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Rock only autumn theme 55L Dennerle

Delirious

Member
Joined
15 Sep 2019
Messages
48
Location
Cambridge
Well this is an extremely late journal! I started this scape in September but am only now sharing this journal with all of you :facepalm:

Setup

So where do I start.... I bought this 55L Dennele off of Geoff a little while ago. The whole settup has a 250 Oase thermo filter, 450E Twinstar light, EA lily glass set and a Pro-SE CO2 regulator.

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Hardscape

I'm planning on doing a rock only hardscape with Mini landscape stone. I'm using neo soil and amazonia powder as well as some ADA la plata sand.

September 17th

Starting things off trying some sort of triangle composition but wasn't happy with how it was going, so went somewhere completely different. Trying to get some depth I put my large rocks at the front making this gorge diorama with a path down the middle.

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Leaving plenty of room on the sides for planting. I then plugged holes with filter floss and added my sand and ADA powder, separating the soil from the sand with slate chippings.

dWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.jpg

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September 26th

Planting day! So now I've sat with the hardscape for a while and I'm content with it. My plant list is as follows:

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My first attempt at planting stems with tweezers....here goes nothing..

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So once I had everything planted, I filled the tank and realised that my fire extinguisher was faulty and released the gas from the head instead of going through the reg.....living across the road from Aquarium gardens has its perks ;) so I ran over there and got an Adams gas bottle (meanwhile my tank is empty but covered in cling film) hook up the new bottle and it all works! Phew!

October 5ft

So Its been a week since planting, lets see how well i did:

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Lights are set to 40% for 6 hours a day. The monte carlo didn't do to well and really died back pretty hard. All the other plants seemed to do well, a lot of the H'ra would lift on and off for the first few weeks ( I guess i didn't plant them deep enough :mad:) I was given a lump of Fissiden which i glued to the rock spire at the back then regretted it, since this photo the lump was ripped off, leaving small pieces of moss that actually took better than I thought. Also added some frogbit to soak up any excess nutrients.

November 11th

Lights set to 60% for 8 hours a day. Cherry shrimp and nerite snails added! I started having issues with brown algae on the rocks, added 5 nerites and that problem vanished completely! The Lindernia and hydrocotyl japan are doing exceptionally well. I planted some japan cuttings on the bottom right corner where the monte carlo completely melted away just to get something growing there.

dWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.jpg


Fert routine:

4ml of Tropica Premium everyday.
4ml of Tropica Specialised once a week.
Later I started using a squirt of ADA ECA after every water change.


November 21st

Lights are now on 80% for 8 hours a day. Nearly time for our first serious haircut! The Ludwigia is getting really intense sunburn, slowly followed by the H'ra, hoping for some amazing autumn colours by the end, contrasted by the Lindernia and mosses.

dWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.jpg


Speaking of autumn colours?! Time to add some fishie boiz! 15 Ember tetras to be exact!

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Hard to see them because they are so pale! I have some Dennele colour boost to help with that :D

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November 25th

Two and a half months have passed and its time to get the scissors out!

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Feels a little bit sad being this aggressive with the snippies but I know it has to be done! I also cut the pinnatifida right back to promote smaller leaves, once they sprout ill trim the last large leaves they have. The remaining monte carlo have been doing really well since using the ADA ECA! which is really nice to see an actual change.


So you are all up to date with my first aquascape, hopefully things will really start to bronze over the coming weeks. Ill post updates as they come, thank you for reading :)
 
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Absolutely stunning! I love the autumnal colours. Would never have thought it was your first aquascape.

Is that just standard mini landscape stone? I'm planning on getting some and love the white veins in yours.
 
Absolutely stunning! I love the autumnal colours. Would never have thought it was your first aquascape.

Is that just standard mini landscape stone? I'm planning on getting some and love the white veins in yours.

Thank you ^_^ It is standard Mini landscape but its hard to find rocks with as much quartz in these days, not sure whats changed.
 
Wow as said great first scape well done and great to see your growth and see it mature.

I am doing a 45p and about 2-3 weeks in how long did you wait to add snails and shrimp ? Did u check any parameters or jist wait a decent amount of time ?

Thanks dean

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk
 
Wow as said great first scape well done and great to see your growth and see it mature.

I am doing a 45p and about 2-3 weeks in how long did you wait to add snails and shrimp ? Did u check any parameters or jist wait a decent amount of time ?

Thanks dean

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

I added the shrimp a few weeks after setup as advised by Steve and Geoff, shrimp are pretty hardy and I wasn't afraid of any ill effects from the water as I was doing daily 80% water changes the first week and a half. The snails I added not long after the shrimp when I started having algae problems on the rocks :) I was much more cautious with the fish and waited far longer than normally advised just to make sure, as ADA amazonia is notorious for its amonia as I've been told.
 
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Thanks for that mate and how many bps you adding ?

Looks great though so keep the updates coming mate, once mine growns in i will have to look into how to trim and what can be replanted etc.

Thanks dean

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk
 
Thanks for that mate and how many bps you adding ?

Looks great though so keep the updates coming mate, once mine growns in i will have to look into how to trim and what can be replanted etc.

Thanks dean

Somewhere between 6 and 8 bps :)
 
Awesome work @Delirious

Absolute stunner for a scape full stop, let alone your first. Oodles of depth and will only get better through pruning.

Can’t wait for the next one as you already know ;)
 
Awesome work @Delirious

Absolute stunner for a scape full stop, let alone your first. Oodles of depth and will only get better through pruning.

Can’t wait for the next one as you already know ;)

Some credit goes to you and steve for being my mentor ;) ill probably do a real journal for the next scape...instead of being lazy and doing it realllllyyy late...i just need to find the right wood.
 
Absolutely superb scape Arian! Would never Have guessed it was your 1st. Even better considering you used the stones that you had to hand and not hand picked/dry scape that we are used to!

A million miles better than my first attempt at a scape!
 
Absolutely superb scape Arian! Would never Have guessed it was your 1st. Even better considering you used the stones that you had to hand and not hand picked/dry scape that we are used to!

A million miles better than my first attempt at a scape!

Thanks steve :D appreciate it! to be fair the rocks geoff gave me are really versatile and look interesting from every angle making it much easier.
 
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