The shadows of Mordor

As a great fan of Middle-earth stories and the mystery tales about the Land of Shadows,
Orcs, Trolls and mighty wizards, gained my inspiration and decided work trough it in my next project.

The tricky part will be the composition. The goal is to work towards "negative composition" with the
lines and forms. I wish I would have a little more space

So a little bit technical information:

Tank: Custom build 60x40x40 cm
Capacity: 90L
Cabinet: IKEA, 65x60x40 cm
Light: Radion XR15FW
CO2: Injected
CO2 dissolving: in-line atomizer +
APS 2L prefilter as reactor (on inlet)
Filtration: JBL e1501
Heater: Hydor 200w (external)
Pipework: Lilly pipe, Glass surface skimmer
Other: Twinstar nano

Soil system by ADA:
Amazonia soil, Amazonia powder new, Power sand, ADA Sawakock sand
Bacter100, Clear Super, Tourmaline BC, Penac-P, Penac-W
ADA Sarawak sand (ornamental)

Water Chemistry:
RO+JBL Aquadur, Tropica Specialised, EL Potassium, EL Ferro (if needed)

Hardscape:
Seiruy rock (approx 30kg's)
Dried bonsai

Plants: TBC
Live stock: TBC

And few photos.. sure things will change a bit, depending how well I will manage to squeeze in everything






Challenge for me now is to make both stones creating gap to make stand in the way
as in pictures. It means i may need to drill a holes on the bottom to join them with
supporting stones under. As I see no other way (no silicone or putty will hold the weight)
and in the same time I don't want to break them up with drilling. If any suggestions
please feel free to share

What about eggcrate?

hmm.. have no clue how to fit it in to keep invisible.

This will be great addition to your collection!

Looking forward for more updates!

Tom

Thanks, Tom!

I hope it will

Huge fan of Tolkien myself (the first fish I got when I moved into this house was a goldfish called Sméagol!), so the minute I saw the title I had high hopes for this 'scape. Have to say, it already looks really good

Why not make yourself an epoxy rod (should dry clear) or use an acrylic rod like lads use in marine tanks for live rock? While it won't be completely invisible, I recon it's going to be the best of both worlds.... steady and secure while not being completely obvious!

Huge fan of Tolkien as well. .... and have been since first reading the hobbit at age 11 or 12

Wish I was creative enough to tackle something like this!!! Looking forward to results of finished product

LemonJelly wrote:

Huge fan of Tolkien myself (the first fish I got when I moved into this house was a goldfish called Sméagol!), so the minute I saw the title I had high hopes for this 'scape. Have to say, it already looks really good

I hope this will fit in nicely in tank. I wish I could have more space for bigger setup.. may be one day.. may be..

thanks

hammie wrote:

Why not make yourself an epoxy rod (should dry clear) or use an acrylic rod like lads use in marine tanks for live rock? While it won't be completely invisible, I recon it's going to be the best of both worlds.... steady and secure while not being completely obvious!

Huge fan of Tolkien as well. .... and have been since first reading the hobbit at age 11 or 12

Wish I was creative enough to tackle something like this!!! Looking forward to results of finished product

the rock on left part of the Gap is nicely fixed with epoxy putty from Fluval. I must say it did exceptional job





The rock on right of the gap is tricky, as the center of weigh makes it fall.. I may try to do the job with same
putty, and test it before it gets flooded.. if not I might consider the drilling. The look of it does not concerns
if it will be fine with putty as I have a plan to paint all rocks over with yogurt and moss

thanks

Yogurt and moss? So does that mean you're going for a dry start?

yess. to achieve the look of mossy scape i need it. will be dry for first few weeks

I'm settings terrestrial moss landscape in an old aquarium and planning on using a similar method.

A very simple video of ADA bottom preperation.



ADA contents:
Penac-W, Penac-P, TourmalineBC, Power Sand, Bacter100, Clear Super

It is time for an update, i guess..

Last Saturday finally decided to clean the tank, prepare it and hardscape it. The easiest part was to take everything apart,
move live stock and plants to temporary tank before I will decide what to do with all the contents..
So fresh start.. I was waiting for this moment a good while..


This time I decided to try complete soil system, so prepared goodies. Mainly all powders will last for another 2 scapes at least
so in the end it is not that bad..

Bottom layer in.


Before adding soil tried to see how well I can manage to fit the gap. to get rocks together
Fluval SEA epoxy putty did a monster job. it is solid and looks like it does handle the weight pressure very well

so the next part was the hardest for me. I'm not claiming master degree in composition, but tried to work
towards the goal aimed. had a lot of struggles with right side of the tank.. too close to foreground, too much detail,
too much attention.. was close to get rid of the tree..


I can't say I'm 100% happy now, but it is a little better after few days. pushing, adding, removing and moving things..
Decided to raise soil in background for a fair bit, so the tree is losing now against dark background, but I have a plan for
Elocharis sp.Mini. I think it might help once formed nicely in green carpet. could not say no to that little tree as it is a part
of the lot story. If in case it will not fit.. in the end.. it is not glued to rocks.. I can move it away any time

and few photos in detail..

Spent a good time reading trough one of the G.Farmers journal and decided to go the method of moss DSM
so today painted few areas with Fissidens (greek yogurt, moss and ro water). Interesting experience and definitely
it will be a challenge for me. Tomorrow I will paint more with Riccardia (i hope this will be a god choice for this project)

sealed with cling film.. hopefully it will do. so far T in tank is +24/25 (I hope it is the right mark), Humidity 90%
Will observe how it will feel tomorrow. Just in case I have a heat mat, I thing I can install it in somehow to keep the T up and so humidity too
Light now is set to 13 hours with 1 hour ramp up and 1 hour ramp down.

had an issue with keeping the right T and Humidity over 1st few days.
Did not want to mess with heating mat, to install it under tank etc..
so experiment successful. took my tiny back up heater out of attic
it has thermostat and all.. sealed the hole in back wall of the cabinet,
but with some space to exchange air.. and it worked well..

T from 19 (over night) and 22 over day went up to 20-21 over night (set it on timer)
and +24/25 over day. Humidity issues fixed. have now 90-95%.

Great progress, it looks totally awesome!

Can't wait to see it with plants. Are you planning only green carpet or something higher in rear of tank too?

Tom

thanks Tom.

No higher plants as they will change the shape of current layout what I don't want to happen

I thought so, good choise.

Can't wait to see how it develop. Pretty curious about that method with the yogurt, didn't know it could applied to aquaria. Where did you get that tree? looks great!

Another progres update here. Week 4.
Rocks painted with Riccardia are getting greener every day.
Places painted with Fisidens.. can't tell much. Looks pretty
dark'ish but when inspected closer - looks like it is attaching and
developing new growth, just very slow

Plants added: H. Araguaia, Marsilea hirsuta

Managing to keep humidity about 80-85% and T+23-25
Added two extra Lights (24w T5) for better results.

Hopefully next week my Elocharis sp.mini will arrive