ADA Mini-S: Riven Tanglewood

[CL]

Everything is looking great. I'm watching CSI: NY and there was a guys tattoo that said "Tanglewood" lol

[Outlawboss]

Haha, ok UG I'll take that challenge. I have full confidence in you. You know what's funny, I was going to suggest that you use an HC carpet (purely out of selfish love for the plant) but I thought, "Naah, he'll never go for it."

Low and behold...here you are a couple hours later with a post detailing exactly what I had in mind. Freaky, I'm tellin' you.

[Ugly Genius]

Thanks, zero

Thanks, mizu. Sweet thing to say.

Was the dude on CSI covered in moss, cl?

Outlaw, I think you were right on the money with the carpet encouragement. After planting the HC -- good call, by the way -- I came home yesterday and was actually excited to look into the tank. Up to this point, I stopped getting excited over Riven Tanglewood. Mosses, while pretty and neat, are boring as nitrate to watch grow. HC, an exponentially faster grower than moss, will give me something to watch.

I'm hoping that with the inclusion of HC, the carpet will help with the photos. Up to now, I can't get a good photo of this tank as it's so dark. The carpet should help reflect light back onto the hardscape so that all of you can see the details that are there.

Some goodish news is that I think I may see the return of the "Jellybolt" algae that I had in Source some time back. This was a type of algae that looked like Staghorn, but had a jelly texture and lightning bolt shape. It was fresh. I think I might be seeing it start to form in the front center of the tank. Initially, the area was occupied by BBA. It's now transforming to what looks like "Jellybolt".

Or it's just plain old Staghorn.

[jargonchipmunk]

I think the HC will bring the hardscape and mosses "into" the substrate if that makes any sense at all. Up until I saw those few sprigs of HC in your plans, I had always wondered where you were going with this tank. Without the carpet, it always looked like the wood and mosses were simply sitting on top of some dirt. (they effectively ARE doing that, but it just looked a bit uninspired to me) With the addition of the HC, I think all the lines will meld and this tank will be something worthy of the Riven namesake haha

[Outlawboss]

I'm interested to see how the HC will behave with the shade of the wood in some places. In my own experience it grows into the shadows somewhat, but then stops on its own. It could be a really cool effect.

Loving this tank soo much.

[Ugly Genius]

Thanks, jargon.

Hey, Outlwaw. Thanks!

From about three weeks after it was planted, Riven Tanglewood pissed me off. I wasn't growing well and there was perpetual algae and slime on everything. Ugly's ugly tank, as it were. This is despite it being my favorite hardscape.
Then, about two weeks ago, on a whim, I swapped out the bulb with a new one. Then, all of a sudden, things started growing much better. Algae is still present, but I'm chalking this up to me trying to find the new light to CO2 to fert balance; this should take another two weeks to fine tune.

And while you can see the algae in this tank, you may also notice that the growth has sped up considerably.

So check your bulbs.

[demosthenes]

wow, looks great! i dont know if this would completely go against the point of this tank or not, but i think some lighter colored, small-leafed stem plants in the back left corner would look good. maybe some micranthemum umbrosum? your mosses are WAY cool, it seems like a nice light-green behind them for shade contrast would bring out the deep green in the mosses more.

[Outlawboss]

Look at that HC go. It's moving faster than the stuff in my emmersed HC growery. Nice.