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Golden rock- 4 weeks growth, background plants added 5/8/08

AndyTaylor

Member
Joined
1 Jul 2008
Messages
62
So, finally I got to start my 'temporary' 3 foot tank at my new address in the west. This was supposed to be a holding tank for my fish for a few months until I get to set up the 5 foot tank in the living room.

I think this tank may be a little more permanent than that, somehow.

Anyway, what do you think?

DSCF6190.jpg


I liked the red moor wood but no sooner had I filled the tank than it decided to float. :angry: I think, on balance, that the tank looks better with one type of wood.

DSCF6194.jpg


Shiny new Eheim 2026, very kindly seeded by Peter in Aquapaws Galway, fair play to him.

DSCF6207.jpg


I finally settled on this. It needs tonnes more plants, particularily some big ferns midway up the tank to shade the crypts low down. A hairgrass/E. Tennellus carpet, maybe?
The E. Stellata isn't too healthy at the moment but I think it'll live. Loads more crypts to come and more mosses.
CO2 is steady at just slightly into yellow on the drop-checker. I'll leave it at that level until i'm ready to add fish. I'm dosing trace as API Leafzone for the week.

Fingers crossed. All advice or comments on the layout are welcome.



DSCF6208.jpg


3 foot Oceanfree rimless
ADA Amazonia II
Tropica Substrate
ADA Tourmmaline BC, Bacter 100, Clear Super
Pressurised FE CO2/Spiro 5000 diffuser.
Arcadia 4 x 39W T5
Eheim 2026 (loads of flow)
Dosing liquid trace for a while
CO2 @ a bit more than 30ppm
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress

It looked much better with the redmoor wood in my opinion. You could tie it down so that it doesn't float.
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress

I'd have to agree, the dry pic is really nice. Do you have any smaller cobbles? Those ones are a likr out of scale. Sorry to sound so negative, just trying to help. :)
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress

Dan Crawford said:
I'd have to agree, the dry pic is really nice. Do you have any smaller cobbles? Those ones are a likr out of scale. Sorry to sound so negative, just trying to help. :)

Not negative at all, Dan. Thanks for the input. I have a whole beach full of stones to choose from, i thought I had the scaling right. I'll have a look at it again next weekend with that in mind. (this tank is across the country from me at the moment, as I haven't moved house fully yet)

I might try it with the red wood again. Apart from the floating issue, which can be overcome, I found the 'scape more natural looking with only one type of wood.
The color contrast with the 2 woods was nice though...
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress

I agree re the single type of wood, however, I'd just use the one piece of redmoor wood.
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress

I couldn't soak my redmoor so I put some large rocks on it to hold it down for 4 weeks and let it soak in situ.

Andy
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress

Hi Andy,i think the scape you have in mind would look great if you scaled the size of the rocks down in my opinion they look too large and too white maybe some darker rocks would be less in your face so to speak sorry to be picci but its just my point of view good luck john.
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress

john starkey said:
Hi Andy,i think the scape you have in mind would look great if you scaled the size of the rocks down in my opinion they look too large and too white maybe some darker rocks would be less in your face so to speak sorry to be picci but its just my point of view good luck john.

Interesting you should say that, John. The original scape was to have darker rocks but I changed my mind at the last minute.
I'll re-scape on Saturday with smaller, darker stones and see how it looks.

Thanks for the comments, everyone. This is a great way to learn.

Andy
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress

Hi Andy,

Nice setup, other than the rocks that peolpe have already mentioned, seem to big really for me too.
I kind of like the wood so maybe play with some new rocks and see the effect ;)

Good luck :)
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress

One productive aquascaping weekend later...

DSCF6220.jpg


Turns out you guys were right about the size of the stones :D so I replaced all of them with smaller, darker ones. I think it looks much better. Thanks for the advice.
The Limnophilia is way too stemmy so I trimmed it way back after i took the shot. I'm not sure I like it so I may replace it with a Rotala of some kind. (suggestions?)
There's one stem of E. Stellata and a tiny bit of Downii planted in front, hopefully they'll take off. I plan to use the Downii for a carpet on the left side.
I like the E. Tennellus but I think I need a mid-ground plant between it and the bogwood. Blyxa maybe? and move the longs stems to behind the hardscape?
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress - Rescaped - 22.07.08

Ray said:
A sucessful rescape indeed - looking much better - I think thats' going to look good when it fills out.

Do you have any kind of divider between your AquaSoil and the sand, to stop them mixing?

Yeah, it's definitely improved but still a way to go yet. I thought that I wanted it to look a bit jungle-y but now I think it looks untidy! :lol:

I made a divider out of coco pots (not cocopops!) to divide the AS and the sand but it didn't work so well. Most of it is divided.

Time to leave it grow in for a few weeks before changing anything, I think. No algae as yet, not even cloudy water, so that's encouraging. My Amano shrimp are going in at the weekend.
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress - Rescaped - 22.07.08

Good work, a vast improvement.
Your right about a midground on the right, blyxia would work very well. I personaly would opt for more stems behind the large piece of wood and remove the cabomba. E. Stellata would get my vote or some rotala as suggested.
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress - Rescaped - 22.07.08

Thanks Dan. I agree about moving the stem plants to the back corner. That 'cabomba' is hornwort, i think. I'm not mad about it.
If I can get my lone surviving stem of E.Stellata to grow, I'd like to fill out the back right corner with it and replace the hornwort and Limnophilia completely.
There are a couple of stem plants at the end of the path that I can't identify. Either would look great as a background plant, if they'll grow.

Blyxa to divide the E. Tennellus from the bogwood and to create a mid-ground should look good. I think the color contrast will work too. Blyxa is not the easiest plant to get over here though.

So many ideas. It so much easier to assess an aquascape from photos too. I never realised that before. :)
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress - Rescaped - 22.07.08

AndyTaylor said:
That 'cabomba' is hornwort, i think.
Sorry mate, my mistake.
I'd keep the Limnophilia pal, it's a great plant and works really well with E. Stellata. Might not work tooo well if you go for a Rotala though.
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress - Rescaped - 22.07.08

Dan Crawford said:
I'd keep the Limnophilia pal, it's a great plant and works really well with E. Stellata.

Ah yeah, it's a nice plant. I think I've just let it grow too long so it looks straggly. I'll prune it back into something more compact before I decide to get rid of it!

Do you think that I need more colour contrast in the planting? I was think of adding more red-browns/oranges?
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress - Rescaped - 22.07.08

Hi Andy ..

Nice scape :) much imroved with the darker pebbles etc. For me the substrate at the front is bit deep, sloping it from front to back might help with the illusion of your sand path dissapearing into the distance. Also You might get cyno and gas bubbles getting trapped up against the front glass which can get a bit unsightly.
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress - Rescaped - 22.07.08

planter said:
Hi Andy ..

Nice scape :) much imroved with the darker pebbles etc. For me the substrate at the front is bit deep, sloping it from front to back might help with the illusion of your sand path dissapearing into the distance. Also You might get cyno and gas bubbles getting trapped up against the front glass which can get a bit unsightly.

Good point, planter. There's actually a decent slope on it but it is too deep at the front. I'm not sure I can fix it now without tearing the tank apart again.
 
Re: My latest effort - Work in progress - Rescaped - 22.07.08

AndyTaylor said:
Good point, planter. There's actually a decent slope on it but it is too deep at the front. I'm not sure I can fix it now without tearing the tank apart again.

I had the same with my tank - i.e. a good slope, but too much at the front. If I cleared some of the substrate from the front then the slope collapsed a bit.

I got around it like this...

Wait until my carpet (dwarf sag) grew in fully right up to the front.
Carefully pull up the front inch of my carpet completely
Clear the front inch of gravel.
Cross fingers that the reamining carpet holds up the slope
Wait for the carpet to regrow over the new 'lower' slope.

The slope did slip a little, so I removed more gravel and pushed the remaining carpet platns a bit deeper into the substrate (as their roots were now showing. I'm 10 days in and so far so good ;)



I realise this isn't much use to you right now, but I thought it would be a good technique to share. :!:

Nice scape btw. It has really come together well with the last tweaks. 8)
 
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