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Rescape idea, pet rocks?

GlassWalker

Member
Joined
30 Jun 2014
Messages
205
Location
Swindon
I've been thinking about my biggest freshwater tank and I'm not finding it as satisfying as the one it replaced. Took me a while to put my finger on it, but it is the plants! The old one had hardly any, but not none, giving the fish more room to show themselves off.

I don't think rearranging or changing plants alone is going to do it for me. So now I've decided to do a rescape. The only question is what to?

I'm thinking I'd like to try my old formula again, which is to keep a fair amount of space empty for the fish. I think I'd like to try using rocks as the feature. Before it was bogwood and I find it difficult to get pieces the right shape. I could well have a similar problem with rocks...

Tank is a Fluval Vicenza 260L. Roughly 4ft long, almost 2ft tall bowfront. Fish stock is mostly tiger barbs, odessa barbs and glass catfish. I can't rehouse them so this will be a fish-in rescape. Existing substrate is fine black sand.

I've not decided on a final plan by any means so would welcome ideas. I'm just starting to search for interesting shape/size/texture rocks but any pointers to suppliers of such would be welcome. I've seen some nice mountain scapes, if they're a bit common now. Maybe an underwater cave theme of some sort? With columns and mini-caves. That'll make lighting an interesting challenge!

The replanting might be interesting... but that could only be decided once I've decided on the rocks. I do hope to go for a low maintenance tank this time. Pet rocks are low maintenance right? :)

Additional: I want to keep soft water so carbonate based rocks are out.
 
You could use redmoor root with java fern tied to it and a sandy substrate. Just lift out the wood with plants attached when you want to vac the sand :) Can't get much lower maintenance than java fern.
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I've never needed a sand vac, well, apart from one time a bag of purigen burst and got into the main tank. So being able to remove plants isn't helpful. While I wont rule out the use of roots, I'm thinking more rock and moss layout of some sort.
 
I started collecting rocks and bought a collection of assorted large rocks last night. Still on the lookout for more, but it is enough to start planning ahead. I'm thinking it would be nice if the rocks could be covered in moss. I'm thinking java moss, but is there a particular type of moss that is better suited to this application?

At the rate I'm going at, I doubt I can do the rescape this year, but I have got a spare tank I could use to grow on the moss to the rocks before moving in. Does that sound like a good idea? If I put it in the main tank I'm sure the fish will knock off any loose moss in no time.
 
I personally find rocks fairly high maintenence, especially cleaning them - I am quite lazy though :thumbup:. My tank is exactly as Lindy described, it's very useful to be able o lift out your whole hardscape, especially if you want to tie bit onto it etc. I'm surprised you don't need a sand vac now and again, mine get's filthy after a week or so although you can't actually see it until it's being sucked up the tube.

I've got Fissidens Fontanis (sp?) on my wood although it does grow incredibly slowly (for me), it's the nicest looking moss, Java moss will probably grow a bit quicker though.
 
I never clean hard surfaces, other than the glass front if needed. What is there to clean on them? Well, I'm not immune to the dusting of diatoms, but I don't get algae in that tank. Don't know how it works, but the sand remains clean. I think I have enough circulation and aggressive fish, that even with overgrown plants, that dirt is collected by the filters. One filter usually ends up with black water once I finished rinsing the sponges in it.

So my plan at the moment is once I get enough rocks, I'll do a practice arrangement outside of the tank. Then if I have enough spare volume, try to cultivate the moss over the rocks to give it a weathered look. Once settled, I'll try introducing it into tank for real.

Not sure how to get any moss yet. I'm not sure I want to mail order it in this cold weather. Don't recall seeing any local sources either.
 
t14-20140104.jpg

I know I'm not going to win any awards for either the scape or the photo. This is a work in progress shot of the tank revamp on the weekend. Significantly less plants than before. Tank livestock now include mix of perhaps 50+ crystal red/black bee shrimps, 2 or 3 amano shrimps, a bunch of white cloud mountain minnows and copper harlequins, and about 40+ ember tetras. Oh, there are some glass catfish in there too, but I haven't seen them since adding. And finally, there's about a million MTS and 3 assassin snails. I saw an assassin get a kill for the first time tonight, but they're seriously outnumbered.

Plant wise there isn't a lot of anything. A few bits of vallis, with spiral bits? Believe that is flowering, for better or worse. That's java fern up front, and I did put some stem plants in the corners where they're less likely to overgrow into a problem. Couple of crypts in the middle, and aponogeton crispus in the back to fill a hole. It is also my favourite bigger plant.

I've not settled on a final arrangement for the rocks, and may yet still add/remove/rearrange them. Once that is done I do intend to try and train moss over it. Not something I tried before...

Tank is low tech. I removed most of the lights and only have an Interpet 18W LED array in there. No added CO2. Having difficulty keeping the TDS down for the shrimp, but KH is about 1.1 or 1.2, with pH not varying more than a couple of points from 6.6 regardless of the time of day. I will put in a low dose of ferts with water changes going forward.

Suggestions for improvement or comments welcome.
 
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