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Hardscape Help

Tom

Member
Joined
8 Sep 2007
Messages
2,631
Location
Kawanabe, Kagoshima, Japan 鹿児島県南九州市川辺町
Today I took down my 25l today (finding 30 cherry shrimp I'd never seen before! :wideyed: ) , so I have an empty tank to play with :D

I working on this layout, but I'm really not sure if I like it. I've added 2 pics with one piece of wood slightly different.

IMG_1001.jpg


IMG_1002.jpg


Tom
 

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My advice, take it or leave i would just add one small piece to No.1 to fill the void on the left live this
Picture1-4.png

just out of interest.......how are you going to fix these at there bases? i presume they are all single pieces?
Cheers Dan
 

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Thanks for the advice.

Themuleous - yeah they were a bit flat. I've changed it around a bit now to get it more 3D. the reason it was flatter was that with my last tank, I had the mossy branches leaning forwards and they shaded the foreground a bit too much.

Dan - it took me a while to work out what you'd done to that picture! lol. About fixing the wood in, with my last setup I just balanced the wood in like this and piled Aquasoil on top which held it in place - pics below.

tankweb.jpg


Tom
 

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Themuleous said:
I like the way the wood goes over the top of the rock at the front, looks more natural that way.

Sam

Aye, I agree with Sam.
Keep it up Tom. Your work is inspirational, aspecially to us that are slightly younger members :)
 
Ok, I think I've found the layout I'm going to use...

Found 2 really nice pieces of wood on friday and have been playing around with them since. I've put in some leftover aquasoil (about half litre) from the last tank. It's going to be a while yet before it's set up (Xmas or Easter) so that I can watch it through the 1st few weeks.

Shame about all these postal strikes, I ordered some willow moss about 2 weeks ago from AquaticMagic and it hasnt arrived yet. It's in the country I think but Royal Mail seems to have lost it in all the backlog. :mad:

I think I like the wood better because its not as "twiggy" if you know what I mean:
Hardscape.jpg


Tom
 
I like it... Are you going to have an all-sand forground, plant it up or haven't decided?
 
I'd like to have a glosso carpet, but I'd also like to have ADA nile/bright sand in the foreground and build up with Aquasoil at the back. Then again, I'd love to have a mossy foreground as that's something I've never done before.

If my weeping moss ever turns up I might see how it does in the foreground... Yeah I'm starting to think moss primarily in the foreground and draping over parts of the wood and rocks, with Hydrocotyl and Riccia to break it up in places. Lots of Cyperus helferi in the back too, and maybe some Rotala "green" or something like R. indica to give a red accent. I've never tried red plants either so that might be nice.

Argh why can't I set it up now!!! :lol:

Tom
 
hehe I couldnt resist. I've just bought ADA Aquasoil Africana and ADA Sand, along with a new diffuser, the 2006 catalogue, moss balls and some tweesers :lol: :rolleyes:

Hopefully royal mail won't lose this like they did my moss and riccia etc! I'd like to get the hardscape totally finished by end of this week.

Tom
 
The ADA stuff came through today so I'm slightly excited :lol:

ADA Aquasoil Africana in:
Set-Up-1.jpg


ADA Sarawak Sand in:
Set-Up-2.jpg


I saw these moss balls and thought I'd try them out to see if they're any easier to use than the slate pieces I've used before:
Set-Up-4.jpg


Finished setup with moss balls in place
Set-Up-3.jpg


I'm fairly pleased with the tank so far, just need to sort out a decent background and a new stand! Roll on christmas for planting!!

Tom
 
Looks very good... Lots of potential...

The Moss balls just look like cruched lava rock; Probably benefits the moss (in terms of anchorage) a lot more than slate does...
 
I like the sand. Is ADA sand 'proper' sand, or is it something else? It looks quite coarse, how does it compare with say, silver sand?

I'd be tempted to use it over a bottom layer, like laterite.
 
The moss balls are almost like brick in material. Hard to describe but they're quite dusty and have quite a rough surface so as you say its good for anchoring on to.

The ADA sand is fairly course, much more so than silver sand. It's more ungraded than silver sand too so im my opinion looks more natural. I was tempted to use powersand for under the sand, so I could maybe grow HC on it but I think I'll be going with the open foreground.

Tom
 
youll still be able to grow HC or Glosso in the sand Tom, no problem at all :) both feed heavily from the water column as well as via roots so shouldnt present a problem.. might be a little slower to spread, but not much.
 
CJ Castle said:
The Moss balls just look like cruched lava rock.

That's exactly what I thought...

I really like the scape, it will be interesting to see it transform with the addition of plants. I try not get too carried away with moss, if you have too much I don't think it works as well, a few areas with some moss is good.

Cheers,
Mike
 
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