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Forest Diorama in a second hand beat up bowfront

Delirious

Member
Joined
15 Sep 2019
Messages
48
Location
Cambridge
SO I did my first scape a few months ago and now I feel like I'm ready for my second! I have a very vivid idea of what I want to do. My plan is to do a forest diorama moss scape with a mix of woods and millennium stone.

I have a second hand bow fronted 80 litre tank to work with Ill be setting it up backwards with the bow at the back to give more depth! though I never checked if it was actually water tight before planning all this.....thankfully as you can see, it is!

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So I have a bunch of gnarled manzanita and juniper wood from Aquarium gardens but never actually mocked it up in the sandpits. On my day off I went in and had a play.

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Kinda hard to visualise with all the equipment everywhere and the lightning, but I put my art degree into use and made this quick concept art;

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I might add more trees but its hard to see if they will all fit once the equipment is in too. But it'll have a rough gravel path up the middle and baring off to the right. Most of the trees will have some degree of moss coverage and I might add more rocks to break up the carpet some more.

Potential Plant List:

Fissidens fontanus
Christmas Moss

Weeping Moss
Riccardia chamedryfolia
Hemianthus Callitrichoides Cuba
Pogostemon Helferi
Hydrocotyle tripartita Japan
Hydrocotyle verticillata
Eleocharis Acicularis Hairgrass
Cryptocoryne Pygmaea
Bucephalandra Caterina
Anubias Pangolino
Anubias Bonsai
Marsilea Hirsuta
Bolbitis Difformis
Hygrophila pinnatifida


I understand that a mostly moss scape will be an algae magnet so I plan on throwing in some extra supporting plants that wont be there when the scape has matured;

Ceratopteris Thalicroides
Lindernia rotundifolia
Limnobium laevigatum


Things are on hold for now until after Christmas when i can afford the equipment :D

Suggestions welcome and I've ran out of things to say!

To be continued....
 
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Reverse bow fronted tank....genius!

Some very nice hardscape there and impressive ideas for only your 2nd scape :thumbup:
 
Progress! So I sold my old 170L AquaOne tank that was taking up room on the cabinet I wanted to use for this scape and put the bow front in its place! I bought my hardscape yesterday and got stuck in. This is my mix of juniper, gnarled manzy wood and millennium stone I have to work with.

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I bought prodibio soil and Tropica powder (but only ended up using the powder.) I'm also using this gravel for the foreground! Handsome little pebbles that look like miniature river skipping stones :D

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Ill be using Oase expanding foam and Pro Haru glue to keep the branches and rocks in place to make maintenance easier...I didn't think to glue the rocks down on my first scape so I have to hold the rocks still while I scrub them....Ill also use the foam to help bank up the back and keep the small stones at the back stuck down.

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It took me a while to get used to the foam.....it took a long ass while to harden and didn't seem to expand much at all. But once I fixed my expectations and used it to its strengths things went well and it set much firmer than I anticipated! (even if it did take a while to cure)

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Once the foam set, the branches barely even wiggle when you prod them. Below you can see I was using old dragon rock and sandwiching it between foam and pro haru to get some extra needed height....I get it, things look hella messy right now but bare with me..

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A nifty tip! Use filter floss to balance the branches while they set so you don't end up holding it for 30 minutes ;)

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Nearly there! all the "trees" are in and the foam is set. Looks a little furry, ill snip off the stuck filter floss next before adding the soil and gravel.

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Here we are! powder and gravel in! You'd have never have guessed all that mess was underneath, there is still a good inch of soil on top of the banked foam at the back. I'm not planning on using any heavy rooters so the shallow soil shouldn't be a problem.

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Adding more details, lots of little roots and a few more rocks. I have millennium stones left so Ill likely smash these up for some chippings to put at the front to break up the transition from rock to pebble.

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In the new year ill be buying the rest of the setup and moving on to the next step! planting!



....to be continued x2
 
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Really good build and a unique look. Will be looking forward to further updates :thumbup:
 
Don't forget to leave yourself a bit of breathing space around the branches for cleaning the glass and general maintenance. I've just made that mistake myself and now don't really look forward to the weekly clean up routine.
 
Got my frogbit ready for the tank when its up and running. Was growing it in my 55L but they were taking over so had to sit them in these boxes soaking up the light from the forest scape.

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And the same with these fissidens and christmas moss I got from Geoff :)

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Plants!

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Mixed up some watered down ADA ECA spray that i sprayed on the wood/rocks before gluing my moss down. In theory should help the moss root quicker.

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Looking nice and spooky after its first fill :D

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But I clearly didn't glue this down well enough.....rooky mistake

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2 weeks old, now has some yellow shrimp in there, fish soon! thinking of getting Galaxy Rasbora!

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