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Re-education.....

If you were thinking of replacing this tank, what would you replace it with?....


  • Total voters
    40

Ady34

Global Moderator
UKAPS Team
Joined
27 Jul 2011
Messages
5,097
Location
Co. Durham
Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:
7C8E1153-5CA3-4DFA-8754-6DF30A709D82.jpeg


The second was borne from a desire to keep the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.

2D8E7137-36C7-4859-8E30-82B6F0AA786F.jpeg


I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations.
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials.

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....

725A255F-72E5-46E5-9BD3-886C54B5ECF8.jpeg


Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back :D
 
This is awesome, welcome back! :cool:

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.:thumbup:
 
Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor
 
This is awesome, welcome back! :cool:

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.:thumbup:
Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.

Beautiful!
Thank you.

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa
Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment :thumbup:

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.:thumbup:
Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active :thumbup:

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor
Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.

Fantastic hardscape:clap:.
Great to have you back.
Cheers Dave :D

Really reminds me of this:

Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.

Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs:D:thumbup:
:oops: Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment :cool: Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...:cool:
Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned :lol:
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people :writing::)

Thanks for the welcome back :wave:
Ady.
 
Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.
 
Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.
 
Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the hardscape is, great to have you back mate.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love :playful:
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t :lol:

Great detail!!!
Thanks :thumbup:

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.
Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy :crazy: started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.
 
Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.
It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic :D) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.
 
It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic :D) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.
That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct :thumbup:

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?
I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.
 
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