I've finally decided to AQUASCAPE a tank. All these years I've been raising jungle grow out tanks, no aquascaping to speak of.
The inspiration for this tank is from my fishing trips in rivers and lakes around Cincinnati. A couple of the plants in this tank are actually from the local area.
I'm going emersed right now. I'll add fish that will definitely tear up the hair grass so I want to give them a change to establish. And the established roots will hold the slopes together too.
tank: 75G
lights: 3 t5 HO, 2 rosettes, 1 daylight
substrate: flourite, mineralize soil, paver's sand
hardscape: black soap stones... The ph isn't affected but the GH will probably go up but what stone won't.
plant: dwarf hairgrass, giant hairgrass, ludwigia sp.
things are going ok, emersed. As expected, the hairgrass will take some time to transition. The old growth is dying off and new growth coming in. The ludwigia is doing good.
but I have no patience, so I planted what I have in my 5G tank. Yes, enough to fill in a 75G!. And filled in the tank.
The new additions are rotala green, c. wendtii bronze or red, and dwarf chain sword.
I'm waiting for the plants to grow in and watch the chain sword since they'll take over the tank and kill off the dwarf hairgrass.
Also, I'm experimenting with putting the outtake low in the tank to give the plants plenty of CO2.
I love the soap stone and how you stacked them. It looks like a natural formation. I saw you plan to add giant hair grass (GHG). I added mine to a dry start and it did well. Only thing I would recommend: If you want the GHG to stay localized, you should think of putting a barrier in the substrate - like a pot. They send out a lot of runners and they can travel a long way! I wish I had.
Oh, I know what you mean.. I have it growing in my garden and it's taking over.. I'll just have to do some aggressive pruning.
I'm hoping the GHG will mix well with the crypt. I'm following the ideas of flower arranging. Mixing plants are important and is rarely done in aquascaping. The key is to have a dominant plant and the mixed in plant acts as an accent.
I was contemplating doing and iwagumi similar to this one a while back, with stacked sheets of sharp rock, if you can understand that.
Also, so happy you're using DHG and not somthing like HC or Glosso. I hope you stick with it untill it's a full carpet. There arn't nearly enough iwagumis that use DHG (that I've seen anyway).
SO BASICALLY, I hope you don't mind me living vicariously through your tank.
update.
Plants are growing slowly. There's no algae issues so I guess things are going fine. I'm adding dry ferts too but I'm not measuring, a pinch here, a pinch there. There's plenty of CO2. The crypt is melting and growing new leaves.
oh, and added the fish that was in my 29G
7 r. espei
1 rummy nose
1 cherry barb
2 b. histrionica (digger)
1 rubber lip pleco (digger)
1 flying fox
The diggers are problematic in a mineralize soil tank for sure. However, they've only dug in their caves so the damage is minimal.
And I really dislike the flying fox but I'll have to live with it.
That is coming along. I look forward to seeing it a little more grown in. Why don't you like the flying fox? I have never had one but they seem so cute.
yeah, it's coming along. That's a month's growth. I'm afraid the light levels are too low but the rotala behind the big rock cropping is growing sideways so I'm thinking that's good enough.
As for the flying fox, don't get them. They are a terror. You can't have more than one in a tank. The dominant one will harass the weaker one and will attack almost any fish in its territory. It plays nice with the botia though, not sure why.
update on this tank.
I've added fish.
Stock List:
7 danio sp. Burma/TW02 (1 got his eyeball sucked out, gruesome but alive)
6 r. hengeli
6 DANIO Species "Northern Glowlight"
3 d. choperae
6 Puntius shalynius (not sure what it is really. Maybe I have all females)
5 botia histrionica
1 flying fox
2 rubber lip pleco
1 cherry barb
1 rummy nose tetra
They're not colorful fish by any mean but most are schoolers and stay together.
this is where all of the bigger fish spend the day. They come out when the lights are off. And they are not friendly to the hair grass if you can see.
I love everything about it except the two cords in the middle. It takes away from the wicked hardscape. Just an opinion. Feel free to ignore me, mistergreen.
oh I agree... when this has grown in the way I want it, I'll remove all the junk and take a picture of it. But in the meanwhile, they're there for the sake of function.
yes, that's a drawf chain sword.
I also have a ludwigia sp. which I found locally floating in the tank. It refuses to be planted. The stem melts and the plant floats away. I might as well stop trying to plant it.
Function over form is the most important when it comes to fish health. Just had to rib you a bit. :hihi:
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