The Planted Tank Forum banner

Hardscape Mountain Range

2 reading
2.5K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  lanceduffy  
#1 ·
Hi I am trying to create a mountain range scenery but I am wondering how do I go about doing this? I want plays to be growing on the mountain as well, so do I just pile rocks together and try and pack in substrate between the crevices to allow plants to grow?

I believe this would create lots of anaerobic bacteria to grow since the depth would be great, so how would I go about avoiding this?

I always see great aquascapes with mountain ranges and goggle hasn’t been kind to me in trying to find out how to do this. Any advice would be great.

Thanks, Byron
 
#2 ·
Some people create elevation by placing rocks or cement blocks under the substrate, by filling pantyhose with sand, and by using that spray foam stuff.

The first time I built my hill, I put a bunch of rocks in and poured substrate on top. Unfortunately the substrate ran downhill leaving the substrate too shalliow in many spots for planting. The second time I built my hill, I put one big flat rock under the tallest part of the hill and did the rest with substrate and small surface rocks. The substrate is held in place by 2-5" long by 3-4" tall pieces of rigid black plastic (cut up 1 gal square nursery pots). The key is to think of your slope as a series of tiers. Substrate really likes to follow gravity so it must be held in place by a barrier.

I worry a bit about anaerobic action, but so far so good. I think that an inert substrate is less likely to grow the problem bacteria.

Good luck!
 
#3 ·
For true mountain scapes that I have found the real starting point, may people use clay based soil (or clay alone) to create slopes. These are slopes you probably could never get with most other substrates. I have only found maybe 3 scapes shown out the beginning stages that really emulated a mountain range well.
 
#5 ·
Here is my dry start mountain range. Keeping the plants at the top damp can be challenging and frequent watering is needed in the first week or so as they will dry out much faster with a slope as steep as mine. Eventually they will develop roots which will reach down to the waterline and be fine. I used Flourite clay substrate as the base to make the initial slope and leveled it off then covered it with ADA soil and planted my HC. I'll probably give it another month to fill out and fully carpet before flooding.
 

Attachments