# Mot's aquascapes - Added AGA 2015 Aquascapes



## Mot

Hi. My name is Jeff and Ive been posting on Planted Tank for a while now and decided to participate on this forum as well. My posts are under the same name on both sites.  Had the pleasure of meeting George Farmer and Emma while they were in the USA for the AGA Convention last month.  His keynote speech was definitely the highlight of the conference.  Was fun watching George in the aquascape head to head challenge.  His experience really showed with the precision and speed he planted the tank.

I have been aquascaping for a few years now and thought I would share a few examples of my aquascapes. I consider myself an advanced hobbyist but by no means an expert. I have two tanks setup currently. A larger 90cm tank and a smaller 45cm tank.

Here is my current 45cm aquascape:






Here are some past 45cm aquascapes (older as you scroll down):









Here is some of the past 90 cm aquascapes (older as you scroll down):













120cm Aquascapes

This is my latest Aquascape which was ranked at 148th in  IIAC 2015.
[



Latest three aquascapes that I sent to AGA 2015:

<27l category (ranked Top 10)





120 to 200l category





200 to 300l category





Thank you for looking and hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did creating them.

-Jeff


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## Fran

Mot said:


> I consider myself an advanced hobbyist but by no means an expert


 Ahh modesty. Beautiful aquascapes. Well done.


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## Dantrasy

Great to see you here mot! 

And great to finally see your wonderful scapes in one place. Although, i think some are missing .. right?


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## The_Iceman

Hi Jeff,

great start @ukaps 
Some really nice scapes you have there!

Cheers,
Chris


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## John S

Welcome Jeff. Fantastic scapes.


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## banthaman.jm

Hi Jeff and welcome to ukaps.  They are really nice tanks but my favourite is the last.
Jim


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## Iain Sutherland

Welcome Jeff, some great looking tanks.  You certainly know how to grow spectacular moss!!


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## Tim Harrison

Hello Jeff...very nice scapes, and what Iain said - spectacular moss!


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## Jamie McGrath

all tanks look wonderfull.


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## George Farmer

Great to see you on here, Jeff. I think you're work incredible, especially for someone that's only been in the hobby for a short time. 

Hope to see you at the AGA in 2017. 

Thanks for sharing!


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## jsiegmund

All of them very pretty. Especially like the second + last one. That dark blue background is awesome!


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## parotet

Hi Jeff

wow... very beautiful tanks! Thank you for sharing, it is really great to see how someone's layouts evolve, very helpful for learning. 
I am now in the process of re-scaping a 60cm tank and I am really interested in your current 45 and 60 cm tanks. I think in both cases, the substrate looks very natural, much more that in the older layouts. Not sure why but I guess it has to do with a thin and neat substrate line at the front, and to the fact that you cannot see any mixture of cosmetic sand with Aquasoil (or similar). I also think the foreground plants and hardscape are arranged in a more natural way, not so homogeneous as we usually do. I love the fact of having some plants that unevenly spread towards the front.

Just one question, in your current 45 and 90 cm tank, have you used AquaSoil (or any similar nutritive substrate) or are you using an enriched substrate bottom layer?... I will be producing a quite "flat" layout with stones and wood, and I am not sure which option would be better... I don't want shrimps rolling the AquaSoil rolling over the sand again! 
In your current 90 cm is there any nutritive substrates under the Eleocharis foreground carpet?

Jordi


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## Martin in Holland

I love picture 4 and 5....


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## BurningRanger

The one with the tall rocks is fantastic. Kind of reminds me of an alien land scape from some 50s pulp scifi


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## Ryan Thang To

Welcome to ukaps. To be honest i see your work and i would class it a expert. Amazing aquascapping. Love the ways you use mix rock and wood. Keep it up

Your first picture just gave me a ideal on a small nano for the betta fish. 

Cheers
Ryan


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## Mot

Dantrasy said:


> Great to see you here mot!
> 
> And great to finally see your wonderful scapes in one place. Although, i think some are missing .. right?



Thank you all for your kind words.  You are correct that is not all of them just my favorites.


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## Mot

parotet said:


> Hi Jeff
> 
> wow... very beautiful tanks! Thank you for sharing, it is really great to see how someone's layouts evolve, very helpful for learning.
> I am now in the process of re-scaping a 60cm tank and I am really interested in your current 45 and 60 cm tanks. I think in both cases, the substrate looks very natural, much more that in the older layouts. Not sure why but I guess it has to do with a thin and neat substrate line at the front, and to the fact that you cannot see any mixture of cosmetic sand with Aquasoil (or similar). I also think the foreground plants and hardscape are arranged in a more natural way, not so homogeneous as we usually do. I love the fact of having some plants that unevenly spread towards the front.
> 
> Just one question, in your current 45 and 90 cm tank, have you used AquaSoil (or any similar nutritive substrate) or are you using an enriched substrate bottom layer?... I will be producing a quite "flat" layout with stones and wood, and I am not sure which option would be better... I don't want shrimps rolling the AquaSoil rolling over the sand again!
> In your current 90 cm is there any nutritive substrates under the Eleocharis foreground carpet?
> 
> Jordi



Yes I do keep the substrate very thin toward the front glass.  Especially sand which is usually less than 1/2 inch...i mean 1.5 cm.    I am very careful to keep the soil and sand from mixing.  My method is to use the hardscape stones and then come back in with slate chips to line any areas not blocked off by the stone.  Then during maintenance ill use a siphon hose to suck away any soil in the sand areas.

I do use ADA Aquasoil with nothing else.  All extra fertilization is coming from EI dosing.  The eleocharis carpet is just growing in the sand.  I wish I had taken some photos for you when I pulled it out.  The roots were so dense that the sand was actually trapped between so it was the same shape mat out of the tank as it was inside the tank.

Hope that helps.


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## mr_ED

nice aquascape. love to see more of your work in the near future.


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## Mot

mr_ED said:


> nice aquascape. love to see more of your work in the near future.



Thanks mr_Ed.  I have three more aquascapes done and ready to share but are currently contest entries and need to be judged first.


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## Mark Green

That's a fab collection of scape's, I would be happy to have all of them .  Look forward to September when you release the other photos....
Any plans to do a journal on ukaps in the future..?


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## Mot

Added a tank to the photos for my new 120cm aquarium. Ill have three more to add to my gallery after the AGA 2015 results are published.


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## pondweed

These are majorly impressive.


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## Dantrasy

The latest scape is mighty impressive! Love the bending dw.


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## Dave wants nano

Beautiful aquariums! My favourites would have to be 5,6 & 7.


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## Mot

Added the latest three tanks in the first post that I prepared for the AGA 2015 contest.


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