# 2 stones.....Shrimple!



## Ady34 (25 Mar 2020)

Whilst I will start a journal for this tank, I am nowhere near being able to get all the equipment together currently due to the worldwide issues we are all facing.
I am keen to do something however, so have began playing around with hardscape as I have many ideas for this little tank.
The tank is a 30cm cube, much smaller than the tanks I’m used to. It is a second tank to offer me the chance to create more scapes and try new things with less financial restriction.
I have some hardscape materials hanging around, some seiryu stone which I have used for my first trial. Most pieces I have are too big or not intricate enough, however I quite like the simplicity of these two stones and can already envisage a simple planting plan for this scape so could eventually run with it. The livestock for this tank will be shrimp only.
I will be trying other hardscapes as I have plenty of time, and I may even buy some more suitable stones for a more intricate iwagumi. The choices are endless currently and I’ll add any more I create here too.
The soil is a very old bag and Ada Amazonia I had in the garage and is the large grain size. I am using this whilst trialing scapes. I have bought a new bag of powder light to use in the final set up as this will be better suited to the tiny size of the tank 
Just thought I’d share my musings 
Cheerio,






And how I invisage it planted.....


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (27 Mar 2020)

Looking forwards to seeing this develop @Ady34 as I absolutely love your bigger tank. I still plan to try and recreate it, possibly the current situation will give me a good opportunity to do this.

Re this scape, I don’t know if your wanting suggestions but there is a great sense of depth in the scape you have created. I do wonder though if you are missing a stone to make it three - it does look to me like that third stone is missing... it might be that you don’t have anything suitable available at the moment...

What would happen if you turned the front stone round 90 degrees (when looking top down)? Would that fill the back right and leave space for a smaller stone in the front right?


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## Ady34 (27 Mar 2020)

Matt @ ScapeEasy said:


> Looking forwards to seeing this develop @Ady34 as I absolutely love your bigger tank. I still plan to try and recreate it, possibly the current situation will give me a good opportunity to do this.
> 
> Re this scape, I don’t know if your wanting suggestions but there is a great sense of depth in the scape you have created. I do wonder though if you are missing a stone to make it three - it does look to me like that third stone is missing... it might be that you don’t have anything suitable available at the moment...
> 
> What would happen if you turned the front stone round 90 degrees (when looking top down)? Would that fill the back right and leave space for a smaller stone in the front right?


Thanks Matt, yeah I agree, three stones would be better. I kind of don’t have the right rocks for this tank but quite liked the look of those two. I need different ones ideally to create a better iwagumi, as to add another to that scape would take up too much ground room for planting. I only considered it as I immediately had a strong feeling for planting so could envisage a final result. With regards rotating the front rock, it’s not a great rock in any other position. The shape isn’t particularly strong and it has a very square edge which as it is now would be softened with plants. To rotate it would highlight it more unfortunately.
Thanks for the input and good luck scaping your tank, if you have the materials now is the ideal time 
Cheerio,


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## ReefLewis (29 Mar 2020)

FWIW I really like it. Always preferred minimalistic designs to overcomplicated. This suits the tank size imo, especially for shrimps.


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## Deano3 (31 Mar 2020)

Looking good, love small tanks as nice and cheap to run and easy to maintain. Looking forward to it mate.

Dean

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## Ady34 (31 Mar 2020)

Picked up these little pieces of wood. Needs more substrate at the rear to lift them and fill the space more but they have a nice shape. Again I can see a plant pattern, but more species needed for this scape to add impact.

I think ideally I want to source some more intricate and suitable stones to do an iwagumi layout in this tank.


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## Jayefc1 (1 Apr 2020)

It really is a beautiful little tank ady the light is nice too with it being so small to.get the height would you need sudstrate supports or fill some tights to keep.it in place

A nice lil dragon stone lay out would look good in there 

Must be quiet hard to go from.the 1200 to a 30cm mate you dont have to consider scale and things as much in a bigger tank do you?


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## Ady34 (1 Apr 2020)

Jayefc1 said:


> It really is a beautiful little tank ady the light is nice too with it being so small to.get the height would you need sudstrate supports or fill some tights to keep.it in place
> 
> A nice lil dragon stone lay out would look good in there
> 
> Must be quiet hard to go from.the 1200 to a 30cm mate you dont have to consider scale and things as much in a bigger tank do you?


Hi Jay, 
don’t think I’d need any substrate supports, should hold ok tbh.
Yeah dragon stone would be an option, to be fair if I found the right shape and sized rocks any would do 
Yeah it’s totally different going from the 1500 to this, biggest issue has been that all my hardscape has been purchased for larger tanks so is too big for this  I guess you still have to consider the scale, it all has to be proportionate 

cheerio,


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## Jayefc1 (1 Apr 2020)

Ady34 said:


> Yeah dragon stone would be an option, to be fair if I found the right shape and sized rocks any would do


Nothing a hammer cant sort out if you have some big rocks laying around mate 


Ady34 said:


> I guess you still have to consider the scale, it all has to be proportionate


I think it is harder in a smaller tank to get things to sit right maybe its because the scale is so much smaller and sorry I said 1200 when it's a 1500 even more of a difference lol


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (1 Apr 2020)

I found some great dragon stone pieces for my nano which were largely missing the holes and pitts that we normally associate with dragon stone. This gave me a unique looking stone that matched up with a sand foreground amazingly... one to consider. Scape ain’t looking so good recently after it had to became a bit of a plant holding tank but photo attached.


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## Ady34 (3 Apr 2020)

Another quick mock up, thinking a sand foreground and detailing gravel with this one.

cheerio,


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## Jayefc1 (3 Apr 2020)

Yeah looks better with three and a sand and gravel will look really nice mate it's got good depth for a lil tank


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## Matt @ ScapeEasy (4 Apr 2020)

Jayefc1 said:


> Yeah looks better with three and a sand and gravel will look really nice mate it's got good depth for a lil tank


Agreed!
Are you going to do a planting plan @Ady34 ?


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## Ady34 (4 Apr 2020)

Matt @ ScapeEasy said:


> Agreed!
> Are you going to do a planting plan @Ady34 ?


Just playing at the minute, I can visualise the planting in all of them tbh. this would likely be staurogyne r, ecicularis mini, ecicularis, and cyperus halferi.....something simple like that, maybe a wee bit of Monte Carlo and some coral pelia on the rocks


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## Deano3 (12 Apr 2020)

Looks great with the 3 rocks , I keep missing the updates I usually only check the journals section but looking forward to seeing this one planted mate.

Dean

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## Ady34 (11 May 2020)

No more messing around, committed to this final hardscape. Forgot to add my substrate additives though so may have to remove the soil again to add them in  Wanted a complete Ada substrate system for this one.

some good news, the stand should be with me in the next few weeks, but the superjet filters are delayed again until at least June

Cheerio,


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## Jayefc1 (11 May 2020)

I really like it mate looks really natural what additives are you adding


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## Ady34 (11 May 2020)

Jayefc1 said:


> I really like it mate looks really natural what additives are you adding


Thanks Jay.....
These magic powders


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## Jayefc1 (11 May 2020)

Ohhh all three magic powders too I've used the bacteria 100 and tourmaline bc but not the super clear I think they so help the substrate provide nutrients for longer


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## Ady34 (11 May 2020)

Jayefc1 said:


> Ohhh all three magic powders too I've used the bacteria 100 and tourmaline bc but not the super clear I think they so help the substrate provide nutrients for longer


I’m not sure but thought why not, in this titchy tank they will last me a lifetime 😂
My personal feeling is they help the bacteria in the substrate and thus the root development but who knows. You can certainly succeed without them but this is my ada set up so; in for a penny.......


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## Jayefc1 (11 May 2020)

Totally agree.mate if your going to give it a go might aswell go all.in


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## Paul27 (11 May 2020)

Looks great


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## Ady34 (11 May 2020)

Paul27 said:


> Looks great


cheers Paul.


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