Love the look. Can you give us more details on the process of creating the mountains?
Mountain Range for 12 Long (Fun with rock and foam...)
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I made this mountain range for a 12 Long I have.
The board it is sitting on is almost exactly the same size as a 12 long.
The crevices between the stones are deep enough, I think, to shove MTS into and plant HC in.
The flat part around the mountain range will be planted with Parva, which should contrast with the smaller HC behind it and add depth to the tank.
The tank will be viewable from both long sides, like a peninsula, which is why I had to do a layout like this.
Everything is held together with Pond Foam from home depot.
Everest (the tallest mountain) will break the surface of the tank by about 1-2 inches, which is on purpose.
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The board it is sitting on is almost exactly the same size as a 12 long.
The crevices between the stones are deep enough, I think, to shove MTS into and plant HC in.
The flat part around the mountain range will be planted with Parva, which should contrast with the smaller HC behind it and add depth to the tank.
The tank will be viewable from both long sides, like a peninsula, which is why I had to do a layout like this.
Everything is held together with Pond Foam from home depot.
Everest (the tallest mountain) will break the surface of the tank by about 1-2 inches, which is on purpose.
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I bought more lace rock than I needed. The important thing, I thought, was looking for pieces that would make good "peaks." After that I concentrated on relatively flat pieces, with at least one side which looked less "volcanic" and more stony. I bought 10lbs worth of lace rock.
I spent some time laying them out on a foot print the size of my tank (that board). This involved lots of holding them up and together. You will have cavities at the "base" of each mountain.
I think propped up the bigger ones using other stones. I tried to lean them so they sort of supported their own weight. This helped a good bit.
I then squirted the foam into the base of each mountain. I spent about 10 mins wiping away excess foam that came dribbling out. Be careful at this point. Foam that bubbles naturally can sort of be broken off after it is dry. If you wipe the wet stuff on a rock though, getting it off will be very difficult.
I then let it set over night, and in the morning I used an old serrated knife to carve off the excess and to deepen the crevices until I felt like I could smear substrate into it later. On nice thing is that the foam is dark so it adds to the crevice like effect, imho.
Thanks! I will probably do a tank journal. Lights are ordered. Trying to source plants atm, and building my stand. Have the filter I am going to use.
Will be dry starting to let the roots grow in to hold the substrate in the crevices.
Still no Co2 system
Bargain hunting with little luck.Thanks! Appreciated! I will do a tank journal most likely.
It will *definetly* save me some substrate. I was originally going to use MTS, which would have been cheap, but will probably go with Azoo substrate. I will crush some of it to wet and smear into the crevices like Peter Kirwan did on his mountainous scapes.
The ranges in parallel is a lovely idea. Sadly, the 12 long is VERY narrow. If I was doing something like a 20 long, what I tink I would do would be make one like this, and behind it do a version with larger stones, sort of raised up to add to the perception of depth, maybe with HC on the rear mountains and a slightly larger carpeting plant on the front mountains to increase the depth illusion.
It would be cool to be able to do a valley in the 12 long, but for reference, this fits with only about 3/4s of an inch of clearance on each side of "Everest."
Thank you very much for the kind words.
This will most likely just be a shrimp tank, plus an Oto or two.
I have about 30 blue pearls and 100+ malawas in a 7 gallon cube which I will be tearing down after this is filled.
If the blue pearls start being more prolific, I may add some decorative fish.
***Edit
OOOH! You have the same light I bought. Based on your experience, any idea how high I should hang it above the tank?
I will have Parva on the flat substrate, with HC in the cracks. Will be running pressurized Co2. (My shrimp aren't fancy like yours, so I can get away with it
)I also have a very similar filter, a 2236. How is the flow on yours? I believe they have the same impeller, just the 2236 has a bigger media housing, so slightly less flow.
Same substrate I will be using too!
Yeah, I have lace rock in the cube my shrimp are in right now. After about 6 months it all took on a thin film of hard green algae, which I don't mind, and all the rocks are covered with shrimplets 24/7
Oh! I understand your question.
This tank HAS to be viewable from both sides. Trying to mound substrate into hills this extreme in an 8" space is impossible. My experience is also that hills generally flatten, which is what this is meant to cure
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