Hello.
After my previous journal ‘Aftermath’, which had a couple of scapes within it, I said I would start a new journal for the next one.
So slightly retrospectively (the tank is now planted 😬), I will begin logging the process.
I decided to move some plants and the livestock from the aftermath scape into the recently vacated EA600 tank which was previously another iwagumi scape. This was meant to be a ‘holding’ tank but I threw some old Talawa wood branches into it with some dragon stone as it was going to be set up for a few months whilst I got everything organised for the ea900 scape. The plan was to re-use some plants and rehouse the fish and shrimp in the new scape……
I had some manzanita stumps in storage that I had bought last year as I really liked their more unusual forms.
I used 4 of the pieces shown and came up with this layout that I was happy with:
I quickly decided I wanted to use frodo stone with the wood and that I wanted a sand and graded gravel foreground again.
I finalised the hardscape and substrate by positioning the frodo stones under and to the sides of the wood to create a barrier between the sand foreground and soil background. I filled any gaps with filter floss and gravel to prevent soil ingress as best possible and then finished the effect with the dennerle rio xingu gravel, mixed with a little Ada river gravel and a sand mix of Ada Colorado and la plata for a slightly more muted tone to blend with those of the wood and stone.
The wood was bonded to the rocks with both epoxy putty and superglue and filter floss to ensure the dry wood did not float on filling.
I used a base layer of ADA powersand with ADA additives under a Tropica soil to offer a long term nutrient rich and healthy substrate.
Some more detail images:
The stumps have cut ends not typically accepted in aquascaping as more natural breaks are preferred. I however really liked the look so have chosen to embrace them rather than soften or disguise them:
The next step was to decide on a plant list. I knew I wanted a more NA feel to this scape, and I wanted something that required little trimming, so I set about compiling a list…..
…..this list ended up not including the plants from the ‘holding’ tank as that had become a tank all of its own and I now had different plans for the 900.
After my previous journal ‘Aftermath’, which had a couple of scapes within it, I said I would start a new journal for the next one.
So slightly retrospectively (the tank is now planted 😬), I will begin logging the process.
I decided to move some plants and the livestock from the aftermath scape into the recently vacated EA600 tank which was previously another iwagumi scape. This was meant to be a ‘holding’ tank but I threw some old Talawa wood branches into it with some dragon stone as it was going to be set up for a few months whilst I got everything organised for the ea900 scape. The plan was to re-use some plants and rehouse the fish and shrimp in the new scape……
I had some manzanita stumps in storage that I had bought last year as I really liked their more unusual forms.
I used 4 of the pieces shown and came up with this layout that I was happy with:
I quickly decided I wanted to use frodo stone with the wood and that I wanted a sand and graded gravel foreground again.
I finalised the hardscape and substrate by positioning the frodo stones under and to the sides of the wood to create a barrier between the sand foreground and soil background. I filled any gaps with filter floss and gravel to prevent soil ingress as best possible and then finished the effect with the dennerle rio xingu gravel, mixed with a little Ada river gravel and a sand mix of Ada Colorado and la plata for a slightly more muted tone to blend with those of the wood and stone.
The wood was bonded to the rocks with both epoxy putty and superglue and filter floss to ensure the dry wood did not float on filling.
I used a base layer of ADA powersand with ADA additives under a Tropica soil to offer a long term nutrient rich and healthy substrate.
Some more detail images:
The stumps have cut ends not typically accepted in aquascaping as more natural breaks are preferred. I however really liked the look so have chosen to embrace them rather than soften or disguise them:
The next step was to decide on a plant list. I knew I wanted a more NA feel to this scape, and I wanted something that required little trimming, so I set about compiling a list…..
…..this list ended up not including the plants from the ‘holding’ tank as that had become a tank all of its own and I now had different plans for the 900.
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