The 700 gal indoor sunken garden project

[Brunog]

I personnaly would not put pieces of wood that come out of the water...

might smell bad after some time.. and attract insects... mold...

I had a large pond with a waterfall where i used to work... and the wood got really bad... and it wasnt supposed to rot or anything... slime just deposits on it...

[addo]

WOW this is one of the most impressive builds I've ever seen, great job!

One question thou, I might have missed this but is your light fixture temporary? Because It sorta brings down the overall appearance of the setup.

[medicineman]

@addo
The light will remain there for some time before I decide to modify it. It is all and the best I can get/make for now.


And here is the garden around 4-5 days after initial setup day.
Water clears up a bit and already I put in several algae eater to counter excessive algae growth.



Lets see towards free time and more possible plants and hardscape to use in the pond.
Some tree trunk or bark and more plants for the cliff would be nice.

So I decided to put one of my favourite fish in, several hundread of schooling rummy nose will do I think. Pre order is necessary at this scale and now it proves good to know someone from local fish farm

[spypet]

medicine, you should spend time reading a few Pond threads
to see what fish look nice from ABOVE as well as the sides.
also consider dozens of larger schooling fish,
instead of hundreds of smaller ones.

[sNApple]

sweet!!!! are you gonna have a drip or mister system for the wall? pack the walls with aquarium moss if so

[wood]

To solve the light position I would put a fake "mangrove" or other type of fake tree in the back corner, up against the wall with roots going into the water. Let the tree hang over the water halfway and put a light on one of the branches. Cover the sides of the light with leaves and such. I think that would look awesome. Everything would have to be fake and painted, but I think it would really add more character to the garden and would solve the light issue perfectly!

horrible rendition but just to show you what I mean:

[jeffboyarrdee]

Originally Posted by rodney

LOL why everyone wants to copy what other people have already done I don't know. Honestly, I have spent hours skimming through ada aquariums and hardly ever see anything new, just different combinations of what other people have done, be creative for goodness sake

Rodney

i dont know whats wrong with it, it looks natural. he wanted ideas i thought branches with plants on it would look nice. No one ever said ada "owns" the look of branches with plants on it, you can definitely still be creative. i was thinking more along the lines of a mangrove type thing with branches/roots going down. i really like the look of how those trees look like they are avoiding water.

[FelixAvery]

maybe have giant WK islands with frogs and stuff on

[medicineman]

@sNApple,
Still no mister for now. I'd like to have some in certain spots, would be interesting addition.

@spypet,
Considering that. There will be definately larger species in the tank, with many tiny schooling ones of course. I can not resist those schooling spectation like what you see at piers.


Well, I'd love to make fake tree structure one day. It would look even better, similar to those world class zoo exhibits. If only I can find the right guy on time, it is not so easy to get the perfect hands for the job. There are these people handling artificial tree decoration, plants looks so real, sure they cost money but I think it is worth it for future upgrade project. I just have to make sure they create something moisture proof unlike some artificial tree for a hotel.

Here is another shot showing one side viewing glass. Somehow I felt should have made it a tad bit bigger viewing glass

[kzr750r1]

You have made some great strides in the last few months. Don't lament too much about not enough viewing space under water. The over all balance of the entire room is impressive. With more plants on the walls there will be plenty to look at. Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing the detail of your build with us.

[cah925]

Wow, this looks better and better every time I look at it. Keep up the good work.

[danepatrick]

so do you wear a diving suit to replant and do water changes?

[vibes_jedi99]

Just Wow!!!.........

[Landon]

medicineman,
I followed this build for a while over at dendroboard, but got out of frogs due to an unfortunate accident a while back. Im very happy to find its progressed to this level. Its absolutely beautiful! I cant wait to see how it fills in on the back walls with new plants and decorations and such.

You seem like youve got a good hold on design and plant placement, but the only suggestion I have, is dont go too crazy with too many different species. With all that space Id be wanting to put one of everything up there. In reality that gets destracting, and large groups of species would look mroe natural, and become more beautiful as opposd to looking cluttered.

Good luck and Im very happy to follow this topic along!

[medicineman]

@Landon,
Glad you find the forum and can follow the updates here.
It is also because of vivarium and dendroboard that struck me on the inspiration in the first place.

@danepatrick,
Nope, long pincer and tongs do the job for me. Of course this is limited to light maintenance routine. Heavy one will require some puddling into the pool

Sure I will try to keep the number of species low (no more collectoritis!), though sometimes a careful selection can still look great. The problem is some plants just give up the ghost in this setup, and I will try out many things initially just to see which can survive (you may find this surpirising that some easy to grow plants actually die!).
I've witnessed some ferns and vallisneria spiralis melts away, while every single echi and crypt made it and appears to be throwing new leaves.

Anyway, here is a teaser pic of current condition with the lights off (to give an idea how sunlight is being used).



So far I have put in 150 rummy nose tetra (they form a good school to spectate esp during feeding time) and 6 juvenile bala shark. I'm expecting 2-3 dozens of Puntius denisonii in a week or two, that is if my supplier made it on time.