Hi, everyone. once again i have succumb to my fish tank addiction and gotten another tank. ive been planning this 29g tank for some time now and even trekked out to find the hard scape at a local beach before i even got the tank. but in the end i got this lovly tank from Han(H4n) and went at it right away. took a lot of cleaning but spruced it back up to its former glory. as of right now i have a HOB filter from one of my old tanks going, just to start the cycling process along. still trying to figure out the plant layout that i want to put in this tank but it will be started very very soon. As i want a very simplistic tank layout.
here is the start of the tank while setting it up last night!
the stand i made with 4x4s and 2x4s with a walnut stain finish using roofing brackets.
here are some of the rocks that i collected form the local beach. in addition to the many that are all ready in the tank. i believe its granite witch there is a tun of locally in New England.
after an hour or so of tampering with the rock placement, and a little help from some friends lifting the rocks to me, i came up with this placement. took a tun of tweaking to get it to this stage, im quite happy with the layout.
All in all im very happy with the hard scape. cant wait to put plants into this tank. so far im thinking i want DHG, maybe try my hand at some UG for the foreground. but not sure yet on a mid and background plants. we will see what happens this week!
if you were going for dramatic, i think you hit the nail on the head. to preserve the effect, i would suggest using very low growing carpet plants such as HC, UG or lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae in the foreground and depending on your taste, DHG or some tall stemmed plants in the back.
i agree completely, im realy starting to lean towards UG in this tank for the forground. it seems like it flow the bestfor the immediate front. then ether recided back inspace with DHG or Blyxa depeding on a the high difference i want in different places. the more i see it the more i want to add some hydrocotle into the mix of things. even tho i have it everyone one of damn tanks haha!
The hardscape and the stand are top notch. I like the idea of having a single species of a low carpet plant - this tank has a lot of possibilities in what you can do. I would consider doing a moss wall in the background, not putting any tall plants, and having the low carpet plant in the open space of the tallest peak. Then in the back right corner put in a Crinum Calimistratum and its long flowing vines will eventually take over the top space. You would have only 3 plants and you don't hide the hardscape.
Do you have any plans on putting a background on the tank or do you want to keep it so you can see the wall behind it?
thanks the stand didnt take much pretty easy to construct kind of a industrial look to things. agree with the low plants, but never been a fan of moss walls my self, but thats just personal preference. but crinum c. is one of my fav plants but is realy hard to find, at least for me. but im trying to keep the plant selection small like you said.
But the tallest one should not have the very tip cut off. I don't know if you want or can push it down but it will certainly look better if it is not going out of the "frame".
Since it's obvious that the beauty of the hardscape is in its heaviness it would make sense to plant the tank in such a way that this feeling is enhanced. Also as it is the tank already looks larger than it is. One way to keep these 2 impressions going on is to use small frilly plants mainly in the lower parts of the rocks and keep a lot of the rock surface visible.
This picture leaves you with the impression of a very heavy rock mass:
This picture also gives an idea of the use of small plants/big rock:
And of course - the fish should be small. By the way one VERY cool way to stock such a tank full of rocks is to use a bunch of gobies. They will constantly play and move in, out, and around the rocks seldom wandering to the glass. The whole thing will look like it is full of life centered around the rocks.
These are such great ideas thanks! the largest rock is sadly touching the bottom of the tank. i tried to push it down as far as i could get it but it wouldnt budge anymore i bothers me everytime i see it cut off witch isnt so bad when ur looking at it in person cause u cant really see the tops of some of them any how. but as for the benefit of the scape i want to try to give it a good wiggle again now with rejuvenated strength! the second picture is exactly the type of planting arangment i was thinking, slpoed towards the base of the rocks and kept nice and low but still flowing upward. thats why i love the combo of hydrocotle and DHG together they have flow to them in their hieght difference that transitions nicer then some other ground covers.
the gobby idea is also great. i have a plan for some of the stocking, my lfs just got some very nice blue tetras in. i was thinking a big school of them would contrast nicly with the dark rocks and light sand.
WOW! Great hardscape! It's fantastic, I really love it!! Those rocks are awesome. But I would agree with the comments above saying that I would adjust the main stone so that the tip isn't cut off. I think you should be able to create a stunning scape in here!!
I guess I'm the odd one out, but I think having the tip of the tallest rock extending out of the "frame", adds to the feeling of immense height...I like it that way.
i agree with the imense hieght feeling u get form it protruding out of the tank. its slowly growing on me. but my mentality usually is it should not at all or all the way! something i picked up from my art program i attend at my college. little things like that tend to anoy me haha
everyone else who i didnt get to thank you for the kind words and appreciation! up dates will be in the near future with hopefully a planted tank haha
if you were going for dramatic, i think you hit the nail on the head. to preserve the effect, i would suggest using very low growing carpet plants such as HC, UG or lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae in the foreground and depending on your taste, DHG or some tall stemmed plants in the back.
The hardscape and the stand are top notch. I like the idea of having a single species of a low carpet plant - this tank has a lot of possibilities in what you can do. I would consider doing a moss wall in the background, not putting any tall plants, and having the low carpet plant in the open space of the tallest peak. Then in the back right corner put in a Crinum Calimistratum and its long flowing vines will eventually take over the top space. You would have only 3 plants and you don't hide the hardscape.
Do you have any plans on putting a background on the tank or do you want to keep it so you can see the wall behind it?
But the tallest one should not have the very tip cut off. I don't know if you want or can push it down but it will certainly look better if it is not going out of the "frame".
Since it's obvious that the beauty of the hardscape is in its heaviness it would make sense to plant the tank in such a way that this feeling is enhanced. Also as it is the tank already looks larger than it is. One way to keep these 2 impressions going on is to use small frilly plants mainly in the lower parts of the rocks and keep a lot of the rock surface visible.
This picture leaves you with the impression of a very heavy rock mass:
This picture also gives an idea of the use of small plants/big rock:
And of course - the fish should be small. By the way one VERY cool way to stock such a tank full of rocks is to use a bunch of gobies. They will constantly play and move in, out, and around the rocks seldom wandering to the glass. The whole thing will look like it is full of life centered around the rocks.
WOW! Great hardscape! It's fantastic, I really love it!! Those rocks are awesome. But I would agree with the comments above saying that I would adjust the main stone so that the tip isn't cut off. I think you should be able to create a stunning scape in here!!
I guess I'm the odd one out, but I think having the tip of the tallest rock extending out of the "frame", adds to the feeling of immense height...I like it that way.
Great hardscape. I wanna go find some better rocks now. But yeah, it's more than just getting good rocks, you knew how to place them.
Yeah, no moss wall. No way.
I'm with driftwoodhunter on liking that tall rock jutting out, but I see your whole "all or nothing" vision. If you de-rimmed the tank (perhaps too late) then that rock that's getting his tip nipped would look a whole lot better. Not that it has too though, it's looking great!
Hopefully it does! And I think the angle would add to the dimension of it!!
I think I heard someone mention a moss wall, I would vote against it. I see lots of people with moss walls that always fail because they take too long, so the tank just ends up looking messy.
i tried to angle the rock ether back or perfectly strait up and down for this exact reason to benefit were light hits in the right places. As everyone knows most good foreground plants take a lot of light to really take off so i thought about this right off the bat luckily
i adjusted that rock down a bit now its not poking out the top! and finaly got some plants in the tank. to start i added DHG in the majority of the tank with a few little bunches of hydrocotle siborthes here and there to fill in some open spots and get a little color transition between the grass. i feel hydrocotle spreads out really nice and gets some hight if u let it. you cant see a lot of if it but once it grows in it will be more then visible. then i added a few wrapped stones of fissdens to accent and divide the DHG from mid to foreground. im still planning on adding UG when i can to the foreground when ever some comes up again on the FS section. ether that or im going to have to go with HC witch i might do anyways. tho i have never tried UG in any of my tanks and want to take a go at it! seems like it takes off quickly from what ive read.
anyways all is well in the tank so far. going to do a water change tomorrow. been slacking on the start up process. i usually do a water change everyday for the first week. :/ have done a single one yet haha
but heres the pics notice the new HO light bulbs wooo, now its nice and bright. going to attach the hangers tomorrow to prop that fixture up!
honestly it wasnt as bad as u thought, i just left the bottom caked on layer in the tank and scooped out what i could haha. other wise everything came out easy.
Looks great!!!!! I am so glad you were able to lower that rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to see it grow in! You might think about just leaving the front open sand, if it growths in nice and thick in the back, and there is that fissidens as a visual barrier, a white sandy foreground will look really nice! You also might think about straightening out that substrate, its a little distracting.
yea i cant wait to see everything grow, thats always the worst part the waiting game. but yea the more i look at it the more i like just the white sand. cause the DHG will get around 6-7in if u let it. so i could be fine just how it is. but im def going to straiten out the sand when i do a water change today.
got a few new things today in the mail! got my set of Pfertz and my new ehiem 2213 filter so no more noisy HOB filter that wasnt cycling the tank well. also moved out my blyxa from my 10g into this tank to add some texture difference and height to some of the areas of the tank should look nice once they fill out a little. also bumped up the co2 and light intensity a little bit to get some better growth
Ahh I see! Sound good! Maybe try something else there. Something so it doesn't attract attention, but it makes it not empty and distracting to the eyes
well once the DHG takes off i should be set it will cover every inch of the tank if i let it haha
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