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Fallen branch; regrowth.

I really need to try me one of these all details tanks. It’s a stunner.
Crypts have always had the rep for melting so I’ve always planted them as just the core rosette - no pretty but most successful.
Thanks @Garuf, yeah I haven’t had a great track record with them but just can’t bring myself to trim all the leaves before planting.
Amazing scape, love it!
Thanks @Wolf6
The scape looks great Ady! If you need to add lots of plant mass that grows rapidly to help stabilise the tank while the slow growers get established, add loads of floaters in - if you need any let me know, I chuck away a litre or two of them every week!
Thank you, and thanks for the offer but I’ve got a bit of a floater farm myself. I have added a few last night.
Mine didn't melt overnight but all the original leaves slowly deteriorated as they were replaced with new growth which is a brown/red colour.
The thing with Crypts is though, they don't always do what it says on the tin.
Cheers!
Ah thanks for that, it’s good to know first hand experience. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out :)
Really nice scape, love the little details, like the smaller pebbles at the bottom. Stunning.
Thanks @noodlesuk, I’m loving the detailing gravels at the minute :cool:
This looks amazing Ady!
Thank you Lex, I’m really enjoying looking into the scape and spend far too much time in the hallway now :lol:
 
Looks great ady, love the detail of this little scape, also that crypt hobbit 😍 obviously a small crypt i never heard of this one but looks great, lookomg forward to seeing this one mature
 
As ever scape looks excellent, hard to tell if the hobbit leaves are the emersed form, but with emersed crypt leaves it's usually a matter of time till they melt some melt in a few days others last many weeks.
Big thumbs up to using the prime also, I love mine and would be my first consideration on every tank I set up, really surprised not to see them more often used on planted tanks, especially on smaller tanks, love the small form factor, slight but not excessive shimmer and super app/controllability.
Looking forward to this develop any thoughts to fish selection yet?
 
Looks great ady, love the detail of this little scape, also that crypt hobbit 😍 obviously a small crypt i never heard of this one but looks great, lookomg forward to seeing this one mature
Thank you Dean.
I saw the crypt hobbit over the Internet somewhere recently and then when I was in @Horizon Aquatics the other day buying my plants they had some just arrived….it was meant to be :)

As ever scape looks excellent, hard to tell if the hobbit leaves are the emersed form, but with emersed crypt leaves it's usually a matter of time till they melt some melt in a few days others last many weeks.
Big thumbs up to using the prime also, I love mine and would be my first consideration on every tank I set up, really surprised not to see them more often used on planted tanks, especially on smaller tanks, love the small form factor, slight but not excessive shimmer and super app/controllability.
Looking forward to this develop any thoughts to fish selection yet?
Thanks, yeah they are emersed leaves so may or may not last.
So far I’m liking the prime, love the colour renditions you can get and the shimmer. I’m just utilising the easy set up system at the moment until I find time to go more advanced.
As far as fish are concerned I was waiting until I found the settled temperature. The tank is in the hallway so not the warmest area, however my other un-heated tanks sit at 21-22celcius. This one seems to be at 21 over the past couple of days so my options are quite good. I was thinking either ruby tetra, tucano tetra or galaxy rasbora.

Cheerio,
 
Tucano prefer it a bit warmer to stay healthy from speaking with my local fish man. 23c he said was the coolest they’d like to be long term. Galaxy or emerald would be my preference - more charming in character than Ruby’s.
 
Tucano prefer it a bit warmer to stay healthy from speaking with my local fish man. 23c he said was the coolest they’d like to be long term. Galaxy or emerald would be my preference - more charming in character than Ruby’s.
I’ll add to that “so I was told” so grain of salt.
 
Tucano prefer it a bit warmer to stay healthy from speaking with my local fish man. 23c he said was the coolest they’d like to be long term. Galaxy or emerald would be my preference - more charming in character than Ruby’s.
I’ll add to that “so I was told” so grain of salt.
Ah good to know. Seriously fish has them from 20-28 celcius so I was slightly wary anyway. To be honest galaxy rasbora were becoming more of a consideration having had some for some time in a couple of scapes and I like their character. I think also the planting will suit their behaviour and needs as will my water…..although for quite some time I have considered adding remineralisation to my very soft water as I have an itch for some guppies……this may not be the ‘fresh’ looking scape they would suit though 🤷‍♂️
Thanks for the input :)
 
ruby tetra, tucano tetra or galaxy rasbora.
I think galaxy rasbora would be your best bet at that temperature. They’ll look lovely in there, the males are spectacular when sparring with each other in and out of the plants.
 
Endlers are real beauties and have a charm that comes from their stupidity and constant motion. I really love the ones sold as “watercolour” they are like a pastel drawing of a wild form.

Going the total other way, a small brown fish with a tiger barb type colouration could be reallllll nice.
 
Maybe a small rasbora/barb may be better in unheated tanks, but pretty sure either ruby or tucanos would be fine at low 20's, I personally love the subtle ruby tetra a male in good condition is stunning much nicer than the 🥱 ember tetra.
 
Ahh, decisions decisions. I’ll see over the coming weeks how things develop and make a more informed choice on fish then.

In the mean time it’s daily early morning water changes….
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I’ve got nice clear water now :)
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Cheerio,
 
Very nice and as said some sort of rasboras look great in there, do you literaly drain and refill in week 1 and pick out loose leaves etc but is that all you do ? Just curious, i have been doing that and a slight waft of the leaves?

Also i am having a nightmare with floating plants as loads of bits of monte carlo floating amongst the red root floater and my lilly pipes are strong flow so have to place in a ring so when drain they go all over 🤣 but looks great so far ady
 
Very nice and as said some sort of rasboras look great in there, do you literaly drain and refill in week 1 and pick out loose leaves etc but is that all you do ? Just curious, i have been doing that and a slight waft of the leaves?

Also i am having a nightmare with floating plants as loads of bits of monte carlo floating amongst the red root floater and my lilly pipes are strong flow so have to place in a ring so when drain they go all over 🤣 but looks great so far ady
Hi Dean, yes just drain and refill for the most part and remove any loose leaves. I’ll also siphon any fungus from the wood that is easily accessible with the hose. I may even give the glass a wipe if necessary.
I try to remove my floating plants when trimming but feel your pain during water changes.
Cheerio,
 
This is stunning.
The fish choice will be hard for this, as I would want some to compliment the feel of the scape. And something Slow and Graceful to drift around aimlessly amongst the twigs and branches. How about some rocket pencil fish, they would drift about the upper levels in-between the twigs etc.
 
This is stunning.
The fish choice will be hard for this, as I would want some to compliment the feel of the scape. And something Slow and Graceful to drift around aimlessly amongst the twigs and branches. How about some rocket pencil fish, they would drift about the upper levels in-between the twigs etc.
Thanks Gill, those tickets pencilfish would look great but I fear they may jump….I really don’t want crisps on the floor :(
 
1 week old.
Today I planted the final plants in this scape.
I had been awaiting some bolbitis heteroclita difformis from my local @Horizon Aquatics. They arrived yesterday, so during todays water change I added them to the branch.

Without:
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With:
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FTS, without:
6BB25DA9-76C1-435E-93EF-F6868A769512.jpeg

FTS, with:
A3636005-544B-455D-9ADA-592D85D2AA66.jpeg


I was slightly concerned after viewing the tank for a week without the difformis that i prefered it with the fully exposed uprights, however in person I like it and that was always my intended plant plan. I wanted a small fern like plant to give a nod to ferns growing on branches in nature. With this slow grower I should easily be able to maintain the silhouette and openness still left between the fronds.

I will get my water tested in the coming days and if the mature water and media has helped the cycle I may well add the first batch of shrimp :)

Touch wood everything is going as it should. No melt, I can see plants rooting but there is a little wood fungus as to be expected that I am siphoning with an airline during water changes.
I will keep on with daily water changes for another week. Depending on the water test results I may reduce volume down to around 50-75% per day, especially if I add livestock.

Cheerio,
 
Update.
Once all plants became available again I began planting.
I split into two phases, firstly the substrate planted part, and then the epiphytes over the course of a couple of nights. This was more down to available time but it’s just worth noting that we don’t have to plant all in one sitting. Simply soak your plants and substrate, cover the tank with cling film and that will maintain sufficient moisture to prevent the plants from drying out :)
The plants used are:
Bucephelandra kedegang
Bucephelandra mini needle leaf
Bucephelandra serimbu brown
Anubias nana pongolino
Taxiphyllum barbieri
Riccardia chamedryfolia
Marsilea hirsuta
Marsilea crenata
Eleocharis acicularis mini
Cryptocoryne albida brown
Cryptocoryne parva
Cryptocoryne lutea ‘hobbit’

I think I will add some red root floaters also.

The plants are intentionally mainly slower growing which won’t need massively regular trimming sessions. I wanted this style as space is limited with the complex hardscape so keeping the hands out is a good thing for longevity :)
Subsequently lighting intensity will be kept modest through the AI prime light unit.

The substrate planting was completed in dry soil as I find this easier:
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My new favourite plant, cryptocoryne lutea’hobbit’…..hopefully it doesn’t melt :oops:
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Cling filmed over ready for round two the next day….
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The second phase was the epiphytes…..
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During this phase I noticed an imbalance of hardscape on the far right hand side towards the foreground.
The scape appeared to end prematurely so I decided to add an extra piece of Talawa wood. I broke a small branch from a larger piece and glued it to some small stones to keep it from floating. I then added more buce mini needle leaf to fit with the existing planting. The final result just finishes the scape off as I intended.
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I cling filmed the tank over again ready to fill and install running gear the next day.
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Here is the scape filled and operational:
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I filled the tank with about 1/3 ‘old’ water from my 30c cube scape ‘Twenty Seven Thousand’ and also added some mature bio media from the filter on that tank to hopefully cycle this tank faster. I will carry out large daily water changes for at least a week, potentially longer, whilst the tank balances.
Lighting is set to a relatively low intensity using about 13w of power.
I’m hoping not to experience melt however I have suffered this a lot in recent scapes so do fear the worst. In a tank like this where it is more reliant upon crypts and the buce for plant mass I really don’t want them to fail…..:nailbiting:🤞

Cheerio,
Awesome scape 👍 Looking forward to se how it involves matures 🤓
 
Looks great @Ady34 i like the bolbits and as said you can easily keep in check, i have did daily water changes for 8 days now but back at work today so going to every other day now hopefully all ok, i am going to horizon when off for some more hra and maybe a few more pots of mpnte carlo as loads just seems to have disappeared 😅 anyway i think looking great so far mate
 
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