and lifted up to different levels of height, some right below the lamp, at the top of the mountains. So I hope to bring smaller foreground plants up into the mountains!

The aquarium
128 liters Aqua stable, (80x40x40)cm

Filtration
HMF filter, 600 L per hour, Eheim compact.

Powerhead for better cirkulation. Will be placed in the back left corner cave, with openings behind the high mountain and front left corner.

Light
Chihiros VIVID RGB

Substrate
From bottom and up in layers:
Sphagnum, Rexolin(micro) and red clay granulat, 2 layers of each, at least in the back in this case!
Topped with aquasoil mixed with black gravel 3 mabe 4/1

Hardscape
Cement, sealing mixed with color pigment. (I used Makemake products, same method used bigscale i many zoo's and so on)
The concrete done in 2 layers on a modeled support structure. In this case mountains shaped in flamingo, to scratch out after second layer of concrete cures.
Painted with Color fix mixed with white and black color pigment.
Glued in place with silicone.

Livestock
RSC
Amano shrimp
?

Picture journey
Getting into aquascaping, building this scape and going high tech:

Hardscape to be glued in place:
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With the original sketch on the table, the mesh can begin!!!

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A powerhead may need to be installed in the cave to ensure proper flow. The water will then hopefully be sucked from the back top left of the aquarium to the front opening of the cave.
Maybe the bazooka Co2 atomizer could be placed down there with the powerhead blowing co2 over the carpet.

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Here I have tried to illustrate some of the areas that will be filled with aqua soil. Behind the mountain left is a decent amount of soil upbove the cave to grow f.eks. some red stems.

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With PU foam I glued in a curved 3mm acrylic plate on the top of the mountain on the right side, so it can hold a good solid amount of soil on/in top of the mountain straight up by HMF.

The plate is covered in pu foam in the picture, allso I tried to shape the mountains giving sove ekstra volume here and there.


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Happy days!!

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All over... I mean really ALL OVER the place!! =)


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I am satisfied and am looking forward to getting started with concrete! The green plastic is simply to better visualise how it will look plantet.
I made a little video showing this base structure from different angles:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IH4n1pnI6Apa1lOLDHOEp3Td1rNQEeIw/view


The concrete
First layer of concrete with fiber and no carving/detailing.
Second layer no fiber and with detailing by carving and so on.

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First layer with fiber reinforcement

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First layer with fiber reinforcement

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First layer



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Second layer with carving, can be done after concrete has cures for about 2-4 h

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Second layer

The paint job
I used color fix and white and black color pigment.

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Ekstra stone to place around... dont ask me why I made them so similar in size and round!!

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Aktive substrate with micro ferts.

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First i filled up the different holes that should hold soil.

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First layer of spagnum, rexolin is ready to be thrown in.

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Red clay granulat to absorb the nutrients and release to plats.

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Second layer of sphagnum, only applied to the back. After that Rexolin again and red clay, all in layers.





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Insektnet, mostly to protect the aktive substrate from me, but also if I would like to have fish that digs around some day!


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On top of that a mix of aquasoil and black gravel... most parts is aquasoil... reused aquasoil I must admit! But only used for 5-8 month. =)

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Some old pump material used to support substrate.


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Ready for the smaller stones

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This is my hardscape!

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Or maybe this...
 

Attachments

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I had to rig up a CO2 system, and as my two tanks are in the children's room the solution I went with was to customize an IKEA play kitchen:

Ju
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Just there left to the kitchen, thats the spot!

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Add on for the kitchen almost done...

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Now I just need to make a hidden way through the plate! So I can adjust the needle valves.


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Really tight, not gonna be pretty from behind.


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Hole done!! Also made a switch, so I can easily turn on and off the powerhead in the HMF filter on the tank to the left.


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And the kids are happy! =)


Thanks for watching, all critique is very welcome...
 
DSM and Yoghurt mos combo

On the 7. december... late night I enjoyed myself with planting following 1 2 Grow plants from Tropica.

2 pots of MC
2 pots of HC
1 pot of Eleocharis mini
1 pot of Alternanthera reineckii Mini

It felt better than any christmas evening i can remember from I was a kid!!!

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First bit of MC in the tank!


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That was to pots of monte carlo!

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Last plants added. HC in the back and on top of mountains. Hairgrass along the mountains, and Alternanthera here and there.

I sure hope this turns out good!

I have blended also blended some Christmas mos and "painted" on the rocks... Can anyone confirm if I can use this for Yoghurt method, as Nigel is mentioning to use fine mosses in his video? At least I will find out now!


Today. 10 december I wiped the glass to take this picture:
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I am really happy with the scape. I will properly add the blue sky back to the sides also, and black when ever "inside" rock.

I will keep you guys updated.

Thanks.
 
Thanks for all the support guys, I really appreciate it!

What i do now looking after the DSM
Ventilate the tank 2-3 times a day. I spray pretty much everytime i ventilate, I think I might spray the tank to much... but somehow I keep doing it!! No signs of mold yet!

I spray with 4-5 dl RO water to 4-5 drops Tropica Premium and 4-5 drops Tropica Specialised.
Until now i sucked up excess water every second day. And I try to spray more in the back, to keep the more elevated substrate wet.
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Small parts of plants have started to yellow a bit. Also some straws of the Eleocharis is completely brown/yellow looking dead, discharged by the plant. Should I just leave this in the tank, or would it be worth the effort cutting/peeling it away?
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Can I grow anything is those really shaded areas? Or will It be to dark for low light plants?


The VIVID is at 70% with a ramp up time on 1 or 2 h. Should I crank it up to 100% to speed up growth?
 
Very impressive @Basviola the work that's went into it and how you've pulled it off is great!

How about a shade/reflector on the front of the vivid to maybe angle some more light down into these shaded areas?
 
Er normalt ret skeptisk over for plastik og kunstige ting i akvariet, men må indrømme du er sluppet ret godt afsted med det her

ADA sælger et produkt kaldet "Unzan stone" tænker det er lignende fremgangsmåde
 
Can I grow anything is those really shaded areas?

Anubias, grows in extremely low light.. Hence the name i guess, from Anubis "The Egyptian god of the underworld."

It doesn't require soil and lives as an ephiphyte, in nature mainly to rocks.

Another option could be Lomariopsis cf. linatea.
 
So a quick update.

Christmas miss for the yogurt method did not work out for me... it looks brown and dried out.

The rest looks good, but I do not see growth yet, now 6 full days on DSM.
I hope a lot happen beneath the substrate, and plants are making them self ready to explode fill in!

Should I increase the intensity of the VIVID from the now 70% to 100% ?

Will ancistrus sp root up a established carpet of the mix of MC, HC and hairgrass?

when the tank is ready to be flooded I will buy steam plants, Bruce, and other plants for this tank... but also carpeting plants and other goodies for my other aquarium... with the sick guppys.
Will I be able to plant in vitro carpeting plants directly submerged in my other aquarium that holds 3 grown up ancistrus, or will it be a lost game from the beginning?

Sorry for all the questions... and I have been reading non stop about this hobby close to 2 years now!

But one more for now!

For now I am dosing Tropica specialized and premium in the water I mist the tank with. How much should I actually add?
I think I did 5 drops of each for a little less than a half liter bottle. On the bottle it says 5 pumps (5x 2 ml) or 100 liter aquarium water pr. week.


I will snap some pics for you guys soon.

Thanks for reading, replays and likes!


 
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