AquamaniacUK
Member
Hi
Time to share another assembly. This will be my last assembly made in England.
Tank : Clearseal 40x 30x 30 cm aprox. 36 litres
Filtration : Dennerle scapers flow
Lighting: Chihiros Aquasky 451 (Initially 6 hours, currently 7 hours day)
Heating : Fluval mirrored M 200 watts
Co2 : pressurized with co2 supermarket regulator, 2 kg fire extinguisher , solenoid and neo S diffuser. (turns on 2 horus before lighting and shuts down 1 hour before)
Substrate : JBL proscape brown
Hardscape: Lava rock + 3 bonsais +pieces of redmoor
Plant:
Eleocharis acicularis mini
Michrantemun monte carlo
Bucephalandra wavy leaf green
anubias petite
Riccardia chamedryfolia
Flame moss
Xmas moss
This as been a weak year around here, so far i had only assembled a small nano and because i am going to move back home soon i was not planning anymore assemblies.The irony was that my cousin decided he did not wanted his tank anymore and gave it to me.
The tanks isn't anything special, its a clearseal i bought for 25 pounds at Aquarium design centre in London back in 2012. I did a couple assemblies on it and then gave it to my cousin when i upgraded for a TMC.
Fate decided it should end up returning to me and my head started imagining on the possibilities straight away.
The problem was that i only got the glass back, so i had to go out and buy a new filter and light unit for it.
The choice for a filter fell on the Dennerle scapers flow hang on back canister filter, this unlike a hang on back filter, its really a canister filter quite suitable for nanos, but its designed to be kept hanging on the side or back of the tank instead of underneath it.
As for the light i chose a Chihiros aquasky 451, as far as i know this unit is known for being a cheap ADA rip off, but a 25 pound tank i am not willing to break the bank. The heating will be provided by a 200 watts fluval mirrored M, this is quite big for this tank, but i had it lying around and it saves me buying a new one.
I already shipped all my tanks, equipment and hardscape back to Portugal ahead of my move in the end of the year, still i found quite some lava rocks lying around that i somehow forgot to send, so the option was to reuse them in this scape. Initially i wanted to go for a mountainscape, i even published some pictures of a work in progress hardscape asking opinions.
However the rocks weren't of good size, didn't felt suitable for the design and i wasn't very happy with the look of it. My inspiration came from somewhere else, i still have some leftover bonsai trees here from when i used to sell them on ebay. And i started thinking about using them to do a treescape similar to Filipe Oliveira's one.
I was only a beginner back at the portuguese Aquariofilia.net forum when Filipe started sharing this work there, this was before he stormed the world with it, to this day i still think this original treescape is still the best.And i say this after the world and its mother, including Filipe himself, creating countless aquarium trees over the years.
So why i am talking about this scape?
Like i said before while having a look around my leftover box i found my bonsai trees, so i thought why not use it to try and create my first successful treescape.
But i don't want in any way or form just to copy Filipe's design, it would probably not look as good or make any justice to the original. So i decided to create a loose re imagining of the original design, in other words, all of this just to say i decided to create another treescape. As if the world hasn't had enough of those already.
The harscape used for this is lava rock and bonsai trees.
Trees? Wasn't it just one?
It was, but this as a lot to do with how the layout evolved, i started working out trying to create something very similar to the original, with just one tree, but has i was playing around with the rocks and trees, it become something a bit different.
Here's some photos:
Here's the harscape still just with one tree. Some pieces of redmoor wood were also added to make the tree a bit more interesting.
At some point i had this crazy idea of adding a second tree. It was just for some fun, however looking at the final result i thought i was on to something. Originally the trees were facing each other and it didn't look very natural, the solution was to move the larger tree on the left forward helping to create a sense of depth. But this created a problem at the back as there was a good amount of empty space there, it wasn't visible but it was annoying ,e as i knew it was there. So i added a third tree to the back.
Here with the third tree already added at the back, its barely visible, but its there, however the tree on the right still didn't look well.
This is the final design, i added some rocks to help keep the trees and substrate in place, lifted the tree on the right as it was too low in the previous photo, and i replaced the third tree at the back.
Looking back it may not have been a good decision. Viewed live the new tree does add to the scape and it makes it look more impressive, however on photo it becomes invisible behind the larger one as opposed to the one in the previous photo that you can actually see it.
With the hardscape finished it was time to make sure the trees wouldn't float when flooding the aquarium, for this i used an epoxy putty, this was strategically placed between the rocks and wood. I used it both to glue the trees as well as the rock to one another. The final touch was the addition of cosmetic sand in the middle.
After finishing the hardscape it was time to plant it. The plants chosen where the following:
Eliocharis acicularis mini
Michrantemun monte carlo
Anubias petite
Bucephalandra wavy leaf green
Flame moss
Xmas moss
riccardia Chamedryfolia
For the trees i used Xmas moss, but instead of glueing it, i simply used the cracks and crevices of the bonsai wood to attach it in between the branches. For carpet i used a mix of monte carlo with eleocharis sp mini. At the front i used more monte carlo, the idea is as the carpet closes the two plants will mix giving it a more wild and natural look, i hope it works. For the back i used only eleocharis, the grass look makes it look light its far away increasing the sense of depth.
At the front i glued anubias petite and bucephalandras to the trees to add detail, the idea as they are bigger and together with the tinny leaf grass at the back it will increase the sense of distance.
Final details was flame moss and riccardia attached to wood and rocks.
Here's the final result:
Day 1
A week after
Two weeks after
Tank in the living room
Video of first trimm
Shortly after two weeks the tank started showing some diatoms. For that i added some ottos and used regular maintenance to keep it clear.
I was able to add the fish because the media for this tank had been cycling on an already established aquarium.
This tank had daily water changes on its first week, every other day on the second and third. It was supposed to go into every three days but i kept it every other day when the diatoms started showing up.
I am dosing evolution aqua the aquascaper fertilizer daily, so far i am happy with it, besides the tank is small so its reasonably unexpensive.
The trees provide quite a good amount of shade, so i had to bump up the light, because in the beginning the monte carlo was stretching all the way up instead of spreading sideways. So far no algae problems have come from it, not worried about diatoms as its only normal at this stage, but i don't really want any of the other ones creeping in.
The tank looks slightly different today as i added a translucent backgroung i bought from B&Q and i changed the white sand for a more natural one. This was done for a few reasons, the white sand had a very high impact, and was making the scape unbalanced, the eye would go to it straight away, second because all the fish waste was collecting in the middle and with the white sand it was popping up like a sore thumb, this way it is less visible.
Changing sand is not that difficult, bit because of the tight space due to the trees, it was time consuming, i also took the chance to add some smaller pieces of lava rock to add some detail.
here's how he scape looked after the change:
This photo was taken 3 days ago, i will put a more updated one later as i not at home this weekend.
Anyway i hope you guys like the scape, feedback is welcome.
I know its not nearly as good as Filipe's nor does it make justice, but i am enjoying the journey.
Time to share another assembly. This will be my last assembly made in England.
Tank : Clearseal 40x 30x 30 cm aprox. 36 litres
Filtration : Dennerle scapers flow
Lighting: Chihiros Aquasky 451 (Initially 6 hours, currently 7 hours day)
Heating : Fluval mirrored M 200 watts
Co2 : pressurized with co2 supermarket regulator, 2 kg fire extinguisher , solenoid and neo S diffuser. (turns on 2 horus before lighting and shuts down 1 hour before)
Substrate : JBL proscape brown
Hardscape: Lava rock + 3 bonsais +pieces of redmoor
Plant:
Eleocharis acicularis mini
Michrantemun monte carlo
Bucephalandra wavy leaf green
anubias petite
Riccardia chamedryfolia
Flame moss
Xmas moss
This as been a weak year around here, so far i had only assembled a small nano and because i am going to move back home soon i was not planning anymore assemblies.The irony was that my cousin decided he did not wanted his tank anymore and gave it to me.
The tanks isn't anything special, its a clearseal i bought for 25 pounds at Aquarium design centre in London back in 2012. I did a couple assemblies on it and then gave it to my cousin when i upgraded for a TMC.
Fate decided it should end up returning to me and my head started imagining on the possibilities straight away.
The problem was that i only got the glass back, so i had to go out and buy a new filter and light unit for it.
The choice for a filter fell on the Dennerle scapers flow hang on back canister filter, this unlike a hang on back filter, its really a canister filter quite suitable for nanos, but its designed to be kept hanging on the side or back of the tank instead of underneath it.
As for the light i chose a Chihiros aquasky 451, as far as i know this unit is known for being a cheap ADA rip off, but a 25 pound tank i am not willing to break the bank. The heating will be provided by a 200 watts fluval mirrored M, this is quite big for this tank, but i had it lying around and it saves me buying a new one.
I already shipped all my tanks, equipment and hardscape back to Portugal ahead of my move in the end of the year, still i found quite some lava rocks lying around that i somehow forgot to send, so the option was to reuse them in this scape. Initially i wanted to go for a mountainscape, i even published some pictures of a work in progress hardscape asking opinions.
However the rocks weren't of good size, didn't felt suitable for the design and i wasn't very happy with the look of it. My inspiration came from somewhere else, i still have some leftover bonsai trees here from when i used to sell them on ebay. And i started thinking about using them to do a treescape similar to Filipe Oliveira's one.
I was only a beginner back at the portuguese Aquariofilia.net forum when Filipe started sharing this work there, this was before he stormed the world with it, to this day i still think this original treescape is still the best.And i say this after the world and its mother, including Filipe himself, creating countless aquarium trees over the years.
So why i am talking about this scape?
Like i said before while having a look around my leftover box i found my bonsai trees, so i thought why not use it to try and create my first successful treescape.
But i don't want in any way or form just to copy Filipe's design, it would probably not look as good or make any justice to the original. So i decided to create a loose re imagining of the original design, in other words, all of this just to say i decided to create another treescape. As if the world hasn't had enough of those already.
The harscape used for this is lava rock and bonsai trees.
Trees? Wasn't it just one?
It was, but this as a lot to do with how the layout evolved, i started working out trying to create something very similar to the original, with just one tree, but has i was playing around with the rocks and trees, it become something a bit different.
Here's some photos:
Here's the harscape still just with one tree. Some pieces of redmoor wood were also added to make the tree a bit more interesting.
At some point i had this crazy idea of adding a second tree. It was just for some fun, however looking at the final result i thought i was on to something. Originally the trees were facing each other and it didn't look very natural, the solution was to move the larger tree on the left forward helping to create a sense of depth. But this created a problem at the back as there was a good amount of empty space there, it wasn't visible but it was annoying ,e as i knew it was there. So i added a third tree to the back.
Here with the third tree already added at the back, its barely visible, but its there, however the tree on the right still didn't look well.
This is the final design, i added some rocks to help keep the trees and substrate in place, lifted the tree on the right as it was too low in the previous photo, and i replaced the third tree at the back.
Looking back it may not have been a good decision. Viewed live the new tree does add to the scape and it makes it look more impressive, however on photo it becomes invisible behind the larger one as opposed to the one in the previous photo that you can actually see it.
With the hardscape finished it was time to make sure the trees wouldn't float when flooding the aquarium, for this i used an epoxy putty, this was strategically placed between the rocks and wood. I used it both to glue the trees as well as the rock to one another. The final touch was the addition of cosmetic sand in the middle.
After finishing the hardscape it was time to plant it. The plants chosen where the following:
Eliocharis acicularis mini
Michrantemun monte carlo
Anubias petite
Bucephalandra wavy leaf green
Flame moss
Xmas moss
riccardia Chamedryfolia
For the trees i used Xmas moss, but instead of glueing it, i simply used the cracks and crevices of the bonsai wood to attach it in between the branches. For carpet i used a mix of monte carlo with eleocharis sp mini. At the front i used more monte carlo, the idea is as the carpet closes the two plants will mix giving it a more wild and natural look, i hope it works. For the back i used only eleocharis, the grass look makes it look light its far away increasing the sense of depth.
At the front i glued anubias petite and bucephalandras to the trees to add detail, the idea as they are bigger and together with the tinny leaf grass at the back it will increase the sense of distance.
Final details was flame moss and riccardia attached to wood and rocks.
Here's the final result:
Day 1
A week after
Two weeks after
Tank in the living room
Video of first trimm
Shortly after two weeks the tank started showing some diatoms. For that i added some ottos and used regular maintenance to keep it clear.
I was able to add the fish because the media for this tank had been cycling on an already established aquarium.
This tank had daily water changes on its first week, every other day on the second and third. It was supposed to go into every three days but i kept it every other day when the diatoms started showing up.
I am dosing evolution aqua the aquascaper fertilizer daily, so far i am happy with it, besides the tank is small so its reasonably unexpensive.
The trees provide quite a good amount of shade, so i had to bump up the light, because in the beginning the monte carlo was stretching all the way up instead of spreading sideways. So far no algae problems have come from it, not worried about diatoms as its only normal at this stage, but i don't really want any of the other ones creeping in.
The tank looks slightly different today as i added a translucent backgroung i bought from B&Q and i changed the white sand for a more natural one. This was done for a few reasons, the white sand had a very high impact, and was making the scape unbalanced, the eye would go to it straight away, second because all the fish waste was collecting in the middle and with the white sand it was popping up like a sore thumb, this way it is less visible.
Changing sand is not that difficult, bit because of the tight space due to the trees, it was time consuming, i also took the chance to add some smaller pieces of lava rock to add some detail.
here's how he scape looked after the change:
This photo was taken 3 days ago, i will put a more updated one later as i not at home this weekend.
Anyway i hope you guys like the scape, feedback is welcome.
I know its not nearly as good as Filipe's nor does it make justice, but i am enjoying the journey.