# Julia's tank 40L - 3rd layout - Anubias Garden



## Alexander Belchenko (11 Nov 2013)

This thread became quite long in time, so I just put here some anchors to help with naviagations about the content.

It's all about tank I make for my cousin Julia. Tank is custom built 47x30x40H, with custom lid.
About once per year, usually at the end of fall, I have desire to improve something in her tank, despite her desire not to mess around and keep it as is. Every time (so far it's 3rd time) we're trying to make something pleasing to eye and easy to maintain. Every time on redesign I'm trying to improve what was bad in the previous design and make something new and better every time. Poor Julia, but she trusts me in the aqua-design area. As of today she's already good at maintenance and can make some interesting adjustments to initial idea.

First layout started like this:

100_5547 by bialix1, on Flickr

2nd layout was started here: http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/...ayout-anubias-garden.30181/page-4#post-373026

3rd layout "Anubias Garden" now started http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/...ayout-anubias-garden.30181/page-6#post-425072


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## Lee Sweeting (11 Nov 2013)

The tank looks great Alexander. I love the hardscape, it looks very natural.


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## Alexander Belchenko (11 Nov 2013)

Lee Sweeting said:


> The tank looks great Alexander. I love the hardscape, it looks very natural.


 

Thanks, Lee. I really like that wood and this is my first attempt to use white foreground (with sand).


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## Ryan Thang To (11 Nov 2013)

nice piece of redmoor wood. some time you just have to looking around to find them. good job


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## Henry (11 Nov 2013)

Excellent scape that will mature beautifully. Well done!


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## Alexander Belchenko (12 Nov 2013)

Thanks Henry, legytt. Definitely the scape needs month or two to mature: there are several red stem plants behind wood, they need to grow above to be visible. I'm going to add more anubias petite at the right part, and some moss clumps here and there.


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## Alexander Belchenko (16 Dec 2013)

At the end of November the tank was like this.

100_5565 by bialix1, on Flickr

One week ago I bought stiphodons for that tank, and they dug small burrows under rocks. So I need to slightly "repair" the scape now.


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## Kevin PC (17 Dec 2013)

Excellent scape, and I m sure it will mature beautifully but unfotunately I can not see the pic taken lately.


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## Alexander Belchenko (17 Dec 2013)

Kevin, sorry, last weekend I wasn't able to take photos because my sister managed to overflow the tank during waterchange and we spend all evening trying to fix this situation, including (almost) complete emptying the tank to be able to move the tank temporarily out and dry the water from the bottom pad. :-/
I have a big hope that next weekend nothing will stay between me, camera and the tank.


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## TOO (17 Dec 2013)

Hi Alex,

How do you find the Stiphodons for algae eating? Which species are they?

Thomas


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## Alexander Belchenko (17 Dec 2013)

Thomas, I think our gobies are "Stiphodon ornatus" species, but I'm not 100% sure. Also, I saw they probably "ate" something on the rocks surface, but still there is no evidence they are algae eaters, especially if you saw otto in action. We are even not sure what they eat actually, they tend to hide most of the time under rocks. Maybe they need more time to adapt.

They look as on this image: Stiphodon ornatus
Grey body with black lines along it.


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## Kevin PC (17 Dec 2013)

Hi alex,really a terrible weekend,hope everything is okay next weekend,by the way,are you a photograph fans?

Kevin


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## Alexander Belchenko (17 Dec 2013)

Kevin, well, I can't say it was terrible, rather "unexpected" 
I'm not sure what do you mean by "photograph fans"?
I like to take some photos of my tanks when they are in good condition. Although I'm not very good at this, I'm still trying to improve my skills.


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## Kevin PC (17 Dec 2013)

Alex,well,I'm an amateur of photography,I like to take photos of tanks,fishes,plants and others maybe with my EOS digital camera


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## nybraby (17 Dec 2013)

Like how the tank blends with the plants outside of the tank !


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## Alexander Belchenko (16 Jan 2014)

Alexander Belchenko said:


> At the end of November the tank was like this.
> One week ago I bought stiphodons for that tank, and they dug small burrows under rocks. So I need to slightly "repair" the scape now.


 

So... Those stiphodons have managed to seriously break the layout of the tank, due to their habit of digging. I don't have image of these beasts, because I had to remove them from tank recently. But you can see that tank is now looks worse than I expected  I need rework most of the tank now, probably I'll make "soft" restart/rescape, because a lot of rocks and substrate are not in place now. Also, not all plants grow as I expected (hard tap water there) so I need to replace some plants at the background.


100_5817 by bialix1, on Flickr

Also, my second mistake was buying small rasbora: rasbora urophthalmoides. They are so small fish and have so pale colors so they are only visible in half meter distance to the front glass. Very poor choice for tank in a living room. Two mistakes in a row with fish  

I need to find new bigger and peaceful fish now, I'm thinking about using Red Еye Тetra Ballon, just need my cousin to agree with that choice


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## Alexander Belchenko (23 Mar 2014)

Yesterday I was finally able to see how the tank looks like today. I was forced to rescape it after stiphodons in the end of Jan.
For my big surprise it's developed very well, and mature into good mini-jungle.
My sister becomes very good at maintaining planting aquascape like tanks. I'm very proud of her.
I haven't had the camera, but I plan to take some pictures next weekend.
Also I've added 10 cardinal tetras juveniles. Oh my, despite they're small about 1.5 cm, but they're sooooo briiiiight.
They're really add positive touch of red to overall picture. There was too much of green.


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## Alexander Belchenko (6 Apr 2014)

At last. Yesterday I was finally able to make some decent and recent shots 





Not all plants do their best as I'm expecting, but in overall we have a very nice home tank. Esp. keeping in mind the tank is running on tap water with medium parameters. I thought pinnatifida won't do at all, but as you can see it's still going. I'm thinking about using water softenizer additive. I suppose ATM fluval plant stratum substrate helps keeping water parameters close to optimum, but it won't last long.

I'm going to edit short video of the tank, I'll share it in a couple of days. Stay tuned.

And BTW, yesterday was an "aquarist day" here. My best wishes to all members of this forum as well!


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## Lee Sweeting (6 Apr 2014)

Stunning mate 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Alexander Belchenko (6 Apr 2014)

Thanks Lee, Mr.Teapot and tim. 
Kudos for my cousin. She's doing fantastic maintenance job. She's actually very disciplined person and she's following my instructions well enough.


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## ourmanflint (6 Apr 2014)

Lovely tank! How is the pinnafitida attached? Looks great on top of the wood, think I might do something similar next tank

Cheers


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## Alexander Belchenko (6 Apr 2014)

Pinnatifida is attached with thin fishing line. It grows more like fern, so you can attach it to wood and stones, like fern


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## Antoni (6 Apr 2014)

I like it very much! Nice colour and lovely hardscape!


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## Alexander Belchenko (1 Jun 2014)

New pics. I slightly tweaked plants positions, cut overgrown and put new crypt balansae red behind the wood.
Need to replace white sand and probably tweak plants some more. Anyway, tank looks good as home tank.
A lot of fish in there.

IMG_0905 by bialix1, on Flickr

IMG_0900 by bialix1, on Flickr

IMG_0899 by bialix1, on Flickr


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## Hamza (1 Jun 2014)

Superb! Love the hardscape and plant selection.

I think fishes are tad bigger or this tank..


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## Alexander Belchenko (12 Jun 2014)

Last weekend I replaced white sand with fresh one. And tweaked some plants. I think the tank has matured, and now I need some time to grow plants at background and I'll be ready for the so called "final" shot.

Here's my pygmy cory, I grew them from eggs:

IMG_1031 by bialix1, on Flickr

FTS - the water is cloudy after sand maintenance:
IMG_1071 by bialix1, on Flickr

I've added some clumps of micrantheum monte carlo on the rocks. Also, looking on the shot I see couple of places where plants need tweaking.


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## Alastair (12 Jun 2014)

Alexander Belchenko said:


> Last weekend I replaced white sand with fresh one. And tweaked some plants. I think the tank has matured, and now I need some time to grow plants at background and I'll be ready for the so called "final" shot.
> 
> Here's my pygmy cory, I grew them from eggs:
> 
> ...



That last shot looks superb mate. Really nice. The Marimo moss makes such a clean contrast between it and the sand. Looks great and I'm sure she's very happy 

Sent from my D6503 using Tapatalk 2


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## parotet (12 Jun 2014)

Yeah, Julia should be proud of her tank


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## Alexander Belchenko (12 Jun 2014)

Alastair, thanks, yes my sister is quite happy about the tank. There are some algae spots, and probably we need to slightly refresh marimo, maybe I'll trim it lightly. Unfortunately, I'm avoid to use cidex/liquid carbo because I've heard it may cause allergic reactions.

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## Alexander Belchenko (12 Jun 2014)

Parotet, thanks, yes, Julia is quite proud and happy of the tank. Only her mother does not like when I change something or trim plants, she likes when there are a lot of plants  

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## Alexander Belchenko (28 Aug 2014)

Last weekend I was happy to visit Julia and took some pictures. The tank is matured very well. The photo below taken with flash light, not main light.

DSC01395 by bialix1, on Flickr

I wanted to take some pictures for contest(s), but had not enough time to try different things  I'm not happy with my photo results so far. And my tripod is pure crap, sorry for my french.


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## parotet (28 Aug 2014)

Excellent once again Alexander!

Jordi


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## James D (28 Aug 2014)

Looks great Alexander, very natural.


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## Ryan Thang To (28 Aug 2014)

Amazing!!!


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## Alexander Belchenko (28 Aug 2014)

Thanks!


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## tim (28 Aug 2014)

This is really turning into a beauty Alexander, love the pinatidifida, a plant I've failed with many times, lovely tank mate.


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## Alexander Belchenko (28 Aug 2014)

Thanks Tim. 
Pinatifida is simpe but quite demanding plant, IMO. It likes soft water in my observations. In this tank it grows not very good, because of water kh=6, gh=8-10. We're using rich soil substrate and water softener, otherwise kh would be 8. I think kh around 4 is more suitable for this plant. Maybe I'm wrong.


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## James Flexton (28 Aug 2014)

looks fantastic, great work


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## Greenfinger2 (28 Aug 2014)

Hi Alexander, Superb Scape I can see why your sister is happy I would be over the moon to have that scape in my front room  Any chance you could pop over here and set one up for me


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## Alexander Belchenko (28 Aug 2014)

Roy, maybe one day


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## Greenfinger2 (28 Aug 2014)

Alexander Belchenko said:


> Roy, maybe one day


Anytime You would be welcome my friend


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## Alexander Belchenko (28 Aug 2014)




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## Alexander Belchenko (28 Aug 2014)

Photo with regular light.

DSC01366 by bialix1, on Flickr

Which one do you like?


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## Greenfinger2 (29 Aug 2014)

Hi Alexander, I like them both But this one i like the best


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## Henry (29 Aug 2014)

Definitely prefer the latest picture. The slightly more yellow tinge compliments the greens nicely, and provides a pleasing transition into the various shades of red.

Lovely 'scape


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## DaveConroy (30 Aug 2014)

Such a lovely, well balanced, zen of a tank. Congrats on all the work!


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## Alexander Belchenko (30 Aug 2014)

Thank you Dave for your kind words.

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## nickmcmechan (30 Aug 2014)

Not sure why I like it, but I really really like it


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## Alexander Belchenko (11 Sep 2014)

Here is the photo from the last photo-shoot (2 weeks ago) but with top. I cut off the top on the previous images because I missed the fact the cover has some uglyness at the left. I must remember to avoid fill the water up to the cover. :-/

DSC01367 by bialix1, on Flickr

Today I had "a-ha" moment. This is utterly overgrown tank. It seems I've missed that point when it was the right for photo. But I can't see it often enough, it's in the other part of my city.

Look at this transformations:

100_5565 by bialix1, on Flickr - Too bare

IMG_0085 by bialix1, on Flickr - About to be right

IMG_0905 by bialix1, on Flickr - A little bit overgrown but okay

IMG_1071 by bialix1, on Flickr - trimmed and again about to be right

DSC01367 by bialix1, on Flickr - overgrown again, but very cute when you see it live.

I think it needs a big trim. Very big trim. What do you think?


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## Tim Harrison (11 Sep 2014)

Superb, a wonderful variation on a theme, amazing the amount of plants you've managed to pack in there...different textures and colours.


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## Alexander Belchenko (11 Sep 2014)

Thank you, Troi. You managed to make so much compliments to this tank in only one sentence, I'll re-tell that to Julia.


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## Dantrasy (25 Sep 2014)

The needle java (i think that's it) really gives the tank motion and character. Beautiful in every way.


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## Alexander Belchenko (25 Sep 2014)

Thanks Dantrasy. I'm not sure what is the scientific name for needle java fern, but I've used sp. that called here in Ukraine as "narrow" java fern.
I also have in another tank sp. "Taiwan" which is even more narrow than that.


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## Alexander Belchenko (6 Oct 2014)

Alexander Belchenko said:


> Photo with regular light.
> 
> DSC01366 by bialix1, on Flickr



Sent this photo to GAPLC contest. Honestly, I'm not very satisfied with result (169/201 in standard category). But I understand the tank not in the best condition for contest. It's definitely overgrown. Also got the last rank (3/3 place) in ukrainian "tank of the month" contest on aquaforum.ua.
If I were crazy about reaching the top then such low results may affect me. Glad, I'm not.


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## Greenfinger2 (6 Oct 2014)

Hi Alexander, Congratulation on you ranking   " If I were crazy about reaching the top then such low results may affect me. Glad, I'm not"
We do it for the pure enjoyment we get out of our hobby and doing the best we can. Plus there's always next year  I found the most stressful bit Was taking the photos i must of taken a few hundred if not more


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## Alexander Belchenko (6 Oct 2014)

Thanks, Roy. Yep, the photo shot is the hardest part  No, wait, it's easy. Just shoot. But then you have to select something good for application. That's the hardest part


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## Alexander Belchenko (12 Oct 2014)

*11 months. Totally overgrown.*

This friday we discussed with Julia what to do with this tank. It's totally overgrown now. One can hardly imagine this tank has a nice piece of wood somewhere there, under the plant mass.
Just 2 pictures, so you can compare:

11 months ago:
100_5547 by bialix1, on Flickr

Now:
IMG_1671 by bialix1, on Flickr

So, we decided to go to square one and rework the layout with less plants. But, today I found incredible piece of wood on local pet bazaar (do you have pet bazaars in UK? Something like flea market but about pets?). I want to use this new wood, I love it. Also, I'd like to make something blackwater-ish, biotop-ish, but I suspect anyway in the end I will end up with something more plant-ish, as usual.

IMG_1723 by bialix1, on Flickr


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## Greenfinger2 (12 Oct 2014)

Hi Alexander, All scapes come to an end  
Exiting to be starting a new one Pet bazaars No i don't think we have them in England ?? We do have flea markets though.
That is one superb piece of DW. I love the roots structure


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## Alexander Belchenko (12 Oct 2014)

Thanks Roy,
I love these small tiny roots, all over the wood. Hope they will last for several months, at least. Have no idea what the kind of the wood it is though. My guess it's willow.

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## Greenfinger2 (12 Oct 2014)

If its willow?? Hope its dead.Or it will start to regrow in you scape


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## Alexander Belchenko (13 Oct 2014)

That's bog wood from some local wild pond, that's what the seller told me. It looks dead. And smell like a bad swamp.

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## Alexander Belchenko (13 Oct 2014)

Err... Suddenly in the light of new day I'm in doubt about that new wood I showed yesterday. Here's another photo:

IMG_1722 by bialix1, on Flickr

My plants list for new layout is: anubias, bolbitis compact, lomariopsis, micrantheum monte carlo, and some moss. So my doubts are about all those tiny roots on the wood. Will they play well with anubias? I want to keep most of the wood plants-free, and only use plants at background and sides.

What do you think, guys? Or maybe I should use needle-leaf jave fern to complement those tiny branches?


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## James D (13 Oct 2014)

That wood looks fantastic mate, really looking forward to seeing what you do with it. Although they're very common plants I really like Java Ferns in all their varieties!

Edit: I just looked at page 3 after writing that, I thought the wood was massive on the photo above until I just saw you holding it! Judging by your previous efforts I'm sure you'll do a great job with it.


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## Alexander Belchenko (13 Oct 2014)

Thanks James.
That wood will fit most of the tank by depth, about 3/4 by length, and I need to cut it at top a little bit to fit it.
(Btw, that's hand of my dear sister on the photo


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## parotet (13 Oct 2014)

I remember a Spanish aquascaper that made a very nice layout with a similar piece of wood. It was placed on a corner and the lower roots were covering the base of the tank. He just planted low plants in between but without trying to create something perfect, thus letting some parts with gravel of different sizes and colours. It looked liked a real underwater riverbank scene.

A mixture of small and green Cryptocoryne, some spots of Eleocharis mini and some spots of Hygrophyla pinnatifida would look great IMO... I've always wanted to create a kind of mixed and somehow chaotic carpet

Jordi


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## Alexander Belchenko (13 Oct 2014)

Thanks Jordi.
I also thought about mini eleocharis, already ordered it.
I'm under big influence of recent video of big Tom and his blackwater Poco Pozo.


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## Alexander Belchenko (14 Oct 2014)

This tank could be viewed from 3 sides. And some side shots are not bad, IMO.

Left side view, view from sofa:
IMG_1681 by bialix1, on Flickr

Right side view:
IMG_1683 by bialix1, on Flickr

Tank in situ (view from the room entrance):
IMG_1692 by bialix1, on Flickr


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## Dantrasy (14 Oct 2014)

This is a wonderful scape Alex. You've got a lot going on in there. The side opposite the couch looks excellent.


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## The_Iceman (14 Oct 2014)

Love the left side and the in situ shot! This is a lovely Little tank!


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## GreenNeedle (14 Oct 2014)

Thats a mad amount of plants in a tank that size.  I do not know how you have pulled it off but it looks great   <---understatement


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## Alexander Belchenko (15 Oct 2014)

SuperColey1 said:


> Thats a mad amount of plants in a tank that size.  I do not know how you have pulled it off but it looks great   <---understatement



I think I just put the plants in and let them grow.
Actually I'm not very satisfied with left back side. There are empty spaces on substrate level, not filled with plants. 
You know, I always thought that real profi scapers cover every square inch of substrate with plants (now I'm not sure). I'm just amateur.


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## Alexander Belchenko (22 Oct 2014)

Old wood out.

IMG_1776 by bialix1, on Flickr

New wood in.

IMG_1785 by bialix1, on Flickr

Stay tuned!


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## GreenNeedle (22 Oct 2014)

Already looking good.


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## The_Iceman (22 Oct 2014)

Stunning... don't add too much... Looks already perfect


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## Alexander Belchenko (22 Oct 2014)

The_Iceman said:


> Stunning... don't add too much... Looks already perfect



Yep, that's the plan: don't cover that wood with plants.


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## Dantrasy (22 Oct 2014)

I'd be tempted to lift it high up so most of the vertical part is out of the tank.


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## Greenfinger2 (22 Oct 2014)

Hi Alexander, I want the old bit of DW with plants If its going  
I like the shape and form of the new piece  Will be watching your progress


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## Alexander Belchenko (22 Oct 2014)

Dantrasy said:


> I'd be tempted to lift it high up so most of the vertical part is out of the tank.


Haha, thanks mate. Unfortunately this tank is not open top: the light unit is part of lid:

100_5539 by bialix1, on Flickr

Thanks Roy.


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## Alexander Belchenko (24 Oct 2014)

Okay. This week was very exhaustive for me. I managed to re-scape this tank twice in a week.
First attempt:
IMG_1791 by bialix1, on Flickr

First attempt result didn't look good enough for me, so I decided to change it. I'm glad I took picture in an empty tank so I could compare 2 photos and find out the position of wood slightly differ. Let's look:
IMG_1785 by bialix1, on Flickr

One can clearly see that angle of the wood is not the same, therefore that hole between vertical branches in the upper part of the wood looks bigger in planted version. Also I wanted to use my new precious plant anubias nana "gold" with its distinctive lime green leaves, so I put it entirely at right side. It was looking good live after planting but too bright on photo.

So 2 days later I managed to refine the layout. I did read some articles on aquascaping techniques and some art methods, and decided to get rid of lime green anubias on the hill, and use 2 kinds of usual dark green anubias instead: smaller "petite" at the back, and bigger nana closer to front glass to imitate linear perspective. Also I changed angle position of the wood: now its right part is closer to front glass, so horizontal branch ain't parallel to front glass anymore. The water is quite murky and milky due to bacterial colonization bloom. I expect the water will clear in couple of days.

I think even milky photos are better than nothing, so here they are:
Front view (2014/10/23) by bialix1, on Flickr

I don't quite happy with vertical branch without bark. It's too straight and vertical. I think I should decorate it with some moss.

Sides:
Right side (2014/10/23) by bialix1, on Flickr
Left side (2014/10/23) by bialix1, on Flickr

I'm going to put some moss on vertical branch this weekend, so I'd be happy to hear your feedback, so I can improve the layout even further.

As you can see I mostly used slow grower plants. The reason for this is quite simple. My sister don't have too much free time for pruning fast-grower plants (and obviously a little bit less passion to scaping than me), and also I can't see this tank often enough to be able to adjust the way it grows. So my intent is to have almost finished state right from the beginning, and only occasional trimming (once in month/couple months) will be required. I hope such layout can last for next 1-2 years without re-scaping. For some reason my sister don't get very excited about rescaping and all side effects that process involves, like a lot of buckets with dirty water around the room, cleaning/washing the tank, and so on


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## Dantrasy (25 Oct 2014)

Looking good mate! Maybe you could bring some of the stones forward, can't see much of them front on.


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## Alexander Belchenko (25 Oct 2014)

Dantrasy said:


> Looking good mate! Maybe you could bring some of the stones forward, can't see much of them front on.



Yes, I can, I still have plenty of this small stones. I'll try to add some at front corners. Thanks!

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## Greenfinger2 (25 Oct 2014)

Hi Alexander, 
Love the look of the Anubias Gold  The scape is looking great. I agree with Dantrasy though the river stones could come a little more to the front. 
When setting up a Scape I find it best to take photos of each step.Then you can look back to see if it works or not


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## Alexander Belchenko (25 Oct 2014)

Thanks, Roy. That's definitely great idea, I should arrange something like timelapse next time. I was very limited in time this week, so I scaped the tank after my main work, at night. Maybe I need to train some mignon to help me with photos  

Sent via Tapatalk


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## Alexander Belchenko (30 Oct 2014)

Last weekend I've added small stones at front corners, re-planted hairgrass, added some moss on vertical branch, and added touch of red (my favourite simple red plant - ludwigia sp. super red).

47x30x40 - 1 week by bialix1, on Flickr


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## Greenfinger2 (30 Oct 2014)

Hi Alexander,
Love the scape the river stones brings it all together  That is a great piece of DW


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## ADA (30 Oct 2014)

Liking the stones framing the pathway, I'd maybe bring them out a little more in case the eleocharis engulfs them  .


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## Alexander Belchenko (30 Oct 2014)

I'll keep some spare stones around in case I need to add them, as you suggested.


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## Lauris (8 Nov 2014)

Lovely setup Alex. Will subscribe for this. 
root piece is absolutely brilliant.


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## Alexander Belchenko (10 Nov 2014)

Lauris said:


> root piece is absolutely brilliant.


Thanks Lauris.

Recently I realized I could have used some (manten-like) stones to make combination with these root branches a-la Angkor Vat jungles. Too bad I did not think about it earlier.


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## Alexander Belchenko (25 Nov 2014)

*1 month update*

The tank is going well. We started to dose minimal amount of NPK nutrients, in addition to traces.

40x30x47 - 1 month - close-up by bialix1, on Flickr

40x30x47 - 1 month - close-up by bialix1, on Flickr

40x30x47 - 1 month - close-up by bialix1, on Flickr


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## Alexander Belchenko (25 Nov 2014)

*1 month (FTS)*

40x30x47 - 1 month - edited by bialix1, on Flickr

40x30x47 - 1 month - illuminate by bialix1, on Flickr


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## Ady34 (25 Nov 2014)

Very nice scape Julia


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## logi-cat (25 Nov 2014)

loving the tank, can you tell me what ferts you are using, how much light, CO2....etc....


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## Alexander Belchenko (26 Nov 2014)

logi-cat said:


> loving the tank, can you tell me what ferts you are using, how much light, CO2....etc....



Sure. So technical side of this setup as of today:

tank is 47x30x40H cm custom made, float glass 6mm, transparent silicone;
light unit 1*36W Osram Dulux 865 in custom made cover lid; that's quite bright for such tank so CO2 is needed; also a lot of floating plants are used to reduce light (entire surface is covered by plants, I remove them when take photo);
photoperiod is about 8-10 hours/day (on work days about 6 hours at morning and 2 hours at evening, so family can enjoy the tank after work; on weekend usually from 10am to 20pm);
internal filter aquael fan mini 240l/h;
internal heater aquael 50W;
CO2 DIY yeast-based generator, 2 bottles 1.5l, refill each bottle on alternate weeks; CO2 reactor is JBL Taifun (I removed 2 of 5 sections now, it's quite effective IMO);
recently I've added air pump on timer, it works usually at evening to increase oxygen level before night;
fertilizers: micro, macro, potassium and iron from Aquayer (Ukranian small company, the products are available in Ukraine, Russia, and probably in some other neighbor countries); the amount of fertilizers - according to recommended dose on bottle, this layout is slow, so we don't need to overfeed plants atm;
also we're using some water additives to slightly lower kH and to add black-water extract (also from local small companies);
recently we started to add alder cones and oak leaves in small quantity. The water got a tint of tea color (yellowish), I think that's good for cardinal tetras and other fish. At least I can see their colors are brighter than in clean water.
Usually Julia should do 30% water change every weekend and clean the filter. Sometimes she is too busy for that. I'm asking her at least clean filter if not water change.

And water parameters: only tap water is used for water changes, last weekend pH was about 7 (8 in tap water), kH ~ 11 (strangely high, probably something raises it up, seaside gravel?), GH ~ 12 (ok for tap water), NO3 and PO4 both were about zero, so I've asked Julia to start dosing macro (NPK) now.


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## logi-cat (26 Nov 2014)

thanks for replying back.


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## Dantrasy (26 Nov 2014)

Are you going to attach any plants to the dw arch?


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## Alexander Belchenko (27 Nov 2014)

Dantrasy said:


> Are you going to attach any plants to the dw arch?


No! In previous layout the wood was hidden under plant mass, which grow very thick over time, and Julia has failed to trim it properly.
This time I want to keep this wood visible, so no plants allowed to hide all those tiny roots.


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## Alexander Belchenko (25 Feb 2015)

*4 months*

Everything is growing fine and steady. Only dhg is not very good: also there are many new shoots, but overall it's yellow. Maybe lack of fertilization.
I've installed more powerful internal filter by Aquael, with coarse foam. The previous model got dirty less than in a week and therefore the flow was always drastically reduced.
The wood started to rot and lost some of its beauty. In the end that's nice home tank. And not very demanding, that's great.

47x30x40 - 4 months by bialix1, on Flickr

47x30x40 - 4 months by bialix1, on Flickr

Not quite what I was after, but good enough. There is very hard time in my country there. The hobby is not the main priority atm.


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## Alexander Belchenko (17 Mar 2015)

Alexander Belchenko said:


> It was 5 months:



I re-discovered the other work that was inspiration for that layout. It's here: http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2013/show408.html


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## Alexander Belchenko (30 Jun 2015)

Mid June 2015. 235 days since setup.
The tank is neglected due to real life and hard work of my cousin. I've cut plants here and there, but overall it needs more maintenance, unfortunately I can't see this tank often enough these months. Good side: it has mainly slow growing plants, so the tank don't look as awful mess despite the lack of care.

47x30x40 - 235 days by Alexander, on Flickr


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## Greenfinger2 (10 Jul 2015)

Looking good


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## Alexander Belchenko (19 Oct 2015)

*1 year old*

It's about time to change the layout and composition. Anubias and buces FTW.

47x30x40 - 1 year old by Alexander, on Flickr


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## Greenfinger2 (19 Oct 2015)

Hi Alexander, Wonderful  Great plant growth and health


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## Paul Kettless (23 Oct 2015)

Beautiful tank


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## Alexander Belchenko (3 Dec 2015)

Last weekend we made new layout. I don't have a planted state yet (will do this weekend), so let's look at some other shots.

This was the state of the tank after 13 months -- unfortunately the wood has rotted significantly:

47x30x40 - 13 months - the end by Alexander, on Flickr

You can compare with state of year ago:

47x30x40 - 1 week by Alexander, on Flickr

After 13 months all plants was quite big and bushy, so we had a lot of material to plant in new layout. This time I (gently) pushed idea to make new layout with less light - installed Aqualighter 1 led unit of 30 cm (9W only!), without CO2 and maybe significantly less ferts. Using only anubiases and buces for layout (no moss this time ), and plant all of them on the wood. So, I needed to have quite big wood with many branches ready to be planted. In the end we used 2 big redmoor wood pieces assembled together with cable ties (black ones on the photo below), plus 2 smaller branches, also attached with cable ties, and one local wood, which is nice but I suspect it won't last long in contrast to redmoor wood, which is quite hardy and long lived in the aquarium. On the bottom we put thin layer of JBL Manado, there won't be any plant.

47x30x40 - hardscape by Alexander, on Flickr

The wood structure is quite big and very nicely fit all internal volume of the tank to the state where it will be difficult to maintain tank properly. But it's very easy to take the wood out of the tank and do the proper clean of the glass and substrate. I hope Julia will do such great big cleaning of the tank once in month or so.


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## Greenfinger2 (3 Dec 2015)

Hi Alexander, Looking good


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## Alexander Belchenko (8 Dec 2015)

1st week of new layout. I'd call it "Anubias Garden".

47x30x40 - 1 week by Alexander, on Flickr

This time we worked on the layout together with Julia and her family. I proposed several hardscape configurations but gently forced this one (you've already seen it in previous post):

47x30x40 - hardscape by Alexander, on Flickr

This hardscape has a lot of surface to plant anubiases. We had a lot of planting materials after dismantling previous layout. Many anubiases got triple and more in their size. Really nice to see big bushes rather than small branches.

I delegated the job of decorating hardscape with anubiases to Julia and her daughter (she has artist talent, and draw very cool pictures) and just provided some basic directions how to better place plants, what to avoid, pointed the areas they missed. We used ADA's wood tight to put plants on the wood. It was very wise choice: the work was done very quickly and almost effortless. Unfortunately you can clearly see those ties on photo, but in couple months as plants will attach themselves with their roots - we will remove those.

In general, I'm quite happy with result: the layout looks almost finished right from the start, you don't have to watch bare hardscape for many months, which would be real pain in the case of anubias and buces. Difference in shape, size and colors between plants breaks monotonic I guess.

The interesting thing is about the new LED light. It has color temp about 6500, quite cold light. Red and yellow colors on fish look very pale, cardinal tetras which was mostly red before under tubes with 4100K now mostly blue under that light. Yellow form of white clouds minnows also looks pale, but they are very nice community fish and make very good company to neons, so they are not so shy anymore.
Also there is another problem with the light: I had to place it shifted to the front glass because on the middle there is still old light unit (due to the specifics of lid). I've tilted the LED light slightly toward back glass, but anyway you can see on photo the most light at the foreground now. Which is not problem per se when you see the tank in flesh, but problem to take proper photo. And of course less light now means it's harder to take proper photos without extra light. Maybe I'll put additional LED strip on the middle of the cover, and maybe add more warm LEDs, to improve colors.

I'd be very grateful to hear what you think it could be improved there.

Right now I like the fact there is almost nothing on the substrate, and due the placement of plants they all look flying above the ground.
And yes, as I said before and now I tested it myself (I helped to maintain the tank last weekend) - it's quite hard to properly clean glass now and substrate - too much branches everywhere. It seems the only reasonable thing to clean the tank now - is taking off the wood, clean, then put it back.


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## Greenfinger2 (8 Dec 2015)

Hi Alexander, Nice scape Anubias heaven Congrats to Julia and Daughter on the planting


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## Alexander Belchenko (8 Dec 2015)

Thank you, Roy. They did a great job! So many years of practicing - and I decided to give them chance to implement their ideas, well ... almost.

I'd like to mention that new layout was heavily inspired by journal "The roots of petite" of @Lauris.


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## hrishi007 (28 Jun 2016)

Splendid tank


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## rebel (28 Jun 2016)

Smashing composition!

Is that a white Anubis pinto? Does it grow without co2?


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## robertshrimp (29 Jun 2016)

Lovely setup. Can't wait for new updates! I have a soft spot for anubias too 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk


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## Alexander Belchenko (29 Jun 2016)

rebel said:


> Smashing composition!
> 
> Is that a white Anubis pinto? Does it grow without co2?



Thank you for compliments.

There is no anubias pinto at all, I guess you might have looked at anubias sp. "gold"? I'm not sure.


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## Alexander Belchenko (29 Jun 2016)

Unfortunately I have not been visiting my cousin for very long time, so don't have fresh pictures. She said me that plants had grown well.


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## Alexander Belchenko (7 Jul 2016)

Finally, some update. The tank is about 7 months with latest layout, and I must admit - it's not the best one. Crappy photo just to give you an idea what's going on:

47x30x40 - 7 months by Alexander, on Flickr


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## Lindy (12 Jul 2016)

I love this and it is making me question what I have done in my big tank. Love the simplicity. I'll give my scape another couple of months and If I don't love it I'm buying more wood!


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## Alexander Belchenko (12 Jul 2016)

ldcgroomer said:


> I love this and it is making me question what I have done in my big tank. Love the simplicity. I'll give my scape another couple of months and If I don't love it I'm buying more wood!



Thank you. But beware: too much wood means harder maintenance! I don't remember whether I mentioned it: we have to remove wood with all anubiases on it to make sure all sides are accessible for maintenance.


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## Alexander Belchenko (12 Jul 2016)

View from the side (before maintenance, excuse me dirty glass)


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## Lindy (12 Jul 2016)

I know, I've always had lots of wood before.

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## AnhBui (12 Jul 2016)

A tooth brush is a big help, isn't it?


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## Alexander Belchenko (12 Jul 2016)

AnhBui said:


> A tooth brush is a big help, isn't it?


Unfortunately, no, not in this case. The tank is quite tall, and has cover on top.


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