Stu's 90x45x45cm - Wave Island - IAPLC 2013 rank 82

[Stu Worrall]

Heres the new tank setup after I set it up at Christmas. Further pics to follow on its progress.

The plants, plant substrate and ferts have kindly been sponsored by Tropica for this tank so it should be appearing on their website at some point.

Hardscape: Seiryu Stone, Manzanita Wood
Co2: Pressurised via diffuser into UP atomiser
Lighting: ADA Solar 1 - 150w NA Green
Filtration: Eheim 2078 and ADA ES-600. Cal Aqua Inlets (Cos ADA's are crap!), ADA P2 Lilys
Heating: Hydor 300W External heater
Substrate: ADA Amazonia, Tropica Plant Substrate, Carbon and polystyrene so the stone doesnt break the tank!
Ferts: Tropica Plant growth Premium and Normal
Critters: Red Cherry Shrimp, Purple Harleuins, Pencil Fish

Plants to include

Front and Branches
hygrophila pinnatifida
Hemianthus callitrichoides ''Cuba''
cryptocoryne beckettii petchi
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Tropica'
Cryptocoryne parva
Echindorus Tenellus
Cryptocoryne wendtii brown
Eleocharis parvula
Anubias sp bonsai
Anubias sp petite

New Tropica Plants - Ludwigia sp, Hottonia Pallustris, Limnophila

Background -
Hemianthus micranthemoides
Didiplis diandra
Proserpinaca palustris cuba

Mosses for wood and crevices -
Taxiphyllum sp spiky
Vesicularia ferriei weeping
Fontinalis sp willow
Utricularia graminifolioa

Onto some pics 🙂

Empty Tank (took ages to strip the old dragon stone scape down!)


001_tropica 90cm_IMG_8922 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

Testing the stone out on the bottom


002_tropica 90cm_IMG_8929 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

Tropica Substrate in around the poly


003_tropica 90cm_IMG_8939 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

Substrate in then ADA amazonia with some carbon. I cleaned the edges off with a brush for neatness


004_tropica 90cm_IMG_9129 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

ADA Amazonia in (50% recycled, 50% new)


005_tropica 90cm_IMG_8954 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

Rocks placed and buried


006_tropica 90cm_IMG_8956 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

Stone and Manzi wood added


007_tropica 90cm_IMG_8961 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

side view


008_tropica 90cm_IMG_9141 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

Detail of some buried Seiryu


009_tropica 90cm_IMG_9149 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

Seiryu and wood placed together. This has now been buried by the HC!


010_tropica 90cm_IMG_9153 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

Final Design - Big gaps will be filled by anubias, moss and wood. Crypts to be planted in the dark area under the wood


011_tropica 90cm_IMG_8981 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

wood bound with cable clips - wood then attached to the rock with Bonsai wire


012_tropica 90cm_IMG_9159 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

HC being planted


013_tropica 90cm_IMG_8992 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

The new Ludwigia sp which is now out. super red!


014_tropica 90cm_IMG_9166 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

trimmed and ready for planting


015_tropica 90cm_IMG_9172 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

HM added back right, tennelus, hairgrass added


016_tropica 90cm_IMG_8998 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

All crypts in. tennelus and some stems prepped and planted


017_tropica 90cm_IMG_9003 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr


018_tropica 90cm_IMG_9173 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

Ammania sp bonsai washed and cut


019_tropica 90cm_IMG_9181 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

Moss being added to the manzi along with Anubias sp petite.


020_tropica 90cm_IMG_9187 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

Everything planted


021_tropica 90cm_IMG_9018 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

Filling up


022_tropica 90cm_IMG_9023 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

Equipment in and filled. This is actually a slight cheat as even though id soaked and tied the wood some of it still lifted 🙁 after a couple of days weighted with stone it eventually settled and I got the planted image. Everything is a bit straggly here as it had started growing.


023_tropica 90cm_IMG_9038 by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

 

[Piece-of-fish]

Looking nice and... finished 🙂 How on earth have you managed to fit all the species listed hehe.
This new ludwigia is super red indeed. Have not seen anything like that before. And stays very small in shape also. Can see it being used a lot in future.

 

[clone]

I can only admire Stu. Amazing and complicated skape. Looks a bit overloaded with plants but.....that is the way Amano do so😀 I will plant a bit lightly so they can develop later but ur skapes are been stunning always so.....Looks very natural as well. Keep us posted cant wait!🙂​

 

[Ady34]

Awesome Stu....I've been waiting for this one 🙂
Fertile combo with tropica substrate and ADA soil, was the soil new or used? With your substrate gradients, do you use substrate supports, or rely on the ADA soils stability when planted?
Great photography as usual also, will look forward to more 😉
Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[Dorian]

Great scape.

 

[Ravenswing]

I really like the wild look of the tank. Tree-stones-combo is just awesome, great work!

 

[George Farmer]

Superb in every way.

Thanks for sharing mate! 🙂

 

[LondonDragon]

Looks great stu as always from you 🙂 looking forward for this one to fill in also, the manzi wood is just stunning, we need a local source for wood and rocks down here in London 😉

 

[mal blackburn]

Aqua scaping seems to be the new fish keeping experience. Full of imagination and skill, not to mention the great new products deigned around this new hobby. Long live aqua scaping i say. A really nice looking scape Stu.

Thanks

 

[Stu Worrall]

Looking nice and... finished 🙂 How on earth have you managed to fit all the species listed hehe.
This new ludwigia is super red indeed. Have not seen anything like that before. And stays very small in shape also. Can see it being used a lot in future.

Lol, yes I did squeeze a lot in, probably too many but I was after a wild look where I can put say ammania in several places rather than just one clump. Yes that ludwigia is superb, mine has gone a bit bigger, maybe twice the size of when it was delivered but then some have stayed small but all have the intense red. it really breaks the areas up now.

I can only admire Stu. Amazing and complicated skape. Looks a bit overloaded with plants but.....that is the way Amano do so😀 I will plant a bit lightly so they can develop later but ur skapes are been stunning always so.....Looks very natural as well. Keep us posted cant wait!🙂

Its majorly overloaded but ive been hacking it back. a couple of species didnt do too well (Didiplis diandra being one of them) so that space got taken over by what was doing ok.

Awesome Stu....I've been waiting for this one 🙂
Fertile combo with tropica substrate and ADA soil, was the soil new or used? With your substrate gradients, do you use substrate supports, or rely on the ADA soils stability when planted?
Great photography as usual also, will look forward to more 😉
Cheerio,
Ady.

Cheers Ady. The aquasoil was 50% recycled and 50% new so a bit of a mix hence using the Tropica to give it a boost.

Never used supports in my gradients and never had any big slippage so maybe ive just been lucky.

Great scape.

I really like the wild look of the tank. Tree-stones-combo is just awesome, great work!

Thanks both 🙂

Superb in every way.

Thanks for sharing mate! 🙂

thanks George. Its my first full sized scape with seiryu so im pleased with the outcome at the moment. A few people had said it was hard to use manzi with seiryu so I thought I'd give it a go and see how it came out. I dont think this would win any prizes or do well in the ADA comp though as its not detailed enough. it would need some sand in to do well I think.

Looks great stu as always from you 🙂 looking forward for this one to fill in also, the manzi wood is just stunning, we need a local source for wood and rocks down here in London 😉

Cheers Paulo. Yes we do need a regualr supply of this wood. Most of it in her is from tom Barr and some from george but I'd love to have it on the doorstep and easily available!

As I thought the UG didnt do too well. I think in this becuase it went into a new scape with the amonia cycle. I put some in my nano and thats still going so I may try it again in the future on an existing scape.

will post some updated pics later.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

sublime mate. im always really impressed with your scapes stu, your style is always original, sharp and .... modern? fresh? i dont know but always worth waiting for. This is certainly no exception, as is the photography.
Top job sir.

 

[Deano3]

absolutely superb mate lovely scape and love the rock and wood combo and all the plant types look great and cannot wait to see it filled in, looking forward to some more pics

Dean

 

[macek.g]

Great hardscape🙂

 

[mlgt]

Its a beaut !

 

[Dave Pierce]

Wow wee! that must have taken you a while. So much going on. I literally just spent 15 mins just looking at the last picture. So many different parts to the scape it makes it so interesting! Nice one🙂

 

[Stu Worrall]

sublime mate. im always really impressed with your scapes stu, your style is always original, sharp and .... modern? fresh? i dont know but always worth waiting for. This is certainly no exception, as is the photography.
Top job sir.

Cheers Iain, much appreciated mate 🙂 I do always try to do something different in my tanks. sometimes it works others it doesnt. This one is overplanted but I like the mixture.

absolutely superb mate lovely scape and love the rock and wood combo and all the plant types look great and cannot wait to see it filled in, looking forward to some more pics

Dean

Cheer Dean, some to come.

Great hardscape🙂

Its a beaut !

Cheers both

Wow wee! that must have taken you a while. So much going on. I literally just spent 15 mins just looking at the last picture. So many different parts to the scape it makes it so interesting! Nice one🙂

Ta Dave. Its quite intense in there and does require a bit of hard trimming to make sure it doesnt take over anymore!

some update pics before a trim the other week so some of this would have been reduced after the photo. the ludwigia is getting too big on these pics so it was trimmed and re-planted.


through the tunnel into the crypts area with a lone pencilfish mulling the time away

3 - 90x45x45cm Tank for Tropica by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

The "Cliff"


2 - 90x45x45cm Tank for Tropica by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

Fish swimming in open water


1 - 90x45x45cm Tank for Tropica by Stu Worrall Photography, on Flickr

 

[tim]

You've certainly made that seiryu and manzi combination work stu, nice to see the detail on the hardscape setup this will be another amazing scape grown in, top job !

 

[Ian Holdich]

Very nice Stu, very nice indeed. That's an awesome bit of rock and the wood makes it look very natural.

 

[martinmjr62]

Stu, lovely use of stone and wood.i rather like the overplanted look.🙂
Keep the photo's coming.
Cheers
Martin

 

[charlie]

Great journal Stu. I love the last photos. Starting with such a high biomass has really helped the tank look grown in, in such a short space of time. I keep coming back to this journal to view the images. Put some more on soon !