Well first off i'm new to planted aquariums, in the beginning aquariums just seemed to be kind of cheesy but after digging a little deeper I realized that they can truly be works of art. Since then I have been doing countless hours of research honing my aquascaping ability's while expanding my knowledge of both fish and aquatic plants. If you look through the thread below you will definitely see my advancements in aquascaping. Of course there are always improvements that can be made. Hopefully through constructive criticism from the community I can continue to grow, so don't be afraid to drop a comment below if you feel like you could help me out in anyway or just like what you're seeing. Thanks in advance for taking a look.
Equipment list:
Do!aqua 17 gallon tank
Fishneedit 4x24 T5HO light (I was surprised at how nice the light is)
ADA style light bar thanks to Tom Barr
Two bags of aquasoil amazonia
DIY stand
Aquatek premium CO2 regulator
Atomic CO2 Diffuser by GLA
5Lb CO2 cylinder
Driftwood from Tom Barr
Ehiem 2215 and a set of lily pipes
Invertebrates Stocking list (subject to change):
Amano shrimp
Cherry red shrimp
Flora (subject to change)
Hair grass or dwarf baby tears its a throw up between the two for the foreground but if you guys have an opinion let me know. Microsorum pteropus - Java fern Taxiphyllum barbieri - Java moss Taxiphyllum montagnei - Christmas moss
This is what I think I want for sure but i'm looking for community suggestions!
Just a suggestion, you might want to get Sakura red cherry shrimp or Painted fire red shrimp. They are a higher grade cherry shrimp with a more solid red coloration and they are just as easy to take care of. You can sometimes find them for sale on this site for around $2 per shrimp.
Great setup you have by the way! Can't wait to see it with plants and shrimp!
Thanks a lot for the advice on the shrimp! I will look into this for sure since they are a higher quality. Thanks a lot for the kind words about the setup to it means a lot!
I received the driftwood from Tom today and I was very impressed with the wood and if anyone is looking for some good pieces get into contact with him. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow can't tonight because I have been out all day and am exhausted.
Here is a pic of a few pieces of the wood I got. I know the iPhone camera isn't the best in picking up detail but in person these pieces have a lot of character.
Nice setup, I think you have the placement of the wood right.. I would only suggest trying to bring them in closer so that it looks like one complex piece, you can fill in the gaps with some lava rock or seiryu stone.
I ended up removing the piece of wood from the left side of the tank because it just didn't go. After I removed that I added a thicker piece to the right side of the tank just to give it a bit more "flare". In the end I feel like removing the piece from the left side was the right move because it was really messing with the balance.
On a side note if anyone has recommendation on where to get a few pieces of rock let me know because i'm on the look out. Thanks again for taking a look guys and girls.
I'm back again with a few more pictures of the scape this time with a few added pieces. Would love if you guys would give me some input on what you think about it any changes that you would suggest etc. Thanks again for taking a look.
(Sorry about the crummy quality of the the first picture I didn't know it looked so bad)
Just an idea...if you wanna put the wood on one side of the scape, you should create the slope for the substrate...higher on the side of the wood and lower on the other side...
Anyway, you got a great start!!!
Alright so I went into the room with the tank and messed with the remaining driftwood and tried to make it a bit more horizontal. The reason I wanted to do this was because a previous post suggest that I slope it if i wanted all the drift wood on one side. I was worried that if I did that it would eliminate one of my favorite pieces so this is what i came up with.
There is still a bit of space on that left side but I still have some driftwood I could mess with if you guys think I need to.
I think it looks great! If you were to put more wood on the left you would detract from the focal point and you need negative space to make the rest of it positive lol. This is the best arrangement in my opinion.
Now I think its look way better...if you want to put more driftwood in there...think about the "golden ratio"...dont distract your scape by putting too much in there
Just like kwheeler post...you can use golden ratio to make a focal point to your tank.
I can't believe you have like almost the same scape when I set up my tank...lol...the difference is I'm using some rocks to cover around the driftwood base
Well its been awhile since I updated and there is really no other explanation other than progress has just really come to a halt. I've been trying to think of a carpeting plant and I think I've made my mind up on glosso. Also I've been doing some thinking on what to do with the hard scape in terms of plants and originally I was thinking of putting java fern and moss on it basically keeping it really simple. Also I still haven't found any rocks but i'm not sure I want rocks anymore because the more I look at the wood the more pleased I am. Anyways ill attach a pic to show you guys an in site into what im thinking tell me what you think.
Sorry about the shotty paint work but I hope you guys get the point the glosso would be coating the bottom and the ferns would be on the wood. I didn't include the moss but I think I would coat the entire scape.
So I finally figured out how the sales thread works on here lol. I was looking at my choice of plants and i'm reconsidering the glosso. I like the way it looks but i'm afraid with my lack of experience I wont be able to get it to grow how I want so its in the air again for a carpet if you guys have any ideas let me know.
Also I want to use moss in my tank and I really like Java moss and Singapore moss. I've heard of putting moss in a blender for 5 seconds and then "painting" it onto rocks would this work the same for wood?
Anyway let me know what you guys think would really love some input thanks a lot in advance.
Well this update has been a long time coming but at the end of the school year I was swamped with what seemed like an endless amount of tests and projects so the tank got put on the back burner. Finally my summer has started to slow down and I've been able to get back on track.
One of the first things I did was tear down the previous scape. It just was not what I had envisioned originally and there was no point in continuing with it. Here's a few pics of the new scape so let me know what you think.
Yeah I would really like to get my hands on some moss. I really like the look of Flame Moss and Taiwan Moss but its hard to come by. I want to place it on the arched piece in the middle. If you have any other ideas feel free to let me know.
That woodscape looks really cool! You might want to level the substrate line in front so that its straight. It can be distracting to have small hills and bumps against the front glass. As for the cooler mosses, you can almost always find it here in the for sale section.
Yeah I noticed that today when I was working on the plumbing. Since this is how I plan on keeping the scape ill go and tinker with it in awhile. Thanks for the tip on the sales thread I had forgotten all about it and will be lurking around there for sure.
Since the hardscape is complete I decided it was time to work on the other major part of the tank, the filter and plumbing. I've been putting this off for quite some because I knew it was going to be some what complicated. The reason is back when I first ordered all of my equipment I chose the wrong size inline heater. I never found the time to send it back for the correct size so I put my thinking cap on and tried to solve my problem. After a visit to the plumbing section in Lowes what needed to be done was quite clear. First a larger tubing was chosen to fit over the inline heater. Then I had to figure out a way to reduce the size back down so the set of lily pipes could still be used. In order to do this a couple of reducers were used. The Ehiem tubing fit the reducer so it was all coming together. To make sure there would be no leaks in my modded plumbing a few hose clamps were added to make sure everything was nice and snug. Ill add a few pics to make this block of text a bit more clear on what actually went on.
This is the finished product.
A closer look at the mods.
And again.
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