Introduction and background





I am Cliff, from Hong Kong, China. As I was born and grown in country side of Hong Kong, I am so familiar with the natural environment. I love trees and plants, and I have a dream that I want to be a farmer when I retire. Aquarium is a dream place for me to experience that with no snakes and rats. Firstly I started with a planted tank, enjoyed watching the plants growing, and felt the energy of living things. While growing plants in two years, I understood many different kinds of plant characteristics. I started to have a thought that I should be using them at another level. I decided to use them to present ideas, so I started aquascaping.


The Tank





Dimensions
100cm X 40cm X 40cm

Lights, tubes, watt, spectrum, K
T5HO (39Wx 4) and T8 (30Wx 2), all 6500K

CO2 system
pressurized, very normal setting.

Substrate
ADA red soil, re-used

Hardscape
I use fat and re-used woods with few yellow rocks

Filtration
One 900L/hr filter and a 600L/hr pump

Maintenance
This tank needs less trimming and maintenance since I used moss and front-ground plants mainly. I just tried to move the woods and moss when I found the layout being 2 dimensions...
I change water 1/3 every week.

Inhabitants
Plants: I mainly use moss. Willow moss, triangle moss, mini moss, christmas moss, Glossostigma elatinoides, Anubias barteri var. nana, Cardamine lyrata, Eleocharis ''parvula'', Hemianthus callitrichoides ''Cuba'', Hydrocotyle leucocephala, Microsorum pteropus ''Narrow'',Glossostigma elatinoides

Fish and invertebrates : Black and white angel fish, Rasbora heteromorpha, Neon Tetra, Beckford's Pencilfish, Red moon, Siamese Algae Eater

Fertilization
TMG, ECA, Kent K+, Seachem iron bottom.

Water parameters
I never measure that.


























Idea and Motivation

The taste of the wild

Some years ago, I went back to my old home, walked along my old primary school...
It is a school forgotten in a country side, It was closed for about 15 years, it was sad... I saw broken walls, broken stairs, windows, trees and grasses are mess everywhere... growing thru walls to walls...
It was sad, but I smell something....The taste of the wind.....
I closed my eyes, I feel them, the smell of the soil, the smell of the tree leaves, the smell of the empty playground, the smell of the dog just walked thru..... All brought me back to my memories.... I call them the taste of the wind....
I remember the garden keeper was always coming to me and asked me to teach him the spelling of simple words...CAR....TREE.....
I think he will be angry if he knows his garden is being mess up like that....
anyway, he was about 50 when I was a kid.... I hope he is still healthy now....
Dodes' Kaden

I backed to city after the holiday, backed for works, backed for living, backed for something... or most of the thing I don't understand....
Everyday, I was living in the smell of fast food, cigarette, air-conditioning, rubbish bin with 8 Starbucks cups inside, 5 males and 13 females sitting in the same room
I started to forget the Taste of the Wind......
But I remember a Japanese movie I had seen... Dodes' Kaden...by Kurosawa..

Kurosawa's first film in color, and it is also the most pessimistic one.
Though he used surrealistic color and setting to achieve an atmosphere, combined with the 70s color film textures, the film inevitably gave audience an intense depressing feeling.
the Story is about a retarded kid, Dode, he and his family is living in a rubbish area, which also have many other people live there, also have no hopes and they are also someone who left by the entire world....
Dode always imitates a tram drive and " Drive " around his town. The film focused upon the slum life who debase themselves to survive. Kurosawa attempted suicide after finished the film.



Kurosawa's films always reflect his own view and feeling of the world... when he was young, he always filmed about love, relationships, friendships, past, family, beliefs..... and one of his film "Dreams" was about environmental problems....
the motion film technique was upgraded at 60s to 70s.... and the world was going into another stage also, everything was improved so fast, science, economics, tradings...everything...... but at the hopeful moment, Kurosawa chose to make a most hopeless view...







Set up

to the theme of my thought, and the idea of the film...
I started to make a natural by a bit mess up feeling layout..

use old ADA red soil... what a nightmare....









Clean up with a DIY water in-flow....







be careful , it is easy to hurt your hands...



after cleaning....



build up the right hand side's soil...



because the first idea was only moss and few foreground plants...so I did not need ferts in the substrate



fixed the area of the sand (changed few weeks later..hehe)



build up the right side



place the drift wood and stones... (cheap and re-used ones.... used only for supporting)



it is OK clear after put in water.... the re-used soil method was fine..



As the time goes by
































Final words

I wish I could do more layouts. I am too slow. I need 8 to 10 months to complete an aquascaping layout. I still keep a 35cm layout on which I have been working for 18 months.... still not yet finished... And also, I wish I could travel more to have more fresh ideas.

Anyway, Good luck everyone. Cliff.