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Mini M Sized Scape (ISTA Comp result last page)

27K views 85 replies 30 participants last post by  Dantrasy 
#1 · (Edited)
So I have a mini m sized tank with a high tech setup. After 6 months of battling to grow anything I managed to get this:


I wasn't very happy with the scape so I sold all the plants and purchased some seiryu rock, something I've never worked with before.

I made a cardboard box the same size as the tank and arranged the rocks lots of different ways. It's a great way to spend an evening (or 2 or 3). I got some good feedback from TPT too, which helped a lot. I decided to get a few more rocks and in the end the arrangement that most closely matches the finished scape looked like this:


I planted some hc June 4th in seedling trays:


Today (9 weeks later) it looks like this:


Anyway, some of the hc in the tray ended up going into this scape:




Planting.....








And in the end:


I reused the aquasoil. It's 6 months old. I washed it and it looks and plants fine. But its ammonia is gone. So what are my options for cycling? What the recommended method in this situation? Thanks for any advice.
 
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#47 · (Edited)
Thanks man! I'll have to check your tank out.

For pics the led is pushed to the back so the light hits the wall nice and the background of the scape lights up evenly. but doing this darkens the faces of the rocks, so a T5 is resting on top of the tank towards the front. So normally the led is in the middle, and the shadow on the right isn't so prominent (in fact, you can't see a shadow at all).

That said, the hc on the right has struggled a little. The hc taken away to form the path got replanted there. In the early days I think the flow was too high on the right and the hc was getting blown around too much. quite a lot dislodged and floated up too. the filter taps are turned down now and the hc is doing better.
 
#49 ·
Added more rocks at the back and front. (rocks and domes seem to be my thing ... if in doubt add more rock and/or trim domes).

It still a ways off from being finished. The fiss has a lot of growing in to do and I've got plans to take the hc to a few more places to further integrate the foreground into the rest of the scape.


Update pic

http://i1038.photobucket.com/albums/a461/Dantrasy/ui_zpse4499461.png~original
 
#58 ·
I like the placements of your scape. im loving every bit of it! keep it up man! cant waait to see any future tanks from you
Thanks man!

Awesome job, looks great!

I hear you on the lack of support from stores, I'm on the East coast near DC and we thankfully do have a lot of fish shops, sadly, they carry very little plants and Co2 stuff? what's that? No drop checkers, no co2 tanks, no co2 rated line, just the basic CO2 kits that come with the 3 week long throw away tanks.

Grrrr

Coral is where it's at over here, most shops carry thousands and thousands of dollars worth of coral. One shop in Northern Virginia is nothing but one massive black light looking shop, AWESOME shop, but not a single plant to be found.
Yeah, well it's the same here on the other side of the world. Reefers have the big bucks so stores cater for their needs. The population is small here (my state 3.5x bigger than Texas, but only 2.5mil people). So no shop could survive selling only planted tank stuff. But things have definitely got better in the past 1 year equipment wise. tanks, rocks, filters etc are all here. but plant quarantine restrictions still suck. i want an erio for this tank (right side base of biggest rock), but alas, none are available.
 
#57 ·
Awesome job, looks great!

I hear you on the lack of support from stores, I'm on the East coast near DC and we thankfully do have a lot of fish shops, sadly, they carry very little plants and Co2 stuff? what's that? No drop checkers, no co2 tanks, no co2 rated line, just the basic CO2 kits that come with the 3 week long throw away tanks.

Grrrr

Coral is where it's at over here, most shops carry thousands and thousands of dollars worth of coral. One shop in Northern Virginia is nothing but one massive black light looking shop, AWESOME shop, but not a single plant to be found.
 
#59 ·
I understand its where the money is but having ZERO drop checkers, ZERO diffusers other than a basic ladder, ZERO tubing, yet carrying all the bottle crap like excel and such...

Diffusers are in the $5-20 range and take up very little shelf space. Makes no sense to me why no one carries them. Seems like most CO2 stuff is big in Europe. Handful of CO2 things I've bought were clearly for the English.
 
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