Mini M Rescape - Nature Aquarium Style

[Chlorophile]

Driftwood teaser!



debating a sandy front?

May still change the driftwood layout but this looks pretty good so far.

[Vermino]

omg love that piece of DW. doing all sand or like 50/50? I personally would do dark type of substrate with willow/flame moss on the DW?

[lewl]

This is a great piece of driftwood. I don't really think that a sandy front is the best choice. Planting "the ground" totally will give people an impression that it's a huge true. Almost like that in Avatar. XD

[somewhatshocked]

I really like that driftwood - keep it! It's going to make the tank look gorgeous with a more realistic scale than most smaller tanks.

If you're debating a sandy foreground, it may be a good idea to first see how you think it looks with a solid substrate throughout the entire tank in a dry run. That way you'll know if you're comfy with sand.

[DishyFishy]

Awesome DW!

Originally Posted by somewhatshocked

If you're debating a sandy foreground, it may be a good idea to first see how you think it looks with a solid substrate throughout the entire tank in a dry run. That way you'll know if you're comfy with sand.

+1

[Chlorophile]

The thing I'm struggling to come to terms with is focal point..

If I do stem plants in either back corner they will maybe compete for focal point and I won't have a concave layout or a convex layout.

I wondered about doing stems in the back left and then shorter plants in the back right, maybe blyxa or S. Repens ala the Triangular/corner set up.

I'll be putting Anubias Petite on the driftwood and hopefully either Mini Pellia or Fissidens Fontanus.

[Chlorophile]

Also, Here are other layouts I'd considered

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Also, what do you guys think about taking the first layout from the first post and trying to push it as far left as possible to create more of a corner layout?

[Francis Xavier]

Great Chloro! Keep it up!

The only thing I'd recommend to you is, careful with the driftwood pieces touching the glass - it becomes a real pain in the neck to plant and do maintenance (like removing algae off the glass) when the hardscape gets that close.

[Chlorophile]

Originally Posted by Francis Xavier

Great Chloro! Keep it up!

The only thing I'd recommend to you is, careful with the driftwood pieces touching the glass - it becomes a real pain in the neck to plant and do maintenance (like removing algae off the glass) when the hardscape gets that close.

Yea that has been a big concern, when I finally screw these pieces of wood together with brass screws I will pay more attention to glass proximity because that was an issue I ran into with my iwagumi, some of the rocks were so close that I could never trim the HC or any other plant or clean the grass in those areas!

I guess tha is one of the challenges of small tanks!

[DishyFishy]

I'm liking this one. Then you could do stems on the left and attach plants to the large base of the DW. Just my 2c though, it's all in what you like best!

[Chlorophile]

Here is a mock up of what I may like to do.

Of course, the scale is all off, but thats my basic planting scheme.
S. repens back right, maybe blyxa in with it too, and then Rotala "green" on the left, and I think I'll try D. Diandra behind it.
Sand in the front, aquasoil in the back.

[magnum]

Impressive your image looks quite realistic, I like it

[Noahma]

I personally like the layout provided in your very first post!

[DishyFishy]

Oh that looks good too!! Are you still debating on the sand? Or have you decided to go with it?

[Chlorophile]

Originally Posted by DishyFishy

Oh that looks good too!! Are you still debating on the sand? Or have you decided to go with it?

I think I will go with the sand because if I have aquasoil in the front I'm going to want a carpet.

Which isn't a bad thing, but I don't know what kind of carpet I'd use..
Glosso maybe, I've used HC in the past three tanks so Im over it - it always gets destroyed by some weird algae that only likes HC.