philipraposo1982
Member
- Joined
- 4 Feb 2015
- Messages
- 106
Hi everyone,
I am turning to ukaps for some inspiration / ideas for my next scape / layout.
Little history (this will help explain what I am looking for). Started my 75g low tech, all easy growing stem plants, a dwarf sag carpet. a bit of random hardscape but no plan in mind. moved things around a lot and it did well. looked alright but nothing impressive.
slowly transitioned over my first year to more interesting plants, obviously these became more demanding and as such i up'd the ferts and lowered the lighting and added co2. this stage i was still trying to get the growth i wanted but wasn't planning my scape at all. still a chaotic mess.
finally got sick of trimming and such and went with a full crypt tank with moss carpet (my latest, till i torn it all down today). it was a success in terms of awesome plant growth imo, but the scape lacked in a lot of ways. I realized that i wanted more of an impressive hardscape while still keeping things low tech low maint. I want the water to be as high quality as possible for my fish as well. I am focusing more of fish and hardscape but with some plants in the mix.
Which is why I am seeking some advice now. I can't seem to find existing scapes that I like that resemble what I am looking for. I want it to look natural. I am going to be housing only 1 species of fish (most likely angels but I may change my mind. But it won't be small schooling fish but rather some medium or large ones.
I want to have lots of driftwood but that doesn't take away too much swimming space but can break up sight lines and such. Rock is key too, again nothing to overpowering. I don't know what kind of wood or rock is best but I would rather it not have to be attached to slate because I want to easily move it around if possible.
I don't want to have a deep layer of substrate, I want to be able to stay clean and anaerobic free. so I will be using a thin layer of PFS.
As for plants I want to stick with hardy low tech ferns and alike. anubias for sure. narrow leaf java fern or similar, and bolbitis. maybe a big amazon sword (maybe..). I have a small buce brownie blue that will be in there too. since I want this to look natural, I want to stick with only a few species of plants. ideally ferns because i won't have deep substrate.
Lighting will be my 48" finnex planted plus. I will raise it up as high as I need. I will be dosing very rarely and no excel or co2. I don't want lots of plants. I would prefer lots of hardscape and a bit of plants in the right spots to highly focal points.
Creating a sense of depth has always been a huge problem in all my attempts. I fail at it all the time. I would really like to achieve this in my new layout.
I hope my rambling is making some sense and has painted a picture of what I am looking for. Any help / suggestions would be a huge help, I really want to do this right! Type of wood to use? rocks? layout advice? other potential plant choices? fish suggestions?
money is not an issue, the tank is a new rimless 75g and its a blank canvas right now.
I have been doing planted tanks for 2 years and I can grow nice lush plants but have never been able to achieve a great scape. I want to change that
thanks
I am turning to ukaps for some inspiration / ideas for my next scape / layout.
Little history (this will help explain what I am looking for). Started my 75g low tech, all easy growing stem plants, a dwarf sag carpet. a bit of random hardscape but no plan in mind. moved things around a lot and it did well. looked alright but nothing impressive.
slowly transitioned over my first year to more interesting plants, obviously these became more demanding and as such i up'd the ferts and lowered the lighting and added co2. this stage i was still trying to get the growth i wanted but wasn't planning my scape at all. still a chaotic mess.
finally got sick of trimming and such and went with a full crypt tank with moss carpet (my latest, till i torn it all down today). it was a success in terms of awesome plant growth imo, but the scape lacked in a lot of ways. I realized that i wanted more of an impressive hardscape while still keeping things low tech low maint. I want the water to be as high quality as possible for my fish as well. I am focusing more of fish and hardscape but with some plants in the mix.
Which is why I am seeking some advice now. I can't seem to find existing scapes that I like that resemble what I am looking for. I want it to look natural. I am going to be housing only 1 species of fish (most likely angels but I may change my mind. But it won't be small schooling fish but rather some medium or large ones.
I want to have lots of driftwood but that doesn't take away too much swimming space but can break up sight lines and such. Rock is key too, again nothing to overpowering. I don't know what kind of wood or rock is best but I would rather it not have to be attached to slate because I want to easily move it around if possible.
I don't want to have a deep layer of substrate, I want to be able to stay clean and anaerobic free. so I will be using a thin layer of PFS.
As for plants I want to stick with hardy low tech ferns and alike. anubias for sure. narrow leaf java fern or similar, and bolbitis. maybe a big amazon sword (maybe..). I have a small buce brownie blue that will be in there too. since I want this to look natural, I want to stick with only a few species of plants. ideally ferns because i won't have deep substrate.
Lighting will be my 48" finnex planted plus. I will raise it up as high as I need. I will be dosing very rarely and no excel or co2. I don't want lots of plants. I would prefer lots of hardscape and a bit of plants in the right spots to highly focal points.
Creating a sense of depth has always been a huge problem in all my attempts. I fail at it all the time. I would really like to achieve this in my new layout.
I hope my rambling is making some sense and has painted a picture of what I am looking for. Any help / suggestions would be a huge help, I really want to do this right! Type of wood to use? rocks? layout advice? other potential plant choices? fish suggestions?
money is not an issue, the tank is a new rimless 75g and its a blank canvas right now.
I have been doing planted tanks for 2 years and I can grow nice lush plants but have never been able to achieve a great scape. I want to change that
thanks