# Re-education.....nearly a year old....



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


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## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


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## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Hi UKAPS,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted in relation to planted aquascaping but I’ve found may way back after a couple of years of hardscape only, fish systems.
Several years ago I opted for a simpler side of the hobby which fitted my lifestyle better. Aquascaping lessons learned from several years in planted tanks lent themselves to attempting to create hardscape only tanks which looked nice but focused more on the fish and offered easy maintenance.
My first tank was a room ‘divider’ and was a pleasure running for well over a year without issue:



 

The second was borne from a desire to keep   the king of the freshwater aquarium; Discus, housed in my dream tank, an 8’x2.5’x2.5’ ND Aquatics tank bought as a 40th Birthday present.



 

I loved the Discus, but earlier this year we made the decision to move home so unfortunately the ‘dream’ tank had to go due to space limitations. 
This left me wondering where to go next. Downsizing the tank was a must and keeping discus in a smaller system just wouldn’t have been the same. So I opted for an Aquascaper 1500, big enough for a variety of options and back to rimless braceless. I was really impressed with the quality of these systems, the silicone work is near flawless and the raw concrete look cabinet is modern and fits well with our new home.

A trip to the stunning Aquarium Gardens gallery shop offered a meeting place with some fellow ukaps friends and left me with renewed enthusiasm for planted aquascapes, some new hardscape materials and several visions of what to do with the tank. I opted for a new wood to me, ’Talawa wood’, branchy but angular, unlike the more twisted redmoor or manzanita I’ve used before. This combined with a stash of Seiryu stone would form the basis of the hardscape materials. 

Pretty sure I wanted to keep a relatively simple system, I began adding the wood and rock which work really well together, and ended up with a scape well suited to epiphytes, ferns, mosses, buces, anubias etc which should provide an easier to care for long term set up much in the same vein of my last planted scape NAtural Jurassic.

Im in no huge hurry and am still putting together some equipment, but the tank is operational, awaiting the adddition of Co2 equipment and then a plant order. I will then need re-educating on how to care for the plants and be reintroduced to the complexities I’m sure!

Here’s the scape ready for action.....



 

Evolution Aqua, Aquascaper 1500, raw concrete look cabinet.
Twinstar 600sp x2.
Fluval G6 x3 (minimum x2 depending on flow)
Inline hydor heater.
Inline Co2 diffuser.
Aquascaper glassware set with surface skimmer x1.
Gush glassware set x2.
Talawa wood.
Seiryu stone.
Unipac Maui quartz sand.
Plumbed via thermostatic mixer valve through hma filter.

Cheerio,
Ady.

P.s, it’s good to be back


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

This is awesome, welcome back! 

As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?

I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


----------



## Costa (16 Dec 2018)

Beautiful!


----------



## Konsa (16 Dec 2018)

Welcome back Ady
Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
Regards Konsa


----------



## John S (16 Dec 2018)

Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


----------



## Conort2 (16 Dec 2018)

Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though. 

Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.

Cheers

Conor


----------



## Daveslaney (16 Dec 2018)

Fantastic hardscape.
Great to have you back.


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

Really reminds me of this:


----------



## CooKieS (16 Dec 2018)

Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:




Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


----------



## Tim Harrison (16 Dec 2018)

Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


----------



## Kezzab (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> but Ady's hardscape is way better


Aye, granted.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

CooKieS said:


> This is awesome, welcome back!
> 
> As for your hardscape only tanks, how do you avoid algae?
> 
> I'm kinda tempted to do an hardscape only tank for next year...love yours and the adg vibe ones.


Thanks CooKieS, trick with hardscape only is access for maintenance but most importantly lighting....low lighting is key, I’ve always ran with rgb bias, low white light, but low intensity is important.



Costa said:


> Beautiful!


 Thank you.



Konsa said:


> Welcome back Ady
> Hardscape is mind blowing, Subscribed.
> Regards Konsa


Thanks for the welcome back and the compliment 



John S said:


> Glad to see you back Ady. The new scape looks fantastic as always.


Cheers John, nice to see some long term members still active 



Conort2 said:


> Looking at how strong the hardscape is on the new tank I'd be half tempted to go hardscape only again! I'm sure it will look brilliant once it's planted though.
> 
> Any idea what the fish stock is going to be on this new one? It's a fairly large tank so you have plenty of options.
> 
> ...


Ha, thanks, I was a bit tempted, but it may be too fussy for hardscape only.
Fish stock likely platinum tetras and I want farlowella twig catfish or sturisoma perhaps. Perhaps shrimp and some bristle nose plecos to keep things clean.



Daveslaney said:


> Fantastic hardscape.
> Great to have you back.


Cheers Dave 



Kezzab said:


> Really reminds me of this:



Yep, awesome scape from Jurijs, if it ends up half as good as that did I’ll be over the moon.



CooKieS said:


> Yes but Ady's hardscape is way better than this one...sorry Jurijs


 Thanks, not sure about that but I will take the compliment  Jurijs had a strong vision for the final overall look and it turned out stunning.



Tim Harrison said:


> Great to see you starting the long awaited journal Ady; simply stunning hardscape...


Thanks Tim, it looks it’s best from that angle tbh, but that is where my seat is positioned so it’s almost like it was planned 
Feels quite therapeutic ‘journalising’ amongst like minded people 

Thanks for the welcome back 
Ady.


----------



## Ady34 (16 Dec 2018)

Short video of the hardscape:


Cheerio.


----------



## Iain Sutherland (16 Dec 2018)

Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.  

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## rebel (17 Dec 2018)

Great detail!!!


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Love it Ady, the video shows how detailed the  hardscape is, great to have you back mate.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


Cheers Iain, I’m feeling the love 
Might get some graded gravels or smash up some seiryu for a bit more detail around the base, however more often than not I find these annoying during maintenance so likely won’t  



rebel said:


> Great detail!!!


Thanks 



ian_m said:


> Welcome back. Please fill with shrimps in excess like your Aquanano40 which is one of my favourite journals. Shame some of the pic's have gone in that journal.


Thanks for the welcome back, likely will have shrimps but I can’t guarantee as many as the aquanano, that got a bit crazy  started as 10 tiny jouveniles that tank did. Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.

Little video of it filled, not all equipment fitted but functional to start a cycle of some sort....



Cheerio,
Ady.


----------



## ian_m (17 Dec 2018)

Ady34 said:


> Shame some of the photos have disappeared, I don’t know why that is.


It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.

LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.

However UKAPS now accepts pictures in posting, so hopefully loss of pictures won't happen again.

Being aware this was going to happen I went round my bigger DIY forum posts and updated the pictures to UKAPS hosted.


----------



## Costa (17 Dec 2018)

@Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


----------



## Ady34 (17 Dec 2018)

ian_m said:


> It is because the pictures were originally hosted on ImageShack.us, which years ago, as UKAPS didn't host pictures, was the correct and free way to host (such a fantastic ) pictures. A year or two ago ImageShack.us decided they would now charge for the once free picture hosting service, the minimum service charge being $4 per month. Thus many pictures now became lost to the Internet.
> 
> LondonDragon did manage to download to UKAPS many hosted pictures, before various picture hosting services started charging, but many pictures did not make it. The internet is now full of forum posts without pictures, quite a loss in my opinion.
> 
> ...


That’ll explain that then as I did use imageshack a long time ago. Much better now being able to upload direct 



Costa said:


> @Ady34 isn't the substrate too thin? Will any plants be able to root in what looks like to be 1" max?


I don’t think I’ll be planting anything in the substrate. All epiphytes or plants that will fix to wood or rock. The only exception may be some c. Balansae, which if added will be potted in some drinking glasses with soil substrate at the right rear.

Cheerio.


----------

