Fish Dork's 80 - Page 2 - Aquascaping

fish dork · 01-13-2009, 10:20 PM

Texgal: I'm thinking that the plants in front of the DW will stay low. I'll plant some vals and wisteria behind it. It is a fairly tall piece. The tape in behind stands 18 inches. (The tank is 22, 18 is minus the black rim and the subst.) I need to find some of that low grow hygro... in Canada! I'll probably do moss on the rocks, I currently have java and fissiden. Only a little fissiden, for some reason it's not growing too fast. I'll plant some java ferns on the DW as well, I want it to stay visible, it's a neat peice, full of holes.

FishandTurtleJunkie: No updates yet! Tomorrow the tank teardown begins.

fish dork · 01-15-2009, 01:24 AM

I started this tank with 3 vals... and now here they are, with some wisteria on top

the rest are in here

and the fishes overnight

So far one casuality.. A false SAE bailed out

Here's the tank before water... and the discovery that the DW still floats. Doh! That's why they call it DW, my wife said as she walked by. I only had a bin large enough to sink half of it so now it's tied down with rocks and fishing line until the rest sinks.

And I started this at noon.. the tank was completely stripped and moved to the other side of the room. I've had a complete Ibuprofen and I'm off to bed. Planting starts tommorow!

chadly · 01-15-2009, 01:25 PM

love the wood! The round stones dont' look bad, they sorta complement the holes in the wood. Over all the scape looks fine. One thing is there is no distinguishable elevation change in the substrate. If there's something you can do about that, you'll probably see a dramatic result.

jargonchipmunk · 01-15-2009, 01:52 PM

if you like it go for it! The difference between rounded stones, and sharper stones can be put in what (if anything) you're trying to achieve...

Do you want the tank to look like the underside of a river? Round rocks for the win.

Do you want it to resemble (if a bit obtusely) a mountain range, or meadow? Sharper edges are required.

Amano uses the jagged, purpose-based stone because he's looking to emulate scenes found elsewhere in nature. I like the rounded look of the stones in this setup.

The difference will be when you fill it up with plants!

fish dork · 01-15-2009, 10:29 PM

Thanks for the comments. Chadly... I may have to add some more gravel in the get more of a slope. My wife mentioned that as well. There is a bit of a slope, the gravel is about 1 inch deep in the front and closer to 3 in the back. I might leave it as is though too because both sides are visible as well and the slight slope is easy to gradually taper to those edges as well.

I am going for more of a river look here, that was the idea with the round rocks. They were picked to work with that chuck of wood. They have black flecks in them that look good when wet against the black gravel.

The planting is now done, the water is in, the fish are back in and everything is looking ok so far. I'm debating waiting for this wood to sink (it's still floating) before taking new pics. I have it tied to rocks in the tank that won't be staying and it's sort of floating in the center of the water.

Now the question remains.. what will I do with a wack of extra jungle vals and the 'cousin it' mass of java fern? I'd send them out to anyone in Canada, but it's way cold up here right now. Maybe the LFS will sell em for me.

csaxe21 · 01-19-2009, 03:52 PM

Great looking setup, can't wait to see updates

.

I have been considering adding some Vals to my tank though. Where are you in Canada? Here in Montreal it's pretty cold also. I'm out this whole week (Back Friday night) but maybe you could save a few, and I'll speak to you on Saturday or something like that?

Thanks, maybe send me a PM if your alright with this

Tex Gal · 01-19-2009, 04:01 PM

Can't believe you planted and no pxs!!! Love to see how it looks all done.

"That's why they call it dw..." LOL I like your wife!

fish dork · 01-20-2009, 06:24 AM

csaxe21: Sorry to say... they are gone! But the way they grow... get back to me in a bit I'll probably have some more, maybe more into the spring when it's a bit warmer. Maybe you would have something to trade? I need some kind of foreground plants. And I'm looking for Blxya Japonica as well.

Texgal: Sorry, no pics yet... that wood won't sink, can't ya just not stand the suspense? I might have to bolt the wood to slate or something. And I like my wife too.

fish dork · 01-23-2009, 09:14 PM

Ok! New pics. The DW was not sinking, although when I took it out it was quite a bit heavier than it used to be, so it must be slowly soaking up water. I removed it and used some stainless bolts to attached a few peices of slate. Now it's down! I did a water change right before I took these so there is some stuff floating around compared to normal.

Tex Gal · 01-24-2009, 08:32 AM

Looking nice. I still think the contrast with the rocks is too stark. Black gravel to white rocks. Can you soften it up with plantings along side the edges of the rocks? What are you gonna do for a foreground? Glosso, marsilea, nana petitie, hairgrass, E. tennellus micro, maybe? I know the rocks will get some algae coloration on them and that will help, but some softening with plants would be great.