[John Simpson]

This is a Mini M ADA tank Planted yesterday



I wanted to recreate the mountains on the north shore of Oahu, Its an enchanting place with touching nature, I miss it very much I have an emotional connection to the nature there and wanted to use the feeling to create this scape

the rock towards the front left represents Kualoa

the back rocks represent Pali and Maunewili west of Kialua

front middle is for Kaaawa and right for Laie


Plants;

Micranthemum, Marselia, Java moss, xmass moss

ADA Sarawak Sand
ADA Amazonia II substrate with power sand
Seiryu Stone
Archaea LED 17

 

[PeterRusso]

long live howlies... interesting scape for sure

 

[John Simpson]

only hoales spell it howlies its haole lol

 

[Kai808]

Lol^, Very Nice! Hey, what kind of Marsilea is that?

Here was my try at creating the Koʻolau Range. I was trying to fill in the gaps with other plants but the wind blew off the saran wrap and dried up all the plants.

 

[John Simpson]

I need to redo this scape, i think it was to small, I got this 150 gallon fat tank I'm thinking about this Hawaii scape as an idea for it

I picked those seiryu stones out of a batch that I got from from "ishop-168" from CA but out of 100 lbs of stone there were maybe 10 lbs that fit what I needed, I'm probably going to need 150-200 lbs of good stone for this 150 set up, I'm not interested in buying a ton of seiryu stone just to use 10% of it, hmm

I would drive 5+ hours to be able to pick out some perfect stones stones for this, just looking at those Hawaii pics makes me want to chase this dragon again

I'd rather show a valley rather than the island style like the mini M was

the tank is 48 x 24 x 30 H

I want to use all small detailed plants, I'm glad downoi is available

For plants:
Pogostemon helferi
HC
Riccia
hydrocotyle sibthorpioides
Marselia

I will update

 

[pianofish]

Good luck planting a 30" tall tank. Got scuba gear? haha Hope this pans out man! I really dig those earlier pics.

 

[Exceliber]

I love the color balance between the seiryu stone and the substrate. The layout is fantastic. Are going to let the plants take over the whole bottom, or keep some of that gorgeous substrate showing?

 

[plantbrain]

You might try the dry start method using a bunch of chopped moss on the rocks, these will form the pali which are covered with moss.

This takes about 2 weeks for 95% of the moss to attach and the rocks can be dry started in a tupper ware container to keep it moist. Then you can add the rocks later on to the filled tank.

A mix of a little yogurt in water will aid the process(bacteria + nutrients) and should be enough to get the moss going. Mix the moss in that or brush this on after wards on top of the moss.

Mini pellia, Riccardia would be good also.

Since you want real pali and it has meaning, you should use lava, it's very porous and the moss will really attach to it. Utah Black lava works quite well and you can cut and drill into it to make the flutes in the pali you see on the islands. Narrow plate like pieces of lava should be used and combined to give this effect.

 

[John Simpson]

You might try the dry start method using a bunch of chopped moss on the rocks, these will form the pali which are covered with moss.

This takes about 2 weeks for 95% of the moss to attach and the rocks can be dry started in a tupper ware container to keep it moist. Then you can add the rocks later on to the filled tank.

A mix of a little yogurt in water will aid the process(bacteria + nutrients) and should be enough to get the moss going. Mix the moss in that or brush this on after wards on top of the moss.

Mini pellia, Riccardia would be good also.

Since you want real pali and it has meaning, you should use lava, it's very porous and the moss will really attach to it. Utah Black lava works quite well and you can cut and drill into it to make the flutes in the pali you see on the islands. Narrow plate like pieces of lava should be used and combined to give this effect.

I love the idea of using the Utah black lava, I remember seeing some along the interstate 40 in between AZ border and Albuquerque, I should drive up there and pluck some pieces.

Also the yogurt dry-start is a great idea too I remember seeing that method in this post a while back, http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=294738

Maybe I should plan to use more types of mosses to

thanks for the imput

 

[Jalopy]

Updates?

 

[John Simpson]

Good luck planting a 30" tall tank. Got scuba gear? haha Hope this pans out man! I really dig those earlier pics.

LOL I just started to fill it with substrate yesterday, I had to crawl into the tank on a ladder,

This will be worth it I can't stop thinking about my giant Pali scape like I can't stop thinking about being in the forest in Hawaii,

I decided the stand was way too ugly so I'm painting it now, metalic charcoal and changing the doors,

here's a pic of the tank, with 4 bags of red lava rock so far, I had a lot of fun rinsing those for ever, and lots of Styrofoam. Too bad I decided the stand was too ugly after I put a few bags in, I will probably put more than double the amount of lower substrate. It's going to have a very dramatic slope towards the back.

Also a pic of my progress on the stand.

I'm thinking halides for the lighting