" A piece of Sintra" - 180L

Hello folks and thanks for the feedback.

Let me explain you the use of Rotala pink and Ludwigia arcuata, since the opinion is unanimous: the goal is to create a bush behind the driftwood, exposing the reds and yellows/greens of the Rotala ( in the lower portions). The area of the driftwood in contact with the steam plants will be covered with a soft touch of moss ( don´t want to cover the entires branches) to make the transition between the reds of the steam plants and the red/brown of the wood. So, there will be a portion of green between the two red colours.

This has to be seen in the long run, as well as the compact bush that the steam plants will create. For now, they are all desorganized since I have only trimmed them once. The tank, in the last pic, is as it is today and the tank made 2 months yesterday. I think it still has much to offer and to mature so I will update frequently.

The wood I got from a friend of mine. You can have the same wood though, in this site: aquaristic.net - Der Aquaristik, Terraristik, Gartenteich Onlineshop

Again, thank you for your kind comments and constructive criticism. If somehow, the steam plants won´t give the effect I expect, I will surelly rethink them and change them for another plant.

Regards,
André

Matthew thanks.

greenmiddlefinger said:

This tank makes me remember jukai, the forests around Mt. Fuji. That was one place that was so over-whelmingly beautiful, really almost too perfect, that I felt just very very small. For me, this lay out brings back a bit of that feeling-- though immature, it's got great potential dude. Good job!

Click to expand...

Steven, it´s funny you mention that, the coincidence couldn´t be greater. The title of this project is called " A little piece of Sintra" in wich, Sintra, is a vulcanic mountain surrounded by beautiful forests. Big woods with beautiful glades everywhere, in wich the rays of light penetrate the dense vegetation. In a pedestrian walking through these woods, I found an inspirational scenary with a fallen tree over some big rocks. The smallest rock had at least 2 m high, just so you can picture the enormous view. Big ferns, mushrooms and moss were covering part of the tree. Rocks were also covered by moss. Behind the wood/rock group, dense vegetation was present, a mix of berries bush with big ferns. I had no camera at the momment but the scene has been present in my mind ever since. I tought I should use this as an inspiration for this tank and so, a piece of Sintra was born in my tank.

Thanks for the inspirational feedback.

Regards,
André

Hello!

Sorry for the late reply but I had some minor troubles with this tank regarding algae. In addition, time wasnt in my side so I could not update this thread.

Edwin, I got this driftwood from a friend of mine when he worked at a LFS.

In 29th September, I went out for the weekend and fertilized with enough nutrients for those days. When I came back, the water was like this:







I never had green water before so this was a bit new to me. I picked up some Pistia stratiotes at a friend of mine and dumped them in the tank. Here are the pics of the following days:



Dia = Day

With the green water, some plants were damaged due to the lack of light such as H.C. and Eleocharis acicularis but the mosses went crazy. Beautiful growth by x-mas moss and Singapore moss. Here´s a pic of the tank taken in 15th November with cristal clear water:



From this day, the tank has been recovering very well. I did some changes in the Flora as, some of you said, R. Pink wasnt working very well with the driftwood.So I removed most of the R. Pink and placed R. green and Valisneria nana. R. green has yet to show herself as the plant is all creeped and compact behind the driftwood. The ideia is to have a little bush of R. Pink, sorrounded by R. green and, behind the vertical branches of the driftwood, V. nana. Anyway, this tank still has a long way to go, tough I am very pleased with the way it turned out after so many misfortunes.

Some singular shots:













V. nana, very beautiful:





Overall:









I have buyed a small school of Pseudomugil gertrudade: 2 males and 4 females. I hope they breed in the tank as this little guys are a bit expensive. Very active and peaceful though and they make a nice choice for small tanks.

Sorry for the big post. After so many pics and text, you guys will want my head in a plate.

Thanks for watching and Happy New Year,
André