[roybot73]

I like the loose and wild/natural feeling of the 60cm. Very nice direction overall.

Thanks Jeff! That 'loose and wild/natural feeling' was really the focus I had when setting this up. Just kind of loosely 'scape it, and then let "The Mother Nature" do the rest over time...

I've trimmed the Lim Aro right back to let some light get to the Rotala, Didplis and Lysimachia. Hopefully they'll start to bush out a bit more, as they've been trimmed several times now...

 

[manojprabakar]

All of 'em are wonderful looking tanks. It's simply gorgeous.

 

[roybot73]

Just a few pics after the Lim trim...
I think the 8K bulb has finally "burned in" to it's color. I like it I hadn't really noticed much pearling, so I extended the photoperiod to 8 hours -- now she pearls. Upped the Neons to 12, Green Fire number is down to 2 (out of 14 -- all jumpers), and I lost an Oto due to jumpage if you can believe it.
Getting ready to switch to Green Brighty Step 2...

Thanks for looking!

 

[thief]

I really like the loose feeling of you tank. The plant choice is great. To bad you didn't enter this tank in the ADA 2008.

 

[krisw]

Really nice looking scape! You managed to mix together a number of different species in the same scape with it looking contrived. Congrats!

 

[ericpop27]

Amazing stuff! Your water and the aquarium glass are so clear, I am envious! The green richness of your plants is astounding. This looks contest worthy for sure.

They are so nice they actually look like paintings rather than pictures.

 

[roybot73]

Thanks for the comments!

I've switched back to the 12K bulb that came with the fixture. What a difference in color rendition, not to mention growth rates! I've also started dosing Green Brighty step 2, which really seems to help boost the reds in my Crypts, Rotala, and Lim Aro (even though it's not visible in these pics taken a few weeks ago...)

On a side note, the 20L is undergoing a minor rescape. Due to outrageous growth rates, all stem plants (including the Blyxa) became one big mass and had to be removed as such. Pics coming soon...

 

[St3v3]

I love the natural look of the 60P. Very cool. I plan on doing a moss and sand foreground as well.

 

[roybot73]

Just a couple quick & crappy pics of how the new scape is filling in. I'm going to try to trim it all back by this weekend. I might also move some of the Hygro 'compacta' to the rear of the tank.

60-P is still chuggin' along...
Might be time to thin out some Tenellus soon, Cyperus too -- seems to inhibit flow a bit. Stems need trimming too I like keeping it 'wild' though...

 

[krisw]

Looks great! I particularly like the last picture!

 

[roybot73]

Still waiting for the patch of Hairgrass/Lilaeopsis to fill in on the right foreground. Everything else is growing just fine...

That guppy is the Shrimplet Hunter -- it's a good thing there are 1,000,000 Cherry Shrimplets in there!

Thanks for looking--

 

[krisw]

Looks really nice. I'd love to see a shot for a higher angle looking down so you can really see the scape. I love hairgrass foregrounds!

 

[roybot73]

Looks really nice. I'd love to see a shot for a higher angle looking down so you can really see the scape. I love hairgrass foregrounds!

Thanks!

 

[roybot73]

I'll be the very first to admit that this layout is indeed wholly unoriginal, but it's what came together as I rescaped. I went in with a loose plan, and sometimes things just find they're own way of working together. Call it 'paint-by-number' if you will, but I enjoy looking at it

The first thing you'll notice is the lack of a sand foreground. Never Again. Lesson learned. It looks good for a day, and then the shrimp just destroy it. I asked Jeff S. about adding that small amount of Aquisoil™ into an existing setup. He said he'd recently done the same thing and to just go for it. Worked out just fine. I actually had enough HC buried in the jungle to get this much planted. LFS should be getting some in in Thursday, so I'll supplement the planting then.

"Look Ma, No Stems!"

That's not entirely true though. I have some Hygro 'kompacta' and Micranthemum umbrosum in there, but no background stem plants. I'd like to have some "overhead" space left in the composition, and I had some flow issues with the last layout. Lots of Crypts in there should fill the space in a cool way.

Thanks for looking!

 

[ChrisGray]

they both look great very clean looking layouts

 

[xavierj123]

I am interested in the wood too so if you don't mind elaborating a little bit more in that direction, I'de appreciate it. How do you prepare your wood? I am setting up a 55 gallon tank and it is undergoing a water test right now with a rather large piece of driftwood floating on top until it sinks. The wood was prepared by pouring several gallons of boiling water on it.

 

[roybot73]

I am interested in the wood too so if you don't mind elaborating a little bit more in that direction, I'de appreciate it. How do you prepare your wood? I am setting up a 55 gallon tank and it is undergoing a water test right now with a rather large piece of driftwood floating on top until it sinks. The wood was prepared by pouring several gallons of boiling water on it.

All wood was boiled for several hours.

Quick update...

Well, it's filling in slowly but surely! The Rams picked out ALL of the HC, so I planted some Crypt parva and Downoi to fill in the foreground -- both are growing well. Pfertz root tabs have been added under the other Crypt species, the Blyxa, hygro kompacta and in the foreground under the Downoi. We'll see how they perform

 

[davemonkey]

That's tremendous growth in just a month and a half. It's looking good!