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Lianko

rawr

rawr

Member
Joined
14 Apr 2009
Messages
598
Location
Enfield
I've got a new account, and that means a new journal is in order! 😀

Tank: 35l (50x25x30cm)
Lighting: 14w T8
Heater: 50w (set to 22°C)
Filtration: Fluval 105

DSCF01-1.jpg

DSCF02.jpg

You can see the substrate consisting of ADA Aqua Soil Malaya and a Bright Sand/Graded Gravel/Seiryu Stone foreground. The hardscape is a peice of bogwood from eBay.

This aquascape was planted a few days ago. I'll post some photos of it tomorrow along with the planned regime.
 
Nice, similar to what I'm planning with the wood I collected in the peak district. Keep up the good work.
 
A massive thanks for your comments! 😀
samc said:
ahh is this the one with some of them crypts i sent you 😀
Click to expand...
It is indeed.
samc said:
oh any why the new account?
Click to expand...
The old one was a bit of a mess and registered on an old email. I thought a fresh start would be nice.
 
SteveUK said:
You can change stuff you realise, like email address etc. Under "User Control Panel" go to Profile, then edit your account settings (on the left).
Click to expand...
Yeah, as I said the old account was a mess and I just fancied a change. 😉

The plants I have used are:

  • Cryptocoryne Parva
  • Cryptocoryne Petchii
  • Cryptocoryne Nevelli
  • Cryptocoryne Wendtii
  • Cryptocoryne Undulata

This is how I came up with the name Lianko; these plants come from Sri Lanka. You never know, this aquascape might turn out to be a biotope.

DSCF03.jpg

There has been no dosing for the first week, just a 50% water change every other day. The light are on for six hours to reduce ‘Crypt melt’ (which I have noticed a bit of) and allow the plants to settle. It's going to need a long time to fill out.

As usual, all comments are appreciated! 😀
 
Hi Thomas

I like the idea of the open substrate, leading to the wood and planting. I can see this layout has a lot of potential. I love the idea of a biotope too, and the aquascape's name.

I do have a couple of observations for you regarding the layout and composition.

I feel that the relatively angular and jagged small pieces Seiryu stone are at odds with the smooth round gravel grains. I think it may look better without the Seiryu at all, and maybe use larger pebbles to compliment the gravel and sand, that looks great BTW.

I like the bogwood but feel it doesn't add much to the composition. I understand it's useful as a barrier/transition to the planting, but as it stands I think the aquascape may mature into something that lacks real depth. The crypts will mature into a wall of plants and look great, but anticipate the midground may lack real interest.

I hope that helps in some way and look forward to seeing this develop.
 
George Farmer said:
I feel that the relatively angular and jagged small pieces Seiryu stone are at odds with the smooth round gravel grains. I think it may look better without the Seiryu at all, and maybe use larger pebbles to compliment the gravel and sand, that looks great BTW.
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Hi George, first of all thanks for the advice. 🙂 I understand what you mean about the stone, don't think their colour does too much for the aquascape either. I might remove them and get some pebbles as you said.

The idea of the foreground is to replicate the peat substrate found in Sri Lanka.
George Farmer said:
I like the bogwood but feel it doesn't add much to the composition. I understand it's useful as a barrier/transition to the planting, but as it stands I think the aquascape may mature into something that lacks real depth. The crypts will mature into a wall of plants and look great, but anticipate the midground may lack real interest.
Click to expand...
The bogwood doesn't have much significance to be honest, it was just something to add a bit more texture. I'll wait until the aquascape matures a little and then start moving plants around to create a more pleasant composition, the bogwood might come out then too.
 
The Seiryu Stone has been removed. I did purchase some pebbles, although they didn't look right (too light in colour).

I'm cutting back on water changes to just three times a week. I also started dosing 0.5ml of TPN+ and 0.5ml of liquid carbon this afternoon.
 
I haven't been as regular on here lately due to exams and this journal has suffered because of that.

However, in saying that nothing much as happened. I added some more plants from Clark and have kept the conditions the same to prevent melt (still 0.5ml of each TPN+ and Easy Carbo, six hours of light and regular water changes).

There hasn't been much growth that I've noticed, the plants are probably establishing their root system. I'm pretty sure that some of the plants have increased in size though.

Next week will be the seventh week since set up. I will be upping the dosing to 1ml of each and eight hours of light. See how that goes. 🙂

There will be photos tomorrow!
 
DSCF6074.jpg

I'm still not the pest photographer, but this was the best out of the bunch. I also added a black background, not attached to the aquarium but tacked to the wall, hopefully to give more depth. I will be removing the stems within the next couple of weeks, hopefully the other plants should have taken hold by then and algae won't have a chance.

As always, comments and such welcome, I'd be interested to hear what you think. 😉
 
I like this tank, but the wood is very distracting for me, i would prefer just to see the graded substrate,

i find using aperture priority @ f/3.5 with ISO400 helps me to take the best pictures. It chooses a shutter speed which will get you (hopefully) the correctly exposed pictures. Tripod is essential, and i used to use a table with extendable legs befor i got a tripod 😀

Anything will help though, pile up some books if need be 😉
 
Thanks for the feedback Aaron, see what you mean about the wood. I'm reluctant to remove it at the moment though, it might not be as visible once the plants take over and I dont' want to remove it in case I muck up the whole tank. I'll see how ti goes for now, I dont' find it as prominent in the flesh.

I don't have a clue what any of that means! :lol: I just use a standard digital camera that has some pre-set settings and I find that the underwater setting looks best. Believe it or not, I was using a tripod for that shot aswell. :lol: I still need to get to grips with that...
 
rawr said:
Thanks for the feedback Aaron, see what you mean about the wood. I'm reluctant to remove it at the moment though, it might not be as visible once the plants take over and I dont' want to remove it in case I muck up the whole tank. I'll see how ti goes for now, I dont' find it as prominent in the flesh.

I don't have a clue what any of that means! :lol: I just use a standard digital camera that has some pre-set settings and I find that the underwater setting looks best. Believe it or not, I was using a tripod for that shot aswell. :lol: I still need to get to grips with that...
Click to expand...

i saw it was a finepix so assumed it was a bridge camera, but i have just looked and found out they do stretch to compacts too 🙄 so maybe you cant change it? Not sure but i know on some of the modern compacts they have a lot more settings now,

if it was using a tripod, when you clicked the shutter button you may of moved it slightly, see if there is a timer delay, i am pretty sure there will be one, even my Mum's does and it is 6yrs old 😀
 
Ah I see, I'll have a look to see if I can fiddle with those settings. It does have a timer, I'll definately use that next time. Thanks for the tips. 🙂
 
Ok, I've found the settings!

I've set the ISO (whatever that is :lol:) to 400 and high speed shooting = on.

There isn't a setting for apature...

What's the best white balance setting out of these?

Incandescent
Fluorescent Light -3
Fluorescent Light -2
Fluorescent Light -1
Shade
Fine
Auto

Also, what does exp. compensation mean? It goes up on a scale from -2 to +2, what's the best number to have that on?
 
rawr said:
Ok, I've found the settings!

I've set the ISO (whatever that is :lol:) to 400 and high speed shooting = on.

There isn't a setting for apature...

What's the best white balance setting out of these?

Incandescent
Fluorescent Light -3
Fluorescent Light -2
Fluorescent Light -1
Shade
Fine
Auto

Also, what does exp. compensation mean? It goes up on a scale from -2 to +2, what's the best number to have that on?
Click to expand...

good old WB, i had no end of trouble getting the correct WB for my tank, as you know, they all come out illuminous green :lol:

i would set your camera up with your tripod so all pics are in the same place, then use every WB setting to compare them. Post them on here or in photography section and i am sure everyone will help out choosing the best setting.
I used to use flourescent setting i think, but having 3 different options may give you better results, however, the auto setting which is probably what you used on the last pic looks pretty accurate in colour representation to me 🙂

-2 = underexposed (darker shots, quicker shutter speed)
+2 = overexposed shots (brighter, slower shutter speed)

how light or dark they are will depend on the amount of light available in the room, somtimes i have to use -2 on mine when it is a bright, sunny day 😀
 
Cool, thanks! 😀 I just tried it out, and they come out a bit better, macros in particular come out great.
 
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