# NatureBoy's "Back Before TeaTime"...



## NatureBoy (10 Feb 2013)

Hi All

Just joined photobucket in order to put up some photos of a few "swimming with the fishes" type of shots of my scape. It's a work in progress but I'm pleased with where the scape is going so far...





now for a couple of side shots...








A profile shot...




too shy for a full frontal, but when the cryptocoryne retrospirallis on the left grows, and I've dealt with my snail infestation I'll up date


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## scapegoat (10 Feb 2013)

very nice!


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## Nathaniel Whiteside (10 Feb 2013)

Inspiring growth there! Looks amazing mate. Well done.


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## NatureBoy (10 Feb 2013)

cheers - I'm hoping to do a bit of a journal on it, but all my early pics are in a raw format I can't work with...when I've figured it out I will upload them too...


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## gramski (10 Feb 2013)

Great tank!


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## NatureBoy (10 Feb 2013)

Nathaniel Whiteside said:


> Inspiring growth there! Looks amazing mate. Well done.


Cheers! That's your peacock moss you sent me last Summer in the foreground


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## LondonDragon (10 Feb 2013)

Nice textures, tank looks great


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## NatureBoy (11 Feb 2013)

LondonDragon said:


> Nice textures, tank looks great


Thanks! I've tried out a few concepts I've been considering with this scape including near vertical substrate so I hope some of the hardscape pics will prove interesting if I can ever get a program to deal with RAW format without crashing...

I'm also hoping Darren from Living Waters can source me a pygmy lilly - we've talked about nymphae micrantha to plant in the moss, the plan is to have tiny lilly pads on the waters surface. That'll be the finishing touch on the scape...


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## martinmjr62 (11 Feb 2013)

great looking tank mate,love the planting,really wild looking


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## RynoParsons (11 Feb 2013)

looks great, plants are in good shape. nice tank


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## NatureBoy (11 Feb 2013)

Yep, this is the time of year to return from the gloomy weather to a tank full of tropical plants and colorful fish!


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## LondonDragon (11 Feb 2013)

NatureBoy said:


> I'm also hoping Darren from Living Waters can source me a pygmy lilly


I am sure he can, he has some great gems  what is the list of plants you got in there at the moment?


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## NatureBoy (11 Feb 2013)

LondonDragon said:


> I am sure he can, he has some great gems  what is the list of plants you got in there at the moment?


Yes - he's my go to guy for sorting out a planting list...quarter price!
Currently featuring in the scape is:-
bolbitis, microsorum short one, fissidens (getting crowded out now), peacock moss, willow moss, marsilea quadrifolia (getting crowded out), potamageton gayii, ranunculus indunatus, cryptocoryne retrospiralis (chuffed to have finally got this from Darren on special order - seems to be mega rare in UK?), riccia, hydrocotyle sp - tripartita? dunno exactly, ludwigia arcuata (goes an incredible deep wine red colour), hemianthus glomeratus (aka micranthemoides), rotala rotundifolia (pink), rotala macaranda narrow red, rotala nanjenshan, some other pure green rotala, heterantha zosterfolia, er think that's it...here's some of the pinkness


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## LondonDragon (11 Feb 2013)

NatureBoy said:


> potamageton gayii


One of my favourites, need to get this back into my tank at some stage  great collection of plants in there


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## NatureBoy (11 Feb 2013)

LondonDragon said:


> One of my favourites, need to get this back into my tank at some stage  great collection of plants in there


yep, this is the first time I've had it, and it's a beaut, by the end of the photoperiod it's up there with riccia in my mind for it's pearling, I also like the way it spills across the surface. Got to keep it in check though!


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## LondonDragon (11 Feb 2013)

Its a great looking plant, looks like a mini bamboo, keep up the good work


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## AndyFJ (11 Feb 2013)

Looks great, the first pic gives the impression it's got a lot of depth. I really like it. Are them lamb chop rasboras I see? I was looking them up on the net today, more than likely put some in my new tank when I get it. 

Keep up the good work


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## NatureBoy (12 Feb 2013)

AndyFJ said:


> Looks great, the first pic gives the impression it's got a lot of depth. I really like it. Are them lamb chop rasboras I see? I was looking them up on the net today, more than likely put some in my new tank when I get it.
> 
> Keep up the good work


Cheers - yes they are "lambchop" rasboras - the espei one...a fab fish, it's satisfying watching them colour up and they really glow a deep copper neon colour after a week or so, shoals really nicely too - they were mislabelled in my nearest Maidenhead so make sure you can spot the lambchop!


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## NatureBoy (12 Feb 2013)

Here's some pics from tonight from the t'other side...


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## scuttler (14 Mar 2013)

very nice colours and textures in there! Full frontal now?


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## Iain Sutherland (14 Mar 2013)

Hey, lovely selection of plants you have! Where did you get the retrospiralis? I've been searching for months.... Found some in Germany but shipping was silly money. 
Cheers


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## NatureBoy (14 Mar 2013)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Hey, lovely selection of plants you have! Where did you get the retrospiralis? I've been searching for months.... Found some in Germany but shipping was silly money.
> Cheers


Cheers, I got the retrospiralis from Living Waters in Croydon...it took a lot of perseverance on the part of Darren to source them but he did so from a Thai supplier eventually, I was waiting for maybe 8 months or so! They truly are worth the hunt though, reasonably slow growing but lovely colours and texture on the leaves, elegant. They were £1.95 per plant and postage a couple of quid. Give them a call!


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## Iain Sutherland (14 Mar 2013)

great thanks ill call him tomorrow... dont have 8 months to wait though


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## mal blackburn (15 Mar 2013)

Love the height you got with the planting. Really nice mixture and colours look superb.


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## NatureBoy (15 Mar 2013)

mal blackburn said:


> Love the height you got with the planting. Really nice mixture and colours look superb.


 Cheers

I'll dig out some hardscape photos to show the steepness I wanted to achieve with this scape, basically I wanted to try using a heavy heavy clay top soil, something you could almost sculpt with. A few tests of local samples and I found one that seemed to do everything I wanted in glass jars - could be used basically vertically. I'll dig out the pics later. I'm very happy with it and liked the way you can really bed the wood into it and make a very natrual fusion. I was almost going to call this scape "stuck in the mud"! Other benefits are - free, loaded with trace nutrients, full of bacteria, good CEC.


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## NatureBoy (9 Aug 2013)

Hi all

Thought I'd put a couple of more recent pics of the evolution of the scape, really changes loads, almost just the hardscape and perspective that remains the same


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## oldbloke (10 Aug 2013)

nice


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## flygja (13 Aug 2013)

This has got a natural chaos feel to it. Real nice!


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## Unkillable Cat (27 Aug 2013)

I love the wild look of this tank. Absolutely stunning


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