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MABJ's Mossy Bonsai

15K views 96 replies 16 participants last post by  AutumnSky 
#1 · (Edited)
Hey all!

I'm excited to finally start another journal on here. I took a vacation from tanks and shrimping but as some of you know, I graduated college and I've got time now to devote to some tanks.

I'll be making two or three new tanks in the next year, and this is the first.

As you'll be able to tell by the title; I want this to be a very mossy tank. SO mossy in fact that it will have a moss wall, a moss floor and a tree of moss!

So over the past few weeks I've worked with Han and we put together a plan for the flora in the tank.

My moss wall will be flame moss, so it should look interesting as the moss creeps up, not down. My moss floor will be Christmas moss (that and mini Xmas are my personal favorites). And my moss tree will be well maintained round pellia.

I'll also have in this tank several Anubias Micro plants to keep with the scale of the tree.

The tank itself will be one of my favorite tank brands -- AquaTop. The AquaTop 4g package includes a beautiful tank and some extras. They build top quality tanks that are low-iron, affordable and gorgeous.

My scape will be interesting I hope. I plan to do 2/3 of the floor a low to the ground 1-2 inch gravel bed of black flourite and 1/3 will be divided by a jutting out rock I plan to make look like a cliff. Behind the cliff, I intend to have a 3.5-4.5 inch substrate bed.

On top of that cliff I have a moss tree which will be the main focus of the tank.

Other plans: I hope to cycle it quickly with a combination of Safe Start, seeded filter media and snails. I hope to develop quick biofilm with a product called Bacter AE, and the plan is to get a very blue species of shrimp in here within a month.

So as I do with all my builds, here's a cost breakdown:

Tank/filter/light- $80

3X Moss species & Anubias - $190

Substrate (large grain flourite black)- $20

Filter cover- $5

Safe start- $10

Moss tree- $60

I don't have shrimp yet, but I hope to not spend more than $70-80 shipped.
 
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#2 ·
So what is my timeframe for putting the tank together?

I've been planning it for a month. I got my moss tree in, my substrate, filter guard, safe start.

Monday (four days) my tank should come in.

Thursday (seven days) my plants come in.

Some time in between Monday and next Saturday I plan to have a shipment of blue snails come in.
 
#4 ·
Congrats on being the first! :D. Thanks for stopping by.

Why use substrate? That's a good question.

I have a few answers- A I want to do the different levels to make it look like a tree on a cliff. B I like having substrate in case I want to plant crypts or anything like that (crypts are a favorite of mine). C there's lots of beneficial bacteria in the substrate and it gives my MTS a place to hide.
 
#6 ·
Why do you feel it won't look great? We considered several different mosses and decided flame was cost effective and would look nice.

Thanks for the well wishes. I've got several filters I can use, but it came with a HoB with good reviews.

4g tall AquaTop nano.
 
#7 ·
its just gonna grow straight up and walls generally get less light than rest of the tank so its not gonna look uniform if you get what I'm saying. If you can get a way to disperse light evenly throughout the whole wall, it'd be great, but for cost effectiveness why not use java or taiwan? Spiky or peacock would look great.
 
#8 ·
Hmm I'm not sure. I have a plan to get the light to hit the whole wall, we'll have to test it out. I also chose it because it looks very different from Xmas and it can easily be picked out if it gets mixed up.

I can always swap it out eventually if I don't like it, I was planning on keeping the wall pretty well trimmed though.

What do you suppose would do better as a moss wall but be different enough from Xmas moss?
 
#14 ·
All those tips are great and thanks so much for posting those pictures!

Have you ever considered growing a wall out flat first then erecting it? That way the moss is all grown out and if you keep it all trimmed, it won't be too bad. That's just a thought. Han has been prepping the flame moss for meh. He said it is perking up.

Oh another note is I don't want moss walls on the two sides, just on the back wall. I want to be able to see in from the sides ^^.

That willow moss looked fantastic btw. How much does willow usually run?
 
#15 ·
You know I never thought to do it that way..

I never posted a pic of willow moss, I was trying to find my willow wall but couldn't find it it probably got deleted.

Heres willow:


You can find a smaller version of it
Bartohog, he has a good deal on multiple golfballs.
 
#16 ·
Very pretty. Yeah I was referencing weeping. But I think I'm going to avoid weeping.

Yeah that's how I'll be starting my moss wall at least for a few days. I am pretty sure that's how Han is doing it as well.

Bart and I have done some deals. Perhaps I'll have to look into willow if I don't like flame.

Fingers crossed that I do though!

I'll keep this very updated with pictures as soon as the tank comes in.
 
#17 ·
Hey guys! This tank has prompted me to actually set up a shrimp rack so I can start producing some mosses and maybe farming some things for personal and small sale use.

I just set it up today. 350lb capacity per shelf.

I have a few questions.

When putting a tank on a wire rack like this (especially a frameless tank) do you put anything other than the foam mat in between metal and glass? If so, what?

Also if I wanted to run some strip lighting on each shelf, what would I do? What are my first steps? Thanks!!

 
#22 ·
Ok on scape 2 and 3.0.

In aquascaping it was recommended to me to try it on the left side. That's a lot of work so I just reversed the tank in 3.0

2.0


3.0


What are we thinking
 
#28 ·
Okay filled her up with water today. I'll remineralize the water tomorrow. I didn't do it yet as I thought I might have to do a whole water change because of the new substrate. But it is surprisingly clean from my washing it in a pillowcase.

The tree however is a magic tree. So it started floating.

Well we couldn't have that, so I naturally put a rock on top of it until it decides to really put down its roots!

 
#31 ·
Thanks so much! I'm so excited to work on scapes and start working on getting some successful colonies of shrimp running. That part I might need help with! I'm going to try to do everything 100% right and by the books. Hopefully that'll net me some shrimp success ;D.



I was worried about your pile of substrate, but I saw your note on the rocks. That should help keep the hill in place. Another idea for a good hill or terrace is to stack pieces of eggcrate covered with screen and then just cover the assembly with a layer of substrate.
Thanks! Yeah I shook it pretty vigorously and it stayed in place rather well.

Next time I do any hill I'll be sure to do an egg crate. Using 8lbs of substrate for a 4g tank is a bit much lol.
 
#30 ·
I was worried about your pile of substrate, but I saw your note on the rocks. That should help keep the hill in place. Another idea for a good hill or terrace is to stack pieces of eggcrate covered with screen and then just cover the assembly with a layer of substrate.
 
#35 ·
Cali. I'm in WNY.

Having a bit of an issue with this zoomed 501. It would SEEM it is having noise issues. So it's time to get a new canister or figure out a different option. This is is horrendous. And my fiddling with the impeller only made it worse.
 
#39 ·
Oh nice! Definitely let me know then! If the price is right, I'll pounce. Mine is only broken because I left it in the care of family and they let it run dry then called me confused as to why it was making weird noises.
 
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