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An Experiment.......it could all go wrong

jarcher1390

jarcher1390

Member
Joined
6 Aug 2012
Messages
127
Hi All

I've now broken down my previous scape The 3 Peaks, and while I collect more mini landscape rock and the right pieces of Azalea wood to start a 200L rainbow fish scape. I decided to start a project I've had the idea 1 year ago. I never started it because I did not know how to tackle the problems I knew it would throw at me recently a friend reminded me of eggcrate a material I knew would help me build this scape. I grabbed a broken fluval edge 23L tank which had a cracked top pain and I cut the top off giving me a rimless tank at the right size and dimensions to give this idea a go.

A little info on the idea:-
  1. I've never seen it done before (and I think I know why)
  2. it will push my hardscaping skills to the limit
  3. it will not have a filter
  4. It will have only emersed growth
  5. It will have roughly 10kg of dragon stone
  6. it may look terrible in the end
  7. IT COULD FAIL, as a scape and concept.
With that in mind heres some pictures on Part One of the hardscaping done.

26550559064_a9004d8f15_o.jpgIMG_5702 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr
26882177080_8eb2f85727_o.jpgIMG_5715 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr
27061389142_4275ff4c7a_o.jpgIMG_5712 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

In the sprit of experiments ill post updates as i go and will post more photos that will share information on how I got to the end or didn't (fingers crossed for the former)

More updates to follow

Regards

Jonny
 
Another 'outside of the box' scape from jarcher, can't wait man!

When's the 200l thread starting? ;)
 
I dunno Joe. I kinda want to give a competition a go and they are apparently particular about photos of tanks that have already been online. BUT I do like the format and process of making journals and showing people how the tank unfolds. So Ill wait and see as I'm not planing to set it up for another couple of months me think
 
PHASE TWO........... UNDER CONSTRUCTION

27196461561_db447f8ce2_o.jpgIMG_0723 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr
27196456671_c52ef7e506_o.jpgIMG_0728 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

After 7 hours of further work on phase two I'm nearing completion of the most crucial structure. I have used 160ml of JBL Haru and 500ml of JBL Volcano mineral. Another couple of days and I hope I get to developing phase 3.

Ive also made some minor adjustments to phase 1 by taking the dragon stone into place and changing a stone here and there.

Stay tuned. For further updates.

Regards

Jonny
 
Hey all,

Ive finished all the hard scaping now. So this what I have come up with...............

The Pond
27354616010_9d781a1e32_o.jpgIMG_5750 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

The Cave
27598257446_6d3590111e_o.jpgIMG_5770 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

Insitu
27532738182_f9c8c7e8f2_o.jpgIMG_5785 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

One year ago I was looking up aquaponics and wondered what i could grow in my tank so it turned out that you could grow strawberries in hydroponics. I told my friends that i was thinking of doing that so they challenged me to do just that, so I came up with the idea of making a cave that would enable fish/shrimps to live in and for me to be able to plant above it. I'd never seen it done before. Thats not to say it has not i've just not come across one. I did not set out to make a easy scape to maintain that will look beautiful and grow as time goes by in fact i can imagine its going to be all downhill on cleanly ness from here :) i just wanted to see if i could make a structurally sound cave..

Now to start planting . Any ideas? I'm gonna have to get one strawberry plants though :)

Ill post construction pics soon

Regards

Jonny
 
Absolutely terrific and unique concept.. :clap: It can't be lifted out for maintenance without falling apart? Does it?. Looks like a permanent structure. Pitty the egg tray is in view from the sides. Bit of epoxy on it's sides and sprinkle it with same color sand while still wet and it's about gone..

What are you going to plant on top? Note if you choose deep rooting plants the whole tank will be one clump off roots in no time.
This is how growing vegitation on hydro cultur looks from bellow if it can grow without any restriction, in a pot those roots just coil up.. This is how it's going to look in your tank.. :)

Hidro-11.jpg


You mention strawberry, then you can expect about the same.. Here a pic of my woodland strawberry thats the small one when it comes to berries, but still rather a big boy when it comes to plantmass.. :) That brik column is about the same dimension as your tank.
DSCF7209 (Kopie).JPG


:) But with very carefull plant choice you could make something realy fun looking..
 
zozo said:
Absolutely terrific and unique concept.. :clap: It can't be lifted out for maintenance without falling apart? Does it?. Looks like a permanent structure. Pitty the egg tray is in view from the sides. Bit of epoxy on it's sides and sprinkle it with same color sand while still wet and it's about gone..

What are you going to plant on top? Note if you choose deep rooting plants the whole tank will be one clump off roots in no time.
This is how growing vegitation on hydro cultur looks from bellow if it can grow without any restriction, in a pot those roots just coil up.. This is how it's going to look in your tank.. :)

View attachment 85811

You mention strawberry, then you can expect about the same.. Here a pic of my woodland strawberry thats the small one when it comes to berries, but still rather a big boy when it comes to plantmass.. :) That brik column is about the same dimension as your tank.
View attachment 85812

:) But with very carefull plant choice you could make something realy fun looking..
Click to expand...

Thanks Zozo.

Unfortunately no it cannot be lifted out for maintenance as the egg crate is not sturdy enough. If I were to do this again I might use a thicker gauge egg crate and created a liftable "lid". As for the seeing the eggs crate I hadn't even contemplated that I would be able to see it from the side:-/ Maybe the roots will cover it up a bit. Again if i were to do this again id maybe change the position of the pond so it looks more pleasing from the front.

Yer I'm very unsure about plant choice the initial idea was for it to be a herb garden, with things like watercress. Im very much new to emersed planting so this will be a interesting experiment for me to do. I'm very likely to make a mistake but thats the fun of this project try something new and if it goes wrong I will have learnt something thats the theory at least.

Regards

Jonny
 
You could plant some deeper rooting herb plants at the back and at the front above the open cave, try mini hair grass or HC cuba and Lilaepsis Brasiliensis or monte carlo anything small and creeping roots rather shallow.. If you plant deep rooters above that cave it will be filled with roots hanging down and even grow into the sand at the bottom. Would spoil the whole setup i guess if it gets to much.

The idea is indeed great, you could even use the top layer of lava rock as filter. why not make a kind of acrylic hanging basket fitting in the tank where the drilled bottom just touches the water surface. all you need is a sheet of 2mm acrylic, can be cut with a stanley knive. Filter inlet in the back corner the filter outlet above the top. :) It's realy a fun concept you came up with.. I think it has some good potential only needs some tweaking.. :thumbup:
 
HI All

Ive contemplated my planting and although I do like scaping nice scenes my inquisitive nature won so i've decided on a more functional route and going to continue with my original aquaponics idea and go for a herb garden. As i said its an experiment and if worst come to worst i can just rip out the herbs, eat them then start again :)

27846327836_ab7daf6aa2_k.jpgIMG_5801 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

Regards

Jonny
 
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Construction
I started off with a broken edge 23 litre which was destined for the bin, i bought some egg crate and some cable ties in order to hold the structure together.

27269083894_8aadc91e57_k.jpgIMG_5671 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

As you could imagine many cups of tea were needed and a critical ingredient for long term projects.

once i got the basic structure in place. I realised that having 2 "ponds" would make it difficult to construct.
27269293713_8ef664b3e8_k.jpgIMG_0002 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr
27804691281_46e5be33c8_k.jpgIMG_0003 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

As i started the lower half this is where is started making this journal, At this point i was happy with the lower half and did not want to go further without starting the roof so i could meld the two parts together

26550559064_0b60f1fb6a_k.jpgIMG_5702 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

Once i was happy with the overall composition it was time to start to start cladding the egg crate to make the roof of the cave.

27269113224_0a5f438cb5_k.jpgIMG_0001 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

I glued each piece to the egg crate making sure each piece had the most contact with crate as possible other wise it would not stick.

27269097274_a00f79f042_k.jpgIMG_0721 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

Although this worked it was too flexible and wouldn't hold any substrate on top of this. After some more contemplation I remembered that I could "concrete" the slab using haru and JBL volcano mineral which would create a "floor\ ceiling". The idea also made the cladding much more structurally sound. add filled all the gaps that would have let the soil through.

27269100464_57d4d81685_k.jpgIMG_0722 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

Unfortunately i over did the cladding and the roof did not sit flush and i had to redo parts of the ceiling a couple of times

27603164350_b595a144fa_k.jpgIMG_0719 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

27603163480_049fa9b3e4_k.jpgIMG_0718 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

Once i could meld the two parts together i finished the lower half added detail and some orange sand to reflect some light without it looking too out of place. In all honesty once i finished this i kinda didn't want to add the ceiling as i would have enjoyed scaping as it was in this photo.

27603189960_0f3db7277e_k.jpgIMG_0004 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

Now to add the two parts together and make a wall to fill up the top with volcano mineral. In the photo below u can see the parts which had cladding and the "concrete" and the back left i left as is as it was a wall below it. the two parts are not glued together in any way and could come apart but not easily and would probably be a one way trip.

27780066512_c928432dac_k.jpgIMG_5735 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

Some of you may have noticed a stick with some cable ties.... this is the only part of the ceiling i struggled with at keeping level and stumped me for days, however i was going over the forth rail bridge looked over at the road suspension bridge across the water and that gave me this little idea. Whether it holds in the long run i don't know but we shall see in time.

27269109684_579ee4bd29_k.jpgIMG_5743 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

It should be noted that the two stone pillars on the right (see below) are stuctually integral and where glued to the bottom of the tank for stability. and the wood in the scape was an attempt to connect both halves (i feel i somewhat fails on that part)

27598257446_463743b0da_k.jpgIMG_5770 by Jonathan Archer, on Flickr

Any questions? Just fire them my way.

Regards

Jonny
 
Did you ever grew rocket before? This is a plant you need to cut when very young to eat them.. Only the young leaves taste good, the older they get the taste also changes to rather not so good, loose texture and get rather though. They grow like crazy, hence the name rocket, if you don't cut the youg leaves it will shoot a very long flower stem. Not a particularly atractive ornamental plant to grow.. :)
 
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