Journey of the 60(High Techish) semi pic heavy

[jameslibtech]

I've been playing with this tank for quite a while now. Originally I got it to raise discus(props to Hans, killer customer service) and once they got almost full grown I ended up selling the discus to a buddy with a 150g.


Then I ended up taking everything (hair grass and baby tears) out of my 29 and putting it into the 60 and ended up not being satisfied.

Then i ended up getting some Manzanita from my buddies property up in the mountains and sand blasted it. Also took out the baby tears added some crynums, dwarf hair grass, wendtii, glosso and a few other plants.


This time I wasnt bored with it, but more frustrated with the balance and look of the scape. So I went down to manzanita burlworks to find a stump I liked (ended up buying a awesome piece for my buddies 100g) and found something i thought would work for my application.

FINALLY I like it a little more, but now I want to level out some of the gravel as well as take some of the rock out and put some branches coming out of the right side and put some more fissidens on the wood and plants some red rotala behind it and around it. As for plants right now its dwarf hair grass, glosso, needle leaf java, and fissiden fontanus on the wood. This has only been rescaped like this for less then a week. Not all of the needle leaf is attached yet as I am waiting on more fissidens and plan on taking the wood out again when it comes in.

Rummynose getting camera happy with some fissidens on the wood!

Right to left side view. Kind of cool
By jameslibtech at 2011-09-28


As for as fauna its 15 rummynose 15 cardinals 8 oto's and probably 15 blue tiger shrimp(from my breeding tank). As for plants right now its dwarf hair grass, glosso, needle leaf java, and fissiden fontanus on the wood.

Constructive Criticism is more than welcomed, aim low! lol


Equipment:
XP3 Filter
Fluval heater
2 dual t5ho (2 10k, 1 12k, 1 actinic)
2 Ecoxotic panaramo LED's on the front
pressurized co2

[ibmikmaq]

Vallisneria or any similar tall grass planted all along the back wall would be nice! Plant a one inch strip along background stretch of tank!

[jameslibtech]

Originally Posted by ibmikmaq

Vallisneria or any similar tall grass planted all along the back wall would be nice! Plant a one inch strip along background stretch of tank!

I agree, I am still undecided on the right half of the tank, debating taking on some of the rock and putting more branches on the right side with some reddish stem plants and maybe blyxa in front of it...ahhh too many ideas lol

[jameslibtech]

Tonight I'm going to pull out the dwarf hair grass, theres this funky hair algae growin off of it...

[2in10]

Like the scape

[ibmikmaq]

you should keep some darf hair grass by drift wood and let the glosso carpet around the rocks! that would look sweet! but man it looks sweet now as it is!

[Gatekeeper]

Hmmm. Going to be honest. I don't like how its separated. It has way to significant of a change in scape from one side to the next. No balance at all. Rocks split from the driftwood.... just doesn't do it for me.

I will say that if you added more rocks to the driftwood side and maybe slid a few sticks over to the rock side, you may have something that could really tie in together.

[jameslibtech]

Originally Posted by Gatekeeper

Hmmm. Going to be honest. I don't like how its separated. It has way to significant of a change in scape from one side to the next. No balance at all. Rocks split from the driftwood.... just doesn't do it for me.

I will say that if you added more rocks to the driftwood side and maybe slid a few sticks over to the rock side, you may have something that could really tie in together.

That's why I love this forum, great advice and I appreciate the blunt honesty. It has been bugging me how it doesn't tie together and I was thinking of putting some twisty manzanita coming out of the back right with rotola(possibly reds) around the wood and moving the rocks around...BUT, I am super stoked on your idea of moving the rocks to the left, it really hadn't occurred to me. I was also thinking of potentially putting some blyxa around the wood(maybe around the rocks near the wood). Regardless thanks for the input, immensely appreciated.

[jameslibtech]

After I pulled out all of the hair grass

Moved some of the rocks around, still not happy with the scape probably going to move them around some more...planted the ludwigia but havent got the manzanita to sink yet...still working to get some nice rotala...oh yeah, put the uv sterilizer in for the time beeing.

triple red cockatoo, hopefully the shrimp are too big for them lol

almost forgot my snowball pleco(not sure 100% if its a snowball, spots look a little yellow)

[jameslibtech]

full view...moved the rocks around added some more manzanita and ludwigia

[WallaceGrover]

It looks really good, but the driftwood on one side and rocks on the other make it look like 2 different tanks...

[jameslibtech]

So here is another update, most of my fish time today was spent on my ebi converted to salt water tank but I made some time for my fishtress lol...So I received some of this really nice thin leaf red rotala and a green strain that I was told is a fairly new hybrid. Also moved the ludwigia. You cant see it but I've also planted a little bit of the ludwigia behind the wood on the left, we will see how this turns out. Still waiting on some helferi and blyxa to fill in the front left around the wood and a few more stem plants to help with the back left. I will prob leave the UV sterilizer in for another week or so till I get this algae completely under control. Thanks for checking it out!

Better view of the right side


Here is what the Blue LED strip looks like in the evenings before I turn it off for the night

[chad320]

Looking good. This tank is really starting to come together. Its lacking a little in the foreground but the rest looks great!

[WeedCali]

I like it!

Love the Triple Red too

[jameslibtech]

Originally Posted by chad320

Looking good. This tank is really starting to come together. Its lacking a little in the foreground but the rest looks great!

Thanks, I'm waiting on some helferi and some blyxa to help with that!