[Ulan]

Not really much of a scape, just three swords, some rocks and sand. And some remaining excuse of a Bacopa.

Excuse the dust, but the impeller axle of the canister just broke. That should be fixed next week.

 

[bratyboy2]

i like the simplicity of the design. what is kept in this tank?

 

[Tex Gal]

Reminds me of Stonehenge.

 

[Ulan]

Thanks. At the moment of the photograph, the tank houses 7 bronze cories, one bulldog pleco and three SA bumblebee cats.

 

[Asgard]

I like it, it's got something peacefull about it. Is tranquille the right word?
Maybe if you put the liitle rock (left back) to the left front, and hide the technique.

 

[fishlover]

I like it thought I can't see the bacopa. Its simple yet effective and while it may not be as fancy as the aiming-at-winning-contests-tanks, its nice and would make a great biotope

 

[NAL]

It looks like there is a lot of depth to it. I am a fan, good job. I thing asgard has a good point, that rock just doesn't belong there in the back.

 

[SKSuser]

I believe the bacopa is back center,
its the little curved thing with a very few leaves.
Am I correct?

A similar suggestion to what has been made by Asgard and seconded by others, but with a twist.
I think that simply shoving the rock over to the left where it can peek out from behind the sword will create even more depth. In person, you view the tank differently than we can. I bet at home the tank looks perfectly normal with the rock right there.

I think a tan background would look nice on this tank. The hoses and stuff on the right side, outside the tank are kinda distracting.

I love the color relationship of the rocks to the sandy substrate, and I can just swear that the crevice in the rock on the right just winked at me. ;-) You're large rocks are awesome. Where did you get them?
In general the whole aquascape reminds me of Arizona where I notice you live. My grandfather-in-law has a back yard garden in Tucson of which your tank especially reminds me. Do you think your every day surroundings had an influence on your setup, or is it coincidence?

Once you get your canister back up and running, what will your routine be for the tank?

 

[Ulan]

Thank you all for the comments and suggestions.

Yes, the little curved thing is what is left of the Bacopa. I guess I'll remove the rest .

The rock that most of you don't like is lying on top of the flat one. I was not completely satisfied with it when I set the tank up, either, and I had tried a few alternatives. Just taking it away doesn't work, because you need something to balance the leftmost rock of the right-hand group. A smaller rock looks weird. Somehow, I got used to it by now. But I haven't tried shoving it to the left, yet .

The rocks are just collected from a (dry) Arizona creek. I thought the sandstone and its round, but slightly weathered surfaces should work nicely with the sand. You are right, the tank somewhat resembles a dry creek here, although I didn't have any mesquite trees to work with . You also see quite often rocks lying on top of others. But I have to admit that the main reason behind the tank was having a playground for the cories, who like to plow through the sand. They usually keep it very smooth and clean, and all the irregularities you see result from me removing some algae below the sand surface before I took the photograph.

The tank is medium light (about 3.5 W/gallon) and low maintenance. The canister usually keeps the water clear. Algae are mostly removed by the inhabitants. I use some fert tabs for the swords. I try to keep them in that state so that they neither grow nor shrink (swords are one of the few plants that actually just shrink when they are unhappy). That's about it .

 

[SKSuser]

Cool.
Sounds like one of those tanks that works for you instead of the other way around. :razz:

Forgot to mention that I like the idea of simple fish for the tank. It would be rather a shame to have some extravagant fish for such a spartan aquascape. Don't let anyone talk you into adding "flare" or whatever to the setup, as I don't believe it would benefit from that treatment.

I'm trusting that you don't see too many deficiency signs in the swords even with a low dosing regimen?

 

[Ulan]

I had some glowlight tetras in there in the beginning, which didn't look bad.

The tank has now been up and running for 6 to 9 months. The swords are the only plants that can survive the relatively high light without CO2 supplementation. If you look closely, you will see that the leaves are not as thick as with well nourished specimens, but they are still okay.

Why the photograph now, when the silt from cory activity is up? Well, I took the photograph for a different reason, and then I decided on a whim to post it here.

 

[jackh]

what kinda sand is that? tank looks good