# The Forest floor - Tropica aquascape New pics



## Antoni (3 Apr 2013)

Hi everybody,

after taking down my 20 l scape the Hare hill after Christmas, I have started a new aquascape with plants and substrate, kindly provided by Tropica. 

The tank has been set up in the beginning of February and is now about 2 months old. 
*Spec:*
*20 l Boyo nano tank* with filter, built in the lid. 
*Light:* 13V Energy Saving bulb, 5400K
*CO2:* - pressurised DIY kit - 2bps
*Substrate:* Shirakura Red Bee Sand with undercoat of Tropica Plant substrate
*Ferts:* Tropica Plant Growth Premium Fertiliser and from week 8 Plant Growth Specialised Fertiliser
*Plants:* 1-2 Grow HC, 1-2 Grow Amannia sp. Bonsai, 1-2 Grow, 1-2 Grow Eleocharis sp. mini, 1-2 Grow Pogostemon Erectus and 1-2 Grow Alternanthera reineckii Mini
Fauna: RCS, Amano Shrimps x 2, Galaxy rasboras x4
*Hardscape:* Driftwood






So far plants are growing healthy and without any algae problems. I must admit, that Tropica 1-2 Grow range are the best plants I have ever used! Purely love them 

Still the Pogostemon erectus is not visible on this shot and has to grow a bit more, but hopefully in the next couple of weeks, the tank will get to its mature state.

Hope you like it!

In the next posts, I will post pictures of the tank from day one till present day. As you will see I have made few changes to the hardscape until I get it to this stage.


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## martinmjr62 (3 Apr 2013)

Antoni, lovely looking tank,got to love 1-2 grow plants

Cheers
Martin


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## Manrock (4 Apr 2013)

Beautiful!

The Boyo tank - is it 20 litres? That seems very small!


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## Gary Nelson (4 Apr 2013)

Very nice that, the scale is brilliant and it looks a much larger setup than 20l - well done


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## BIN578 (4 Apr 2013)

Looks great. How do you obtain plants "kindly provided by...."  ??  What is the magic formula, hehe.


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## Antoni (7 Apr 2013)

martinmjr62 said:


> Antoni, lovely looking tank,got to love 1-2 grow plants
> 
> Cheers
> Martin


 
Cheers Martin, 1-2 grow are superb in any way!


Manrock said:


> Beautiful!
> 
> The Boyo tank - is it 20 litres? That seems very small!


 
Yes mate the boyu is just 20 l and at the moment with all the substrate and driftwood, I have probably about 15 l of water


Gary Nelson said:


> Very nice that, the scale is brilliant and it looks a much larger setup than 20l - well done


 
Thank you Gary!



BIN578 said:


> Looks great. How do you obtain plants "kindly provided by...." ?? What is the magic formula, hehe.


 
Thanks mate, this aquascape is a project I'm doing for Tropica.


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## Antoni (7 Apr 2013)

As promised some pictures of the scape since day one.

I had some driftwood laying around for quite some time and when the time come for scaping this tank again, I decided to give them a go and to embrace the challenge of pre-soaking. It took about a month of soaking, before the water was clear... 

Here is a pic from day 1 and the initial hardscape placement:





The planting:






One week later. For the first 3 weeks have been changing 50% of the water 2 times a week 




The HC is growing pretty fast and this is how the carpet looks after 2 weeks(excuse me for all the bits and bobs in the tank and the mist from the CO2, but was a bit lazy to remove them..):





After 3 weeks I have reduced the water changes to once a week/ 30%. After the 3-th week, I have also started adding 1.2 ml of Tropica Plant Growth Premium Fertiliser a week, added daily with a syringe.

35 days later no algae issues, the HC is filling up nicely and the Eleocharis mini and the Ammania are taking off.


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## flygja (8 Apr 2013)

Thats a great looking scape.


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## Ian Holdich (8 Apr 2013)

Looking great antoni. It must be that French C02!


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## Antoni (8 Apr 2013)

flygja said:


> Thats a great looking scape.


 
Thanks mate!



Ian Holdich said:


> Looking great antoni. It must be that French C02!


 
It is very nice quality and at very good price


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## Antoni (11 Apr 2013)

The plants are growing very fast now. Soon the Pogostemon erectus should be visible at the background. 

A couple of close ups - not the best shots, but ...

I have tried to get the Galaxy rasbora in this shot, but they proved to be the hardest fish to shoot.





I love the color of the Alternanthera reineckii Mini. As close to the light it grows, the more intensive coloration it gets! 





And another close up.


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## Antoni (27 Apr 2013)

Small update:

Shot from this night.
I wanted to experiment with black background, to see how it is going to change the appearance of the scape. It looks quite different....





The plants have grown quite a lot, since the last shot and have been through couple of trims. 

Now I wonder if it will be better to remove all the stems and go for an appearance similar to the initial picture... more clear and simple 

What do you guys think?


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## tim (27 Apr 2013)

Really like this antoni, think your right about the stems though to overpowering or maybe it's just the pogo erectus that should go ?? Nice layout though.


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## Antoni (28 Apr 2013)

Thanks Tim! Maybe I will go for more HC and Eleocharis mini, where the Ammania on the left is..... can't make up my mind completely. Or I will cut down the ammania and replant it, to keep a low profile....


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## Antoni (14 May 2013)

Just a quick update:

I have finally decided to remove all the stems, apart of small bunch of Ammania bonsai.

Here is a shot before the stems removal and after 









It was very difficult to get the galaxy rasbora in the spot light, but somehow we have managed 

Something curious I have notice, they respond very well to high levels of light... we used the flash to make them come out and I observed that they were curious to see what the heck is going on....


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## Jack12 (14 May 2013)

awesome!


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## Antoni (25 May 2013)

Hi everyone,

today the scape has been trimmed very hardly so no pics of it now, but thought that I will share couple of pictures that me and a friend of mine have taken a couple of days back.

Red monster:





And the illusive Danio margaritatus:






And one funny pic of the Danio again....probably was yelling at me, to stop flashing with those flashes


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## George Farmer (25 May 2013)

Nice shot of the Galaxies. The hardest fish to photograph I've kept so far!

Scape is looking nice too.


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## Antoni (25 May 2013)

Thanks George! It took probably about 50 shots, to get couple decent ones... I love those fish, they are so lively and with such a nice temper


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## Robbie X (26 Mar 2014)

Another great scape, the Galaxy's are on my fish list for my first tank also. I love the Shirakura Red Bee Sand, great colour and texture, but very expensive! Just used the calculator on the site and I would need around 11L minimum for a TMC signature 60!


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## Antoni (26 Mar 2014)

Thank you Robbie! The galaxies are probably one of my all time favourites! Great characters and really beautiful fish! Any substrate will take the same amount. The Shirakura is great, maybe a little bit lighter than Amazonia and it is inert, but keeps the water crystal clear from day one. I have bought mine from Germany if I remember correct it was in 2011 and I am still using it. It has been used in at least 5 scapes by now and I am still using it in the Goias nook and in the new wabi kusa. Dried it few times and use it whenever needed. What is the price in the UK?


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## Robbie X (26 Mar 2014)

It works out at around £53 for 8kg on eBay. So if I wanted to scape a higher background in the tank would probably need around 16kg (£106).


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## Antoni (26 Mar 2014)

That is expensive! Try this link under Uk resellers. Prices are a lot cheaper!


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## island lad (26 Mar 2014)

Lovely scape Antony, well done mate.


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## Antoni (26 Mar 2014)

Thank you mate!


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## Robbie X (26 Mar 2014)

Antoni said:


> That is expensive! Try this link under Uk resellers. Prices are a lot cheaper!


Cheers brother, much better price.


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## Greenfinger2 (23 May 2014)

Hi Antoni, Any updates on this fab Scape


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## Antoni (23 May 2014)

Hi mate, it is long gone now, the Goias nook took its place in the tank


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## Greenfinger2 (23 May 2014)

Ok   Thanks you


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