# Groundland - Shallow Aquascape



## Dan Crawford (22 Mar 2013)

Hi Folks, it's bout time you had a journal from me! Well, it's not much of a journal because the aquascape is almost finished but here's the journey so far…..

Last year I set up an awful lot of tanks and the lead up to Aquatics Live was a very busy time. Consequently after the show was over I decided to do a tank "just for me" so to speak. I wanted n pressure, just a nice challenge which I was comfortable with. So here goes….

The Spec:
Tank - 80 x 60 x 30cm Optiwhite
Filter - Fluval G6
Lighting - 80cm Fluval Plant LED
CO2 - 1.5bps using a Fire Extinguisher and Up 17mm inline diffuser
Substrate - Fluval Stratum
Fertilisation - 25ml Tropica Plant Growth Premium per day
Carbon - 10ml TNC Carbon per day
Plants - HC, New Ludwigia species Red, Bacopa species, New Eleocharis, Unknown Rorippa species, Unknown Carpeting species, Alteranthera species, Riccia, Blyxa alternifolia, Christmas Moss, eriocaulon Taiwan.
Fish - 50 Micro Rasbora
Shrimp - 7 million cherry shrimp, give or take a few.

The tank after a very long day at Aquatics Live, Ian Holdich is the model




The day of setup - 15/10/2012



Here it is after after 6 weeks of growth



The perils of owning a shallow tank LOL

Growth was good but the fish were not, they never suited the shape of the tank so I decided i'd swap them for some Micro Rasbora, i've got that wrong too IMO I'm looking to exchange them for some Pencil Fish I think.
The Big rock on the back left was to heavy for the 'scape so I thought i'd swap it our for a tree trunk kind of think and IMO it's a huge improvement….



Heres a few detail shots. Note the delightful "unknown carpeting plant" I started out with 5 stems, it didn't take long to adapt to my tank and once it got going - it REALLY got going!



Two weeks later



Eriocaulon Taiwan getting smothered.



I've filled the area behind the stones with substrate and laid a thin layer over the top of the stones in the hope that it'll do this, and it does :0)



A nice forest floor feel, my idea of what a carpet should look like



Here's the "Unknown Rorippa species". I love it, perfect for informal planting.



And this is it at the minute, I've got too much riccia so if anyone wants any please let me know and I'll post it out. The massive ball of it on the left is weighted down with slate, at about 9pm every evening it lifts up and floats around the tank, finding it's self a new place to sleep overnight.

So, what's next? The carpet is seriously thick so i'm going to get really scissor happy over the next week or so, everything else is getting overgrown too so i'll do some damage and post a before and after photo.

Oh, I forgot to mention, I do a waterchange every 6 weeks! It's been the most trouble free tank i've ever owned. Is it down to the shape, filtration, ferts, lighting? Yes, yes, yes and yes - we always talk about finding that magical and sometime elusive "balance". Well this time I smashed the nail on the head, not through skill, just pure luck. I used the equipment I had and it just worked, a testament to what can be done with the right gear :0)


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## Nathaniel Whiteside (22 Mar 2013)

Wow, what a beauty Dan!

That carpet looks amazing, combined with the stump and random planting, it looks totally natural.

Nice one


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## Dan Crawford (22 Mar 2013)

Thanks Nathaniel. 


Nathaniel Whiteside said:


> That carpet looks amazing, combined with the stump and random planting, it looks totally natural.


I'm glad you agree, i'm really chuffed with how i's turned out. Theres a fine line between natural and overgrown and i've got to stop myself from letting it get too overgrown!


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## Nathaniel Whiteside (22 Mar 2013)

Dan Crawford said:


> Thanks Nathaniel.
> 
> I'm glad you agree, i'm really chuffed with how i's turned out. Theres a fine line between natural and overgrown and i've got to stop myself from letting it get too overgrown!



Hmm, I think I'd be partial to letting it go just beyond that line. I think It'd look really  well, and quite refreshing in comparison to the neatly trimmed HC look of the great.

Either way, I love this.


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## Iain Sutherland (22 Mar 2013)

Can see why your chuffed dan, it's lovely. A tank with those dimensions needs a overhead shot 
Is this using Ro or London tap?


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## Dan Crawford (22 Mar 2013)

Cheers Iain. It's just tap water, the conductivity on the G filter says it's around 800.

The tank is in an alcove so it's a nightmare to photograph but i'll try and get a birds eye view shot.


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## Iain Sutherland (22 Mar 2013)

Interesting, i thought that erio's were super sensitive to EC and really only liked soft almost RO water yet yours goes on regardless even when being beaten up by all the other plants.

Now i look on a PC rather than my phone i can see so much more detail and the mixing of plants as Nath said it really does look so natural. Is the new carpet plant one tropica is looking to run or is it an Alan special? I love they way it looks like a creeper..


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## charlie (22 Mar 2013)

You turn out some great looking scapes Dan. This does not dissapoint and due to its shape of tank and unusual hardscape ( tree trunk ) really stands out. The fact that it appears to be relatively easy to live with makes it even more impressive. 
Great stuff
Charlie


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## Gary Nelson (22 Mar 2013)

That's a beauty Dan, the growth is amazing too! I think the sense of scale is spot on as well - the 6 week water change really appeals to me


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## tim (22 Mar 2013)

That is spot on the wood brings that whole forest floor feel to fruition, what a stunning natural scape, amazing dan.


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## LondonDragon (22 Mar 2013)

Great scape Dan, the tree trunk definitely gave a new dimension to the scape, looks great  well done


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## Lindy (22 Mar 2013)

Oh I love this...


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## plantnoob (22 Mar 2013)

deffinately agree the tree stump looks better than the rock . fits much nicer .


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## Pedro Rosa (22 Mar 2013)

Dan

Thant Tree Trunk made all the difference.
That special photo is amazing.

Pedro.


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## martinmjr62 (22 Mar 2013)

Dan thats a beautifull set up.As others have already said the wood looks much better.Can't  beleive that's only 6 weeks to get the carpet that thick, don't know what i'm doing wrong. A well deserved thumbs up  
Cheers
Martin


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## Dan Crawford (22 Mar 2013)

Blimey guys, thanks for all the praise!

Yes, the low maintenance is great. I'm sure it's the shear amount if HC that's just hoovering up any nutriment that I throw in there. The 7 million shrimp also help, I recon.


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## Ian Holdich (22 Mar 2013)

Very nice Dan. I must say I'm honoured to be such an inspiration, that you post my modelling picture...lol

That plant is also a great little mystery. Is it elatine hydropiper?


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## LondonDragon (22 Mar 2013)

Ian Holdich said:


> That plant is also a great little mystery. Is it elatine hydropiper?


Got that in my tank also, growing great, I called it Hemianthus callitrichoides ''Gigantea'', cause its just a big version of HC! lol


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## Ian Holdich (22 Mar 2013)

Can I have some I'm feeling left out!


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## George Farmer (22 Mar 2013)

I saw this in the flesh the other day. It's a truly great set up and scape.


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## Antoni (23 Mar 2013)

Great scape, Dan! The hard working at the Aquatics live is paying back! Shame you removed the initial hardscape materials...  
Seriously that is stunning scape! I love the mixing of the carpeting plants, looks so natural! The new plant looks great! I'm not sure is is Elatine, but could be... If it develop long roots it could be. The good thing about is, that it attaches to the substrate firmly and it will not lift up, if not trimmed in time.


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## Dan Crawford (24 Mar 2013)

Hey folks, tanks again for the kind words!

I'm 99% sure it's not Elatine. Tropica are looking into it. 

I've got some work to do on the tank this week, I'm going to try and incorporate some more "roots" into the substrate and give it one heck of a trimming!


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## Ian Holdich (24 Mar 2013)

If you've discovered a new plant are they gonna call it the Danus Crawfordus sp? 

Keep the pics coming mate!


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## Dan Crawford (24 Mar 2013)

I wish lol


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## Dan Crawford (5 Jul 2013)

Hey folks, just a quick update:

Life got in the way, again!

This is how it looks now


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## Alastair (5 Jul 2013)

I think it looks very lush mate and I really like those emmersed plants. 
Did you ever find out what the unkown carpet plant is 

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2


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## TOO (5 Jul 2013)

Hi Dan,

Looks really nice. Could you give a few pointers to the plants you are using for emersed growth? Which plants work well in terms of not drying out, etc.?

Thomas


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## George Farmer (5 Jul 2013)

Alastair said:


> Did you ever find out what the unkown carpet plant is
> 
> Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk 2


Micranthemum sp. 'Monte Carlo'. Super fast and easy carpeting.


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## Alastair (5 Jul 2013)

George Farmer said:


> Micranthemum sp. 'Monte Carlo'. Super fast and easy carpeting.



Thanks george 

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## Dan Crawford (6 Jul 2013)

Cheers guys, yes it's a Micranthemum .sp it's being sold outside the uk as an Elantine but it's not. Tropica are waiting for a more depth investigation into the species.

Thomas, I'm no emersed pro but this species is a new Bacopa variety, the red ludwigia is doing well above the surface, as is HC and riccia.


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## LancsRick (6 Jul 2013)

Love the look of the Micranthemum sp. 'Monte Carlo', but there doesn't seem to be much of a consensus online about the parameters for it - what are your experiences? Just wondering if it's a viable low tech carpeting option, or if it needs high light to stay low, or high co2 to spread.

Cheers.


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## BigTom (30 Aug 2013)

LancsRick said:


> Love the look of the Micranthemum sp. 'Monte Carlo', but there doesn't seem to be much of a consensus online about the parameters for it - what are your experiences? Just wondering if it's a viable low tech carpeting option, or if it needs high light to stay low, or high co2 to spread.
> 
> Cheers.


 

Bit of a thread revival, but having got a little bit of Monte Carlo off Ian and spread it across a few tanks I can confirm that it's growing steadily and absolutely dead flat along the substrate for me in hard water, soft water, high flow, low flow, dosed, undosed, medium light and almost pitch darkness. All low tech so no co2.

My only problem with it is that I can't look at it without thinking about Bayesian statistics, but this probably isn't an issue that many people will share.


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## Deano3 (30 Aug 2013)

Wow tank looks great and like others have said very natural love the rocks overgrown with hc and the wood just all looks great cannot believe only 1 water change ever 6 weeks lol that makes it sound so easy I do mine all the time and seems like never ending battle so great to learn off experts like yourself 

Thanks dean


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## oldbloke (30 Aug 2013)

An easy to grow carpeting plant?
Where, where, where can i buy?????!!!!


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## Iain Sutherland (30 Aug 2013)

Hydropiper elantine 12grow from tropica, it's the same plant but apparently it's currently being classified correctly. 
Good carpet under 11w CFL low tech in a 40 shrimp tank.


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## oldbloke (30 Aug 2013)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Hydropiper elantine 12grow from tropica, it's the same plant but apparently it's currently being classified correctly.
> Good carpet under 11w CFL low tech in a 40 shrimp tank.


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## Dan Crawford (3 Sep 2013)

Hey guys, i'll get some photos up soon coz this tank has just become a "Montecarlo" fest. I haven't done a WC on it in months and months and the "Montecarlo" has now actually reached AND breached the surface of my tank, some 30cm deep!

I'm going to strip the tank down so i'm gonna give all the existing plants away for UKAPS donations. I'll make up a list and post in the for sale section.

Just for reference, the conductivity on the G6 says it's over 1400


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## Dan Crawford (17 Sep 2013)

Hey guys, so I've stripped the foreground and this is what I've got to get rid of. I'll post a thread in the For Sale Section....


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## aliclarke86 (17 Sep 2013)

Holly molly!!! That is all, ha

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## aliclarke86 (18 Sep 2013)

Hey Dan

I was wondering about the root structure of the MC does it grow very deep or is it a case of just grabbing the surface?

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## Dan Crawford (19 Sep 2013)

The roots do grow quite deep and they hang on tight!


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## aliclarke86 (19 Sep 2013)

Cool thanks mate

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