My Bucephalandra river stream : DOOA H36
Hey guys,
Here is my second attempt at aquscaping. After my first ADA 60 Aquascape (see ADA60p Iwagumi scape) and a lot of obsessive YouTube (watching Greenaqua, ADA and other aquascaping videos over the years), I found that I really enjoy diorama scapes which give a sense of scape to the layout. Particularly, I was super inspired by some of the amazing scapes at ADA Poland by Adam P (see some of the amazing videos made by George Farmer and Green Aqua of Adam's gallery). Therefore, I decided to focus my next tank towards a wild scape with a lot of above water/underwater elements such of mosses, epiphytes, orchids and ferns. Among these groups of plants, I really got interested in the variety of Bucephalandra in the hobby. Now, my other hobby is growing Carnivorous plants and almost 7 years ago, I had the privilege of going to Southeast Asia to see some plants in habitat. Little did I know in those amazing river crossings and crystal clear streams, I totally neglected/missed taking pictures of all the amazing aquatic plants including Bucephalandra species in habitat. Nevertheless, bringing both my passions together, I figured I wanted to make a snapshot of my vision of a fast flowing mountain stream with Bucephalandra in the habitat. I did a lot of research for inspiration and tried a lot of mock scapes with the materials on-hand to come up with this tank.
This is the main equipment I wanted to use for this vision:
A DOOA shallow tank H36
DOOA Mizukusa mist wall
UNS mister
Ecotech XR15FW pro Gen 4
ADA ES-300 V2
Amazon random submersible pump
ADA cube cabinet
Manzanita and random wood
ADA Sansui and Koke stones
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Original concept:
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With that concept, after months, I finally set up the tank. It is always super difficult to re-make the same exact scape.
I also made a DIY light stand to finally use a pendant light and get a more classy look on the tank.
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End of part 1... next step...the actual substrate process and scanning for real...
Here is my second attempt at aquscaping. After my first ADA 60 Aquascape (see ADA60p Iwagumi scape) and a lot of obsessive YouTube (watching Greenaqua, ADA and other aquascaping videos over the years), I found that I really enjoy diorama scapes which give a sense of scape to the layout. Particularly, I was super inspired by some of the amazing scapes at ADA Poland by Adam P (see some of the amazing videos made by George Farmer and Green Aqua of Adam's gallery). Therefore, I decided to focus my next tank towards a wild scape with a lot of above water/underwater elements such of mosses, epiphytes, orchids and ferns. Among these groups of plants, I really got interested in the variety of Bucephalandra in the hobby. Now, my other hobby is growing Carnivorous plants and almost 7 years ago, I had the privilege of going to Southeast Asia to see some plants in habitat. Little did I know in those amazing river crossings and crystal clear streams, I totally neglected/missed taking pictures of all the amazing aquatic plants including Bucephalandra species in habitat. Nevertheless, bringing both my passions together, I figured I wanted to make a snapshot of my vision of a fast flowing mountain stream with Bucephalandra in the habitat. I did a lot of research for inspiration and tried a lot of mock scapes with the materials on-hand to come up with this tank.
This is the main equipment I wanted to use for this vision:
A DOOA shallow tank H36
DOOA Mizukusa mist wall
UNS mister
Ecotech XR15FW pro Gen 4
ADA ES-300 V2
Amazon random submersible pump
ADA cube cabinet
Manzanita and random wood
ADA Sansui and Koke stones
Original concept:
With that concept, after months, I finally set up the tank. It is always super difficult to re-make the same exact scape.
I also made a DIY light stand to finally use a pendant light and get a more classy look on the tank.
End of part 1... next step...the actual substrate process and scanning for real...
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Thanks for the comments @minorhero . I agree...I wanted to maximize the planting area in the scape and give a nice perspective by using smaller plants at the back. It was really difficult to achieve the same scape and stability. As a result all my neatly arranged under substrate layer was totally ruined. As a result I had the hard task of picking individual power sand and pumice pieces to clean up the final result. This was my first attempt at making a scape using superglue to ensure it was fully stable. I am very pleased with the result and I think it definitely achieved my vision.
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It took a while to figure out the back right, but I finally ended up with this (given my limited amount of stones I have). Here is the substrate all mixed up with the Aquasoil.
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This was my best attempt to clean it up: this is my final scape
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It took a while to figure out the back right, but I finally ended up with this (given my limited amount of stones I have). Here is the substrate all mixed up with the Aquasoil.
This was my best attempt to clean it up: this is my final scape
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Planting. I wanted to go for a ADA Poland style minimal scape with no stem plants...these were my choices. I am very happy with the way the perspective turned out after initial planting...but I was in for a surprise as the plants have now grown in...mostly... but I guess the carpet failed when I tried to remove the chunks of UG and replanting it..only to kill it in the process.
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Final shot after setup:
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I've always wanted an ADA superjet filter
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Final shot after setup:
I've always wanted an ADA superjet filter
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Love the equipment!
I hope you won’t be disappointed with what you can grow on the wall. If you’re in Canadain humidity, I’m afraid you won’t get lush growth even with the mister. Buce on the wall wont do well at all in my experience (dooa Terra 30). Hope you fair better.
I hope you won’t be disappointed with what you can grow on the wall. If you’re in Canadain humidity, I’m afraid you won’t get lush growth even with the mister. Buce on the wall wont do well at all in my experience (dooa Terra 30). Hope you fair better.
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Thanks. Me too...it took a couple of years to get all the pieces in place. I am glad I finally am able to make the full ADA setup.
For now the wall seems ok (thankfully)..the only issue I am having is with Bolbitis difformis which has melted and rotted away.. But the Bucephalandra seems to be doing ok for now. Even some Bucephalandra on a metal mesh has put its roots into the mat at the back through the air gap. I do manually mist the wall every time I pass by the tank with a hand sprayer.
Here is the tank as of now: Feb 16, 2022
you can see the only inhabitants of this tank here
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lol..no not ten years.. Maybe I'm too slow but it took me a solid 3-4 months to come up with this scape. This tank was just set up around the end of December 2021...So it is only a few months old.
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That paludarium is awesome. The gray panels the plants grow on remind me of an orchid mounting product called EcoWeb that I once used in a paludarium. Or at least it looks very similar.
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Thanks. yes! I can't either. As someone who really enjoys the little details in nature (mosses etc.), I am really very happy with the end result. The UG is not filling in very well as the shrimp tend to dig it out...but I am seeing some nice new growth from all the Buce and some of the mosses like mini fissidens.
Thank you Sir. Yes!!! This is exactly like that. I feel like ADA has adapted the "Epiweb" panels to make something similar. However, it makes me wonder if it is similar to firm filter pads. I enjoy cultivating miniature orchids so this is my tank to bring both my passions together and create a natural jungle stream.
Here is the tank after trimming/maintenance. It is a very different feeling to maintain this tank. The juncus goes too wild and has to be trimmed or pulled out in a way that preserves the vision but doesn't make it artificial.
Loving the mini fissidens
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Thanks.
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Another update. I have had a few melt issues recently as I have gotten rid of my ecotech fixture nearly 3wks ago and opted for a chihiros vivid RGB II. Unfortunately my current DIY stand does not handle the 9lbs that this fixture weighs. The ecotech was only 1.5lbs. As the plants were in darkness, a few Bucephalandra melted and to counteract it as quickly as possible I have been using an old finnex ray 2 fixture. I don't know what promoted it, but a couple nights ago I spotted a weird webbing-like structure on one of my wood pieces. The next morning, I saw this and decided to do a timelapse. This is a video made with over 200 shots over the course of 24h.
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