May 2006 Tank of the Month: Justin Law's Summer Dance - Library

This month we have the pleasure of presenting Justin Law's awesome aquarium- Summer Dance. The Tank of the Month series is not intended to focus only on accomplished and skilled aquascapers but with Justin we just couldn't resist. So, here's his interview along with the eye candy. Enjoy!

Introduction:

My name is Justin Law. I am 24 years old and I live in Hong Kong. Mostly I use "Gohan" as my net name coz I loved Dragonball Z so much when I was a child. I started keeping fish when I was 18 years old. But I didn't know how to keep them very well, I just kept on buying and they just kept on dying! Then I stopped keeping them coz I felt it was silly to keep killing them. Three years ago, I suddenly wanted to keep fish tanks again, but this time, I wanted to get some aquatic plants too. I did a search on the Net and finally I found www.aqugrass.com. I searched the old posts and kept on following the steps and finally made up my first planted aquarium. I cannot say it was a layout coz I just put in all the things I wanted!

Half a year later, I knew all the basic skills and maintained the tank well. I saw Wayne Sham's tank which had just won a prize in the Taiwan aquatic plant layout contest (I forgot the exact name of it already!) and the first image in my brain is.........WOO......how can an aquatic plant layout be so beautiful! Then I tried to learn more and kept many good aquatic plant layout photos (over 400 tanks already!) Finally, I finished my first layout:

I got addicted to aquatic plant layouts and I finished many layouts in that year! I also upgraded my 14" tank into a ADA 17" tank. In 2004, some aqua friends asked me to join the ADA Contest 2004, and by luck, I got 104 world ranking with this tank:

That same year, I set up a 6" tank too and entred another Japanese mini layout contest. This time I got the 4th place!

Winning the prize/ranking made me feel more confident about aquascaping! Getting closer to some aqua friends and going on more Internet web pages (e.g. www.aqugrass.com and www.aquariumfarm.com) made me more addicted. And I tried to think more and design more layout........so I set up Secret Garden, Breeze of Wild and Summer Dance in the year of 2005. Although my Secret Garden got 225 world ranking in ADA contest 2005, I did not give up and joined the AGA contest 2005 and finally I got Best of Show, First Prize and Second Prize in the small catagory. I hope the coming years, I will have more and better layouts.

My Tank (Summer Dance):

Aquarium Size: ADA Cube Garden [45cm (W) x 22cm (D) x 30cm (H)]

Substrate System: ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia

Filtration: Hydor P10 300L/H

Lighting: 4 x 15W ADA NA-LAMP, 11 hours/day

My tank have two light breaks, 4 hours – 1 hour break – 5 hours – 2 hours break – 2 hours. The reason of this unusual scheme has no particular scientific basis.

I was previously lighting my tanks with a continuous 8/9 hours photoperiod, but I occasionally had algae issues. After talking with some experienced aquarists, I decided to split the photoperiod into 2/3 intervals. With this technique, plants growth is not negatively affected and photosynthetic processes perfectly takes place. On the other side, algae seem to suffer this situation. I believe that one light break would be enough: the last 2 hours of the timing have a very practical function: to let me enjoy the tank when I am back from work!

Fertilizer: ADA Green Brighty Step 1, ECA, Iron Bottom. I just follow the menu of them to add.

CO2 System: JBL 500g CO2 bottle, 2 bubbles/sec

Plants: Rotala rotundifolia (green) , Eleocharis “parvula” sp., Hemianthus callitrichoides"Cuba", Rotala macrandra sp. , Rotala wallichii , Microsorium sp.(narrow) , Blyxa japonica , Bolbitis heudelotii , Fantinalis antipyretica

Fish: Paracheirodon axelrodi, Siamese Algae Eater , Nannostomus beckfordi

Invertebrates: Neocaridina sp.

Maintenance: I change 50% of water twice a week.

Aquascaping:

I like both photography and aquascaping. I usually go hiking and take photos, sometimes I find that natural places give me many ideas to make a new layout! Also, learning more about photosgraphy helps me know more about the golden ratio, the color, the contrast, etc. which improves my layouts!

As I am very fond of photography, I usually arrange my layouts using the Golden Ratio rule. In Hong Kong there are many specialized shops but often wood and stones are not in good shape and too big for small tanks. So everytime I see some suitable decoration, I buy it and store at home. Therefore, I can do my layouts anytime.

Planning a new layout is a very time consuming process. For example, picking the right decorative material and its placement can last for several days! I like colored plants but I try not to use them too much because they catch the observer’s eye and take it aware from the overall impression. I try to locate them only as focus points.

I like to use some colourful fish (e.g. Paracheirodon Innesi) if my layout is mainly based on green plants. Their size must be small because my tanks are small and big fish would make my tanks look smaller! Usually I do not use fauna in the start-up stage of my tanks, except Caridina Japonica and Crosseochelius Siamensis.
Only when the the layout is finished do I complete the fish population. I usually read Aqual Journal, I like Amano's work so much, so sometime my layouts are affected by his.

Summer Dance

Aqua-life

My old 14" tank: