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60x30x30 Black Rock Landscape

J

jvcdk

Seedling
Joined
3 Sep 2012
Messages
18
Hey there, I'm new here and new to high tech plant aquariums. I have had a very successful aquarium as regards fish but now I've become infatuated with beautiful planted aquariums, as seen on this site.

Hardware:
- Tank: Second hand rimless aquarium from an Eheim starter set, it would seem. 60x30x30 cm, 54 L.
- Filter: Second hand Eheim 2213 with lily pipe ordered from Ebay seller.
- Light: Odyssea Dual Pro T5 HO Fluorescent Light 2x24 watt.
- Substrate: Tropica Plant Substrate capped with Akvastabil Orbit 1-2 mm.
- Hardscape: Rocks found locally along the shoreline.
- CO2: DIY yeast with Ebay ceramic diffuser.

- Plants: Glossostigma Elatinoides as a carpet and Eleocharis acicularis (Dwarf Hair Grass). Nutrient sponges in the upstart phase: Elodea and Java Moss.
- Fauna: White Cloud Mountain Minnows or another small species which can live with a water temperature around 20-22 degrees. I also considered Danio Margaritatus/Galaxy Rasbora but they are difficult to find around here and expensive. Neon Tetra is another option. Suggestions are welcome. I will also have some Amano Shrimp and Red Cherry Shrimp. I might consider Otocinclus as well, but that depends on which other fish I get.

Here is my setup so far:
y7Wip.jpg

W2BZq.jpg

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my lily pipes from Hong Kong and plants from Germany. In the meantime, I got impatient and bought some Glossostigma and Elodea locally. I have put them in the window and tried my hand at a CO2 mixture, which is happily bubbling away after I sealed the bottle properly with a bit of glue. I wanted to practice planting and making a yeast mixture and hopefully have a bit more plants in the aquarium once the rest arrive.
SglAu.jpg
 
Be careful with the CO2 via yeast with decent lighting, I found it hard to maintain a stable CO2 rate and gave up in the end on the same sized aquarium.
 
Other members voiced this concern as well.Would it help if I raised the light, say, 30-40 cm above the aquarium? Perhaps even more than that? How about obscuring one of the light bulbs?
 
uiKRG.jpg


The planting was difficult and took a looong time. Now I can only hope the hard work pays off. I roughed up the substrate a bit, but right now I will leave it so the plants can settle in.
 
cosmin_ruz said:
Where are the lily pipes?
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Somewhere between Hong Kong and Denmark :) It should arrive soon. My provisional tubing is a mess, I know.
 
Mark Evans said:
These rocks are just amazing! were there bigger ones laying around?
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Thank you! Yes, but this being my first planted aquarium I was worried about making it look cluttered. It was surprisingly interesting to go out and find them. They are not common around here and finding the ones with interesting details became something of a small quest.
 
I was quite surprised to see these rocks as they are exactly the same type I have been collecting for the last couple of months for my future set-up (November). I have collected them from the beach at our summerhouse in Eastern Jutland, Denmark. The best of them have very fine lines and structures. They look really good under water, as is evident from the pictures in the thread: the dark-grey color makes a wonderful contrast with green. My set-up will feature only this type of stone around a piece of drift wood. Some of them will be planted with Bucephalandra and Microsorum. As you I have become quite obsessed with stone hunting: my wife has suddenly found it surprisingly easy to get me out for a walk on the beach :D.

Thomas
 
TOO said:
I was quite surprised to see these rocks as they are exactly the same type I have been collecting for the last couple of months for my future set-up (November). I have collected them from the beach at our summerhouse in Eastern Jutland, Denmark. The best of them have very fine lines and structures. They look really good under water, as is evident from the pictures in the thread: the dark-grey color makes a wonderful contrast with green. My set-up will feature only this type of stone around a piece of drift wood. Some of them will be planted with Bucephalandra and Microsorum. As you I have become quite obsessed with stone hunting: my wife has suddenly found it surprisingly easy to get me out for a walk on the beach :D.
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Well, that is pretty funny. I found mine around Aarhus. Most of them on the little stretch from Stationsgade towards Den Permanente. I found a bunch of larger sizes that I left in a pile down there. It really is incredible how this type has lines that make it looks like the rocks is 'folding' onto itself. After discarding the idea of making a natural looking mini-landscape with rounded beach rocks like this, I also considered a beautiful red variety with horizontal lines going through it. Danish rock beaches are pretty amazing. After setting up my aquarium, I went diving in the area and I am kicking myself a bit for not doing that before.

Which size aquarium are you setting up? Make sure to put boiling water on the rocks and scrape off barnacles before putting them in.
 
tim said:
hey mate nice start very nice rocks are these collected in the uk ? if so your place could become an aquascapers hotspot :shh: my only comment would be the large rock on the left is obscured rather than highlighted by the grassy plant maybe move it to the left or right mate very nice layout though :clap:
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They were collected around Aarhus in Denmark.

I noticed that it looks off in some way, but I don't know how to fix it. Do you mean that the rock should be moved next to the plants? I considered removing the dwarf hairgrass from the rock and using it as a backdrop to the aquarium instead, putting them in a line by the back glass.

Looking good ..... do you mean a beach as in beside the sea ? If so would there not be a high salt content for a freshwater setup?
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I mean a beach by the sea. The salinity in the inner Danish sea is relatively low and we usually do not have issues with salinity in beach rocks as long as we brush them off well and clean them.
 
Now it is getting very local! I live near Aarhus and have a summerhouse near Ebeltoft, where I collected the stone. So obviously these are all from the same "source". I also considered Manten stone at one point, but it is both cheaper (free) and more fun to collect your own stone. And it adds originality (although I had hoped to be the first to actually use these stones :D).

My set-up is a shallow opti-white with dimensions 75x45x25. Plants will be Microsorum, Bucephalandra, and Fissidens attached to stone - and perhaps a larger plant growing out of the water. There will be a rather large open area with only sand. I hope to get to work with it in November (all equipment is in place).

Thomas
 
Tim, I will definitely try to replant the hairgrass at some point. Looking at pictures from the setup process, I think I will move the grass to the back as a background. The rock looks pretty good 'naked' and has enough details to still be interesting.

Thomas, I love the dimensions on your setup. The biggest complaint I have about my own setup is the dimensions of the tank, which limits the three-dimensional aspect. The height also makes it hard to fill out the space when making a minimalistic scape like mine. If you need more, I have an Ikea bag full of this rock that did not fit in my little aquarium in one way or the other. Hmm, most of them are probably not exactly the same type. I can check it out if you are interested. I just have to freight them back to the beach anyway.
 
I put five amano shrimp in there on day 3 and they are doing well. One of them is a 5 cm monster and they are all very actively sifting through the sand and climbing around on rocks, nibbling away at invisible things.

0LGXe.jpg


I cleaned the filter yesterday, put in a new sponge and greased up the impeller shaft. It now runs with only a slight buzz. I was worrying about the loudness of it, but it just needed a bit of maintenance.
 
Hi,

Thanks for the stone offer, but I already have a pile of them at our summerhouse :D

A comment on your scape: personally I would prefer the stones to be placed on their "natural" side, that is, not standing erect as many of them do. I know Amano sometimes uses this approach (e.g. with Unzan stone), but generally I prefer the more natural placement. But this is a matter of taste of course.

What is interesting about using beach rocks is that it also goes somewhat against the ADA approach where stones are almost always mountain stones. Beach stones have much more rounded shapes due to the grind of the ocean. Personally, however, I think that these softer shapes may sometimes be used to great effect.

Thomas
 
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