New scape ---------

After picking up some nice Mekong wood I couldn't resist doing another aquascape.
I started this a couple of days ago.

Tank; 60x30x36cm opti white 65 liters.
Substrate; ADA Amazonia.
Plants; Ammania sp. bonsai, Cryptocoryne spec. Legroi, Cyperus helferii, Micranthemum 'Monte-Carlo', Ludwigia sp. super red, Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini'', Staurogyne porto vehlo, Phoenix moss, Christmas moss and I might also use a small bit of Ricardia.

ADA Amazonia is added to the tank.

The pieces of Mekong wood are added and the substrate is leveled out.

I tied some Monte-Carlo to stones and placed them in the foreground. Monte-carlo will be planted all over the foreground.
This should give it a nice rough or hill effect instead of a flat manicured lawn.

Christmas moss tied to lava rock is added to fill some of the gaps between to wood.

All the plants added except the small mosses.

After looking at this for a couple of days I decided to change it. I wanted to get more out of the wood.
So the task of taking it apart again begins.

Re started. I think this dose the wood more justice.

Re planted. The plant arrangement will be the same as before.

The small mosses will be added tomorrow and I will dry start this for about 2 weeks while the moss attaches.

Darren.

Looks good Darren. Looking forward to seeing it when it matures

Eric

Looks awesome as always Darren

Very nice. Where did you get this roots?

Very nice Darren.

Just wondering what you use to clean the glass prior to filling? Do you use anything special or a different type of cloth?

Cheers guys.

The roots came from seahorse aquariums. A lot of there rock and wood is not on display, so I recommend asking if they have more on offer.

For cleaning opti-white glass I use some filter floss in my hand. Tough enough to clean the glass without scratching the glass.

Lovely stuff Darren,

What water are you using, RO? Remineralised? PH etc? And LAST question.... How do you heat the plants/water given that it is so low?



Kev.

Some good questions Kev.

I use RO in all my tanks. The waste water is used around the house.
I wouldn't use it without adding minerals. Especially if livestock are going to be added. What fish wants to live in RO?
I know you can read on the net that people with planted tanks use RO (without minerals) but that is not for me.
I see water as wanting to do one of two things. Either give or take.
If the water itself has no minerals it will want to take them from somewhere. Fish can be an easy target. I think of it as slowly dissolving the fish.

PH is not so much of an issue when using ADA soils. It normally stabilizes the PH around 6.5-6.8.
When I add the minerals to RO I aim for a KH-4 GH-2. The PH is normally quite high with the heavy aeration of the RO. 7.4-7.8.
But this changes rapidly once the aeration is taking off and water is added to the tank. Before you have time to reach for your test kit it is back to 6.5-6.5.

_{^{How do you heat the plants/water given that it is so low?}}
Ok I think you mean the dry start method were plants are first growing on a bit before the tank is filled with water.
its probably best to foogle "dry start method" for some great explanations, but all this you know already.

This is the method I use.
I have a reptile heat mat placed under the tank raising the temperature in side the tank.
With the tank covered in cling film I use a water mister that comes on every 30 minutes or so. This comes on for about 10 seconds at a time and keeps the tank humid and the plants moist to wet.

The mister in action.

about 2 liters of water is sprayed in each day. This amount of water needs to be removed or the tank will end up flooded in no time so I use a small drain system to remove the excess water.
This is simply some airline, a suction cup from a thermometer and an airline valve to control the amount of water been removed. I only want to remove the same amount of water as the amount going in to the tank.
It is important not the have any water sitting in pools in the substrate or cyanobacteria will quickly grow from the rich nutrients and stagnant water.

A small divide is needed between the glass and the soil so only water is removed.

This is what it will look like for the next two weeks or so. Two water feeds misting in and one air line tube removing the excess water.
Lights and water misting system on 16 hours a day.

Oh and the moss has been added. but not the originally mentioned fissadens . It is a sample I got long ago that I can only describe as a mini spiky moss (4mm).

Darren.

Simply stunning Darren!

Looks like if you went to a forest and picked a portion of the landscape and put it inside the tank.
Great job Darren, the tank looks so amazing!

LOVELY DARREN!

the big piece of wood, to be honest, looks bulky in there.
But the piece itself - JUST BRILLIANT!!!
But there is a thing - once everything will be settled in and
you will reach a decent plant grow - the green and bushy
look will compensate it

Looking forward

Lauris I agree the wood looks big and bulky. If I could have gotten a bigger piece in there I would have.
I wanted the wood to really dominate the scape.
The appearance of the wood should soften once the plants grow in. But I still want the wood to stand out.

Still needs a helicopter

.....it is really brilliant though - cant wait to see it filled & up and running

Jim wrote:

Still needs a helicopter

I was thinking along the lines of the sunken treasure chest with the air bubbles coming out of it.

Ok after running the tank dry for a couple of weeks its time to flood.

Even when this is done slowly you still get a little bit of cloudiness from the soil.
The wood had not been pre-soaked or weighed down so I put tape across the tank to hold it down incase it start floating while filling.

Luckily the wood didn't float so the tape was removed and the glass cleaned.
The filer is added the first day with the standard plastic pipe work. This is a good time to check that there is enough flow around the tank.
To help clear the water from the fine particles I added JBL siemecmicro to the filter.

The next day the water is clear so I do a big water change, clean the inside of the glass (to remove any dust from the soil) and add the glassware.
I also trimmed some of the plants and leveled the foreground a little bit.

I decided to change from the 2x24w T-5's (pictured above) I was planning to use to 2x Blau nano LED'S. These are small but powerful enough. They are also dimmable with separate controles for white and red LED's.

The down side to using the LED'S is the way you get the two town reflection at the back of the tank. I will have to do something with this.
A quick shot from on top to show the LED'S.

I will balance the Co2 and fetrtz then add the details.

realy nice mate there like underwater worlds the tanks u create

Fantastic two things I always wanted one a small tank looking like yours and the other a small tank with a seahorse like the one on display in seahorse shop in Dublin

Looking really good now Darren fair play


Eric

Where did you get those led lights?