Wow!
What an awesome tank! Reminds me of some of Jeff Senske's works but it has its own unique touch... Beautiful....
What an awesome tank! Reminds me of some of Jeff Senske's works but it has its own unique touch... Beautiful....
A tank for years to come!
Posted for Luis
I have always enjoyed aquascaping sort term layouts because the tanks plants grow quickly and the design can be accomplished in a very short time.
For the first time I decided to create a tank that I will enjoy for a few years at list. The materials of choice are driftwood for the most part and a few rocks to support the structure. Also since the driftwood size is taller than the tank, open top was the way to go my experience with slow growing plants and how to deal with them was not that great since all of my designs have lots of light and this one wasn't going to be any different.
Laying the tank out was the fun part and planting, well I enjoy it even more! The problem was the time it took the tank to "kick in" I want to say that it takes patience and experience to have such layout I hate to bother my friends with questions but this time I had to!
I taught from my friend Jeff Senske that their tanks are so successful due to the fact that most of them are design to last for years at the time so Jeff has master this technique better than any body I know. In a way, I copied the way he layout the substrate for his designs.
The next problem was the amount of light. I have HQI on top of this aquarium and the way the light where schedule was definitely too long and too close to the surface as well.
The consequences, you guess it algae! Only Tom Barr knows how many times I called him trying to fix the problem.
Tom knows that's all I have to say within a few week of his prognosis and after I kill all the algae the tank was started with the recommended dose Dr. Barr prescribe for my tank and everything start looking better in no time.
Tom and many others have advise me to go easy on the light but as stubborn as I am I only lift the light fixture a few inches more, but the time the lights where on did not change until I heard from Mr. Amano himself that the HQI shouldn't be on for more than 5 hours a day. As soon as I came back I changed the timers to start the fluorescent light from 10 am to 10 pm starting the HQI at 2:00 pm and going off at 7:00 pm.
The tank is looking so much better that I decides to share a few pictures with you guy's I hope you like it as much as I do. The amount of detail trimmings can be done and enjoyed for long periods of time due to the plants nature and the instant patina achieved with the moss make the tank looks better and better as time goes on.
Cheers,
Luis Navarro
![]()
I have always enjoyed aquascaping sort term layouts because the tanks plants grow quickly and the design can be accomplished in a very short time.
For the first time I decided to create a tank that I will enjoy for a few years at list. The materials of choice are driftwood for the most part and a few rocks to support the structure. Also since the driftwood size is taller than the tank, open top was the way to go my experience with slow growing plants and how to deal with them was not that great since all of my designs have lots of light and this one wasn't going to be any different.
Laying the tank out was the fun part and planting, well I enjoy it even more! The problem was the time it took the tank to "kick in" I want to say that it takes patience and experience to have such layout I hate to bother my friends with questions but this time I had to!
I taught from my friend Jeff Senske that their tanks are so successful due to the fact that most of them are design to last for years at the time so Jeff has master this technique better than any body I know. In a way, I copied the way he layout the substrate for his designs.
The next problem was the amount of light. I have HQI on top of this aquarium and the way the light where schedule was definitely too long and too close to the surface as well.
The consequences, you guess it algae! Only Tom Barr knows how many times I called him trying to fix the problem.
Tom knows that's all I have to say within a few week of his prognosis and after I kill all the algae the tank was started with the recommended dose Dr. Barr prescribe for my tank and everything start looking better in no time.
Tom and many others have advise me to go easy on the light but as stubborn as I am I only lift the light fixture a few inches more, but the time the lights where on did not change until I heard from Mr. Amano himself that the HQI shouldn't be on for more than 5 hours a day. As soon as I came back I changed the timers to start the fluorescent light from 10 am to 10 pm starting the HQI at 2:00 pm and going off at 7:00 pm.
The tank is looking so much better that I decides to share a few pictures with you guy's I hope you like it as much as I do. The amount of detail trimmings can be done and enjoyed for long periods of time due to the plants nature and the instant patina achieved with the moss make the tank looks better and better as time goes on.
Cheers,
Luis Navarro
1 - 20 of 26 Posts
Almost got speechless, very nice Luis 
Very nice! Keep us updated on how the tank progresses over the next year or so
That's a really nice green-plant tank. I like it But what drew my attention is information that HQI shouldn’t be on more than 5 hours a day. Anybody know something more about that?
But what drew my attention is information that HQI shouldn’t be on more than 5 hours a day. Anybody know something more about that?
1 - 20 of 26 Posts
