125L Iwagumi. "New beginning"

[Lauris]

Hello there!

As I said it before and I can say it again - to join this form was the best ever thing I have done.
Thank you all for a brilliant advice on my algae issues with heavy planted (chaos style )
tank. ( Guess what!? Algae issues! Help needed please! | UK Aquatic Plant Society )

.. Now it is history. All plants are gone, Rummy noses and pair of dwarfs will go in quarantine
tank from tomorrow, rest of the fishes and nearly all driftwood - gone. Wasn't an easy step
forward for me in terms of to take out everything and give it away. but this is a step closer
to my dream..

..this will be my second year in aquariums. Lots of things learned.. a lot of more ahead..

So once again - of what I have, I'm sure I will ask a lot of Q regards to DSM, Lights, Co2 and Ferts
Size: 125L
Filtration: 2 externals 440L\h each.
Light: Bulbs: 1 x 28w JBL Color 10k, 1 x 28w JBL Nature 9k
Total W on 125L = 105w
Co2 & Ferts: EI + Carbo once the water will go in, Co2 system
will be purchased before flooded
Soil : ADA Amazone + ADA powder Amazone series
Planned Plants: Cuba (what a surprise ). Will see in the process what will go in with it.

Tomorrow my tank will be emptied from old gravel and rest of the fish.
Will try to clean it and prepare it for new soil and rocks. Once they
will go in I might ask for an advice on composition. Will keep this one updated

So far everything is just getting ready...

 

[Lee Sweeting]

Good luck louris, looking good so far

 

[Lauris]

work in progress tonite..

 

[Lee Sweeting]

I love the fact that you have taped out a golden ration grid on your tank. Looking forward to seeing the end result Lauris.

 

[Lauris]

thanks. yeah. I thought It would be less pressure on my imagination
when grip will be visualised so I can focus on working within a real
frame. once I will be +/- happy with my results I will come back for advice
and with photos I have the composition more or less in place.. now I need to
let it settle down. I still don't like the contradictions in lines (directions),
so I will keep working on this before I'll come up with the result..

 

[Lauris]

ok.. so far..
Yesterday was a deeem busy eve for me.. Took out everything completely from my tank.
A set-up for rummy noses and pair of dwarfs was completed. 25L tank. They will need to
accept it for another 2-3 months. (my wife said I have no feelings as I took away all plants
from fishes away and removed them to nearly empty 5x smaller cheap plastic "jar" *grin* )

Removed black acrylic paint (i thought it will be more difficult but no - came off from the
background nearly in one peace with Mr.Muscle window cleaner help ).. One filter
assigned to 25L tank, another cleaned and stored till the new set-up will be flooded..
And after a good wash in back-garden the new project started to take its shape..

As yesterday it was a looong nite with cleaning, removing, re-homing and doing things around I did what I did
and was not too happy about the results. As I'm not a big fan of compositional ratio 1:3 (fill:dead air).. so today with
fresh mind and BIG mug of coffee decided to do some digital scratches with adding things to make it look as
close as possible to the scape I want.. So this is what I came up with. Now it has the frame fill ratio 2:3..

I think I will stay with this. I might move a rocks a bit to match the directions of lines but I think more or less
this will be very near to what I would like to have. Need to find some decent bogwood to work on its shape
As I will keep this idea to settle down for a 2-3 weeks any suggestions are welcome...

 

[Lauris]

update: i guess it is the right time about to leave the
CO2 DIY in past. It was fun, it did its job(+/- ), but it was a
hussle too... Just ordered this for my new baby ..

 

[Lauris]

Today visited my LFS. It was not on purpose (as usually ), but lucky me..
One of the assistants just finished trimming of one display tank, during the discussion
I got about 3 portions of moss for price of 1 portion. I'm quite delighted I paid only 10 eur
for this.. and this was the moss I was exactly looking for to try to grow on my tree.
Got a few good advices on the DSM method it self as well as the guy does it mainly for all
his display tanks. Got in some information and suggestions on how to deal with it..

Between, I forgot the moss name.. any ideas? Can someone please help with the ID of this one?

 

[Lee Sweeting]

Spikey moss?

 

[Lauris]

Spikey moss?

might be. But it looks like this (taken from exactly this setup):

 

[Lauris]

as I predicted this before, after few hours of staring decided to move small things around
to make some corrections in composition..

*1 smashed to half giant stone
*2 lifted the stone up and moved a bit away from the side wall
*3 buried some stones
*4 created grotto

*1 moved away stones from walls and filled with soil so I can use the space for planting

grotto

full view

Now I'm more happy as I was. Maybe for 99.9%, so I can leave a bit for improvement
but as you may know this 99.9% condition is no too stable

 

[Lauris]

Moss Update:
Called to shop, have been told it is not Xmas moss (kind of Phoenix moss)
If I searsh by the name Phoneix moss - it's nothing near to it..
I dunno.. by the pictures located in Google I can tell it is Xmass moss
I'll stay with it *blink*
Anyway - it starts to feel well.. Adding a bit of EI and easy carbo daily
New shoots appearing. It makes me happy! And it gives me a hope
it will feel very well in the 125L set-up (hopefully)

 

[Lauris]

Hardscape update:
So as I was not happy (whatta surprise for myself ) with the right side composition
in new scape, I decided to do some changes again. As I'm happy for the look of the 2/3rds
from left I cut off that part of the scape digitally and worked only with the R side of the scape.
The issue did not pop out too much when looking on the whole picture (but for me it was
noticeable anyway) ..the levels of rocks have been placed before made just look it flat.
Once I found it out I could not sit still. y tank is not too big, so I cannot afford to look it flat in
one way or other. So I moved few rocks around, removed few small pieces and this is what I
came up with...

on picture it is easy to notice the changes in depth of the field "after"

and even from top it looks less mess...

and now I can say it did the job..

so nothing major..just small adjustments

 

[Curvball]

I like the changes. I can't help but feel if the left hand side, your grotto was flipped around, left to right it would really set off the whole 'scape. That higher point of the grotto more in the centre would work. Just my gut feeling based on your photos, might not work in reality.


Posted from the comfort of my iPhone...

 

[Aquamaniac Fishtanks]

This is starting to look good.
Like your aproach to planning, there's nothing like taking your time.
I used the tape on the glass for my mountain scape. It really helps.
In your digital preview you put the tree from one of Faao's tanks.
That three its amazing but in your tank I don't think it will look good. Your going for a pretty solid rockscape, the wood and tree just looks out of place.
Speacially because the rockscape on the left is the big focal point. By adding a tree to the smaller formation on the left the layout feels unbalanced.
Just my 2 cents.
Still in like how its going.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk now Free

 

[Lauris]

..but feel if the left hand side, your grotto was flipped around, left to right it would really set off the whole 'scape. That higher point of the grotto more in the centre would work.

Thank you!
My mind probably is tended to take in better the composition from top left to bottom right
And other side of the big rock does look quite flat, so I won't be able even to create the
opposite look if I would like to

That three its amazing but in your tank I don't think it will look good. Your going for a pretty solid rockscape, the wood and tree just looks out of place.
Speacially because the rockscape on the left is the big focal point. By adding a tree to the smaller formation on the left the layout feels unbalanced.

Thank you. Ok. the tree might not fit in or it just might.. But what you suggest to do with negative space?
I would love to fill the frame up to 2/3rds with leaving 1/3rd only to the negative space. This tree might fill it
nicely.. or maybe I can try to fit in tree but more suitable for this scape? Like without bushy bush on the top
but just with different moss attached, just like a "dead" tree (as I have a hard rockscape) with branches leading
opposite direction to stones?

ok... this one is going to be a one mess.. I took out the colours and details about the scape leaving only the shape..

this is how it looks like now.. RED means direction of composition , BLUE - negative space I'm trying to avoid

at this point the direction leads "out of frame" what isn't bad at some cases

In this one (if tree added) the direction of composition stays within the frame what makes it a bit statistic at
one point but still - hitting off the subject and moving back to where it starts..

- blue subject (big rock&grotto) is the main focus point as it is big enough and closer .
- red subject (tree) is in a different level what makes a great perspective and depth of field
- (don't ask me about orange )..

ok.. it might be just easier to threw in everything randomly and leave it as it is with creating a "natural"
look. but this time it is interesting for me to take in advice and to see with what I can come up with. lol

So the main Question is - to leave the tree in or exclude from the scape

I might agree the tree photoshoped in photo few posts above may not fit it, but I do believe
because of the bushy moss thing. If I change the plan to set the big bush of moss on branches
with getting a tree wrapped in some moss like this ..

May it would be be a better solution?

 

[Deano3]

A lot of planning and graphs I just went with my gut when I scaped but love the graph on the glass, and I love the rock scape but think a tree will look out of place I like a bit of empty space to watch fishes swimming around if it were me I would just have the rock as looks great, well done so far hope all comes together nicely

Dean

 

[Lauris]

ok. I think this might become to someone does like/prefer or not. I think balance wont not be dis-balanced when tree planted.
As from the point of "like" - I would like to see fishes hiding under the . I might try to plant the tree and it really will make it
worse - I will just remove it..
Anyway - I appreciate any opinion said . Thanks

 

[Trevor Pleco]

Enjoyed the thorough meticulous planning and great photoshop skills !

I agree with Aquamaniac, having basically two focal points almost competing with each other on either side of the tank perhaps confuses things a bit, is there anyway you can combine both the tree and rock/cave outcrop together... ?

The Cave outcrop looks great and very natural, so you might have to consider getting your chain saw out.

As for the moss, did you see my ID post earlier today, just wondered how these mosses compared to yours ?

 

[mede]

Nice preparations! Looking forward to see the progress of this tank....

Maybe a useful tip; don't place the rocks to close to the window as this is very annoying during (plant) maintenance.

Do you already have your tree and does it fit like your sketches?