# Mountainscape V2



## zig

Hi everyone

After much delay for which I apologise I can finally present my ADA 2008 entry, Mountainscape V2. 

I just want to say thanks again to everyone here for the great support on this project thus far and thanks also for your understanding in the endless delays in posting this work up, ADA work in  mysterious ways so much of this was out of my control as I am sure you can understand.

I realise that a lot of people will have reservations about this style of aquascape, and thats fine by me, I have my own as well, so from the lofty heights of 15th position ADA 2008 I am sure it will be all downhill from here on in so no worries   

Here's the spec for this tank

97L tank
Tank 60W x 36H x 45D
Lighting 6 x 24w T5 @ 8 hours per day during the growout period, reduced later.
Fertilised via EI method
Filter Eheim 2215 
ADA aquasoil amazonia
CO2 1-2bps 

Rasbora maculata
Hemianthus callitrichoides "Cuba"
Mini landscape rocks

I allowed the HC to growout for about 4-5 weeks I then trimmed it back hard, about two weeks later I gave it another trim this time very minor and a few days later I then took the final photographs.
















I will post up some more pictures later on.

Thanks everyone!


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## George Farmer

Incredible, Peter.

We are honoured to host such a skilled aquascaper.

Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work.  It'll certainly keep you on your toes maintaining this standard.

Super photography too, BTW.


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## JamesM

Best 'Scape Everâ„¢



Outstanding work, Peter, congrats mate


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## Garuf

It's that good it doesn't even look real! I think this could be one of the best European scapes ever, it's actually straight up magic.
Keep up the good work, it's gonna make that tough second album so much more difficult!


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## zig

Thanks alot guys, good to be able to post them at last!

I'm working on next years (album 8) ) ADA entry, yeah thats gonna be tough, all downhill from here like I say  I have something I am working on though which has a bit of potiential, is it as good as this I have no idea, it looks pretty ok so far though  I will keep working on it, needs a nudge here and there in the right direction , a couple of elements still need to be added, its not another mountainscape, I'm not sure if I will do another one of those. The aquascape I am working on is a a wood type layout in a 150l tank. I have just started a rock type Iwagumi layout in this 60cm tank, so two on the go atm, early days though on both, I really need to pin down the planting on both of them, I Have the hardscape pretty much settled on. 

Here's a few more shots from this layout, these shots just show the original setup a bit better.

Hardscape - athough as always it was tweaked as I went along, the foreground was added soon after, I remember there was one rock I wasn't happy with so I left that until later.





The second shot just shows it soon after filling with water> I originally used a glass lily pipe, which I moved to the centre between the luminaires for better distribution, but I changed it later for a metal jet pipe which I found better for this tank, it swirled the CO2 around a lot better.





This shot although not that great probably shows the inside of the tank a little bit better. The stuff on the surface of the water are air/CO2 bubbles. You can see the metal jet pipe in this shot as well.





More later


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## zig

Some more technical shots, nothing groundbreaking going on here but some of you may get some ideas for your own setups.

Always wanted one of these 8) highly recommend  





Here's the diffuser I used, same idea as the cal aqua diffuser. It worked well, although it needs a good bubble count to work effectively and as outlined earlier you need to be able to push the CO2 bubbles around the tank. You need to clean this about every 3 weeks, just swop it out with a spare one, and soak it in diluted bleach just like a glass diffuser, the difference is this one is totally out of the tank under your stand so less equipment in the tank.





Because the Aquasoil in this tank has been used a few times already I decided to replenish it with a couple of dozen Tropica plant nutrition+ capsules, I just dotted these around the aquascape and pushed them a inch or so below the substrate. 





More later


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## zig

BTW here's tank no's 1-27 from this years competition, Jeff over on APC seems to be on a go slow posting up the tanks he's up to no.13 right now (and thats taken all day  probably busy) and us junkys gotta know now, right!!!   

Pictures are very poor quality here but you get some idea anyway, better than nowt as they say, you need to open the links in internet explorer.

http://adana.hk/hk/index.asp


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## TDI-line

Great thread Zig, your tank looks stunning.


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## johnny70

Outstanding!!!!!

This is probably the 'best scape' I have seen, why you didn't win, I'll never know

STUNNING    

JOHNNY


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## Tom

The HC looks amazing! Not a single bad leaf - so neat!

Tom


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## LondonDragon

Congrats on the high ranking, really impressive rock work, worthy of its place. Thanks for sharing the setup with us.
Now you have to come in the top 10 next year  BTW did you win anything for 15th place?


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## Steve Smith

Wow peter, that is quite frankly feckin' awesome!  It has a sort of simple feel, I guess effortless look.  It looks very natural.  I really do like it a lot


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## Stu Worrall

thats one stunning landscape in there!  the mini rocks look really stunning and the depth perception is amazing!  dont think I can fiot anymore exclamation marks in my sentences now!


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## zig

Thanks everyone!

LondonDragon you do win a prize but I have not received it yet, you get a metal plate a certificate and a small amount of prize money, about Â£50 I think.

It wasn't always plain sailing with this layout so newer folks to planted tanks can take some solace from the fact that even old hands can have algae problems. The picture is taken about a month before the competition entry deadline, so yeah I did panic a little bit, it was probably the worst algae I have had in a couple of years. Classic error though, I introduced some fish to the tank for the first time and a couple of days later full blown GSA everywhere. I had put a sponge from a Eheim 2213 that I had running on a different tank into the Eheim 2215 filter thinking this would be enough to fully cycle the tank, it obviously wasn't, no harm to the fish though but there was obviously an ammonia spike which the filter could not handle. Cleaning all those rocks was no fun  I let the GSA run through its cycle for a couple of weeks and all was good again.





Here's something else interesting I did with this setup, I modified the filter for increased flow. I'd say I got about a 20+% increase in flow by simply changing the 3 blade impeller on the Eheim 2215 for the 6 blade impeller of the larger Eheim 2217 filter

The new 6 blade impeller is on the left, its just a straight swop, no other parts or modifications are needed.


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## Steve Smith

Good tip there Peter   Is there any chance it'll stress the motor though?

Also, could you tell me what make the diffuser is?  It looks quite interesting


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## zig

SteveUK said:
			
		

> Good tip there Peter   Is there any chance it'll stress the motor though?
> 
> Also, could you tell me what make the diffuser is?  It looks quite interesting



Steve can't say I have noticed any decrease in performance of the motor on the filter, its still pretty quiet anyway, I doubt it will have any affect tbh time will tell I suppose. 

The diffuser is a Boyu diffuser. There is a slightly different version of this diffuser made by a different manufacturer which has a metal insert instead of the ceramic one that this diffuser has. The other diffuser I believe is better than this one, it does not get clogged up as much apparently, but I don't know how that would work tbh, I have not been able to track it down anywhere online where I could purchase it outside of Asia. This one will not get as clogged as a ceramic diffuser that you put in your tank because it will not get a build up of algae, although it will get a build up of sludge on the inside instead, just look at your filter hoses for evidence of that, But I think its a bit slower than algae buildup. You just need good flow really to push the CO2 bubbles around the tank with it. It goes on the outlet side of your filter. I may just stick a reactor on this tank and do away with any maintenance.


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## altaaffe

An awesome looking scape & a great article to go with it, thanks for posting the setup.


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## jay

Beautiful. That HC looks like a super comfy, green cushion. Just wanna jump in it.


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## a1Matt

jay said:
			
		

> Beautiful. That HC looks like a super comfy, green cushion. Just wanna jump in it.



  


It's already been said, but.....    great scape.  great pics.  and a lovely thread to go with it 

I love the smiley face drawn into the algae. I'm guessing that particular pic wasn't posted to ADA   

If you have any higher res pics I would love to be able to see close ups on it all.


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## aaronnorth

sense of scale is amazing, i didnt think you could get it looking much bigger than your previuos one!

Weel Done


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## zig

Hey thanks a mil everyone  

Aw yes,the green dust algae , the smiley face was to cheer me up when I realised how bad it was :?  This photo was probably taken coming near the end of its cycle, the rocks behind are looking pretty clean, I was probably cleaning them at this stage, it took hours with a toothbrush I remember that well, they were as green as the HC  






Here's some fishie photos, I have to say these are fantastic little fish, they suit a small tank so well.


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## GreenNeedle

Zig - Congrats on the scape and the result.  Not often anyone from this side of europe gets anywhere near as close as you did there.  All the pics in this thread are great seeing it in action so to speak and also to show others not to despair when things go bad etc.

That inline diffusor looks interesting.  Where did you get it from?  Do you have a link to anywhere that sells them?  Its not even on the Boyu website. lol

Well done matey
AC


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## George Farmer

Great thread, Peter.  I echo my first reply regarding the aquascape.

Thanks for showing us the extra shots.  Interesting on the algae too, I've never seen GDA that bad.  And top tip on the impellar.  Always innovating aren't you?!  

Out of interest, did you use much 'digital darkroom' in the final full-tank shot.  It looks almost too flawless. Or was it sheer hard work cleaning the rocks and pruning?


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## Dan Crawford

George Farmer said:
			
		

> Out of interest, did you use much 'digital darkroom' in the final full-tank shot.  It looks almost too flawless. Or was it sheer hard work cleaning the rocks and pruning?


I'm sure peter can speak for himself but I have the original for using on a small part of our stand and I could see no evidence of digital darkroom. I know what you mean, it looks too perfect, I wish my tanks were too perfect, the only "too" I get comments on are "there are too many plants"  

Great work peter, I think we can all safely say the you've taken the UK and the rest of the world by storm with this scape. It's gonna be tough staying at the top but I was doubtful that you could improve on V1 and you've done so magnificently so no doubt you'll rise to the challange with typical Irish style.


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## John Starkey

Hi Zig,i have just returned from lake garda italy and this scape reminds me some much of the northern end of the lake (lake garda is 35 miles long) ,absolutely stunning peter well done,regards john.


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## zig

George Farmer said:
			
		

> Great thread, Peter.  I echo my first reply regarding the aquascape.
> 
> Thanks for showing us the extra shots.  Interesting on the algae too, I've never seen GDA that bad.  And top tip on the impellar.  Always innovating aren't you?!
> 
> Out of interest, did you use much 'digital darkroom' in the final full-tank shot.  It looks almost too flawless. Or was it sheer hard work cleaning the rocks and pruning?



George I am happy to clarify for everybody about the photos  

George your probably looking at the algae covered tank and thinking hold on a sec, how could he turn that into the image in the opening shot. There is no trickery going on I assure you. The algae was a nightmare there is no doubt about that, but luckily it cleared in time a couple of weeks before the deadline so I could prepare the tank for the competition. As you have indicated It was sheer hard work tbh over several nights just to clean the rocks and the tank, they were cleaned and then cleaned again and again, and then more time was spent to whip it all into shape before the final photos were taken. The original competition photo entry and main photo in this thread are NOT photoshopped. I am sure you are not suggesting it is either, but given the events when the Asian entrant was found to be cheating this is a sensitive subject as I am sure you can understand from my point of view. I will try and give some background information about the photos.

I will just say that ANYBODY reading the thread is welcome to a copy of the original file if they wish to have it, just send me a PM with your email address and I will forward it to you no questions asked. it can easily be checked with an Exif viewer to see if photoshop or any other image altering programme or method was used. I did not even so much as crop the image or sharpen it, things other competitors have admitted to on other forums using photoshop. The image was not retouched in any way before I sent the original file to ADA for the competition, it was sent untouched. The only methods I tried to use to my advantage were photography and very careful preparation beforehand. I was very careful while doing the last preparations for the tank, knowing that the competition rules do not allow any form of digital altering. I probably took a few hundred images over the course of 3 or 4 photo sessions just to get the fish into the right position, this was the hardest thing of all and is probably a story in itself how I did it. The final photo had many hours work put into it.

Dan has the original file in his possession and can/has verified that it is not retouched in his opinion, it was sent to him at his request a few days ago for use in the UKAPS stand for the festival of fishkeeping exhibition in Hayling Island. He wanted a large file for printing quality purposes so I sent him the original no problem. I will see if I can post up the original file, its about 4mb I think, I am not sure if I can do it in photobucket without a premium account which I do not have.

Edit can't do it in photobucket. Heres the original file as big as Photobucket will allow me to upload, you can still check the information on the file though by downloading an Exif viewer  you then right click the image and the exif viewer shows you all the information about the photo. I use it all the time to check photos and see what f no's, speed etc were used on other peoples photos. It will show up if photoshop has been used on the file, there is no way of hiding this with an exif viewer AFAIK. Some people will try and hide the extent of the retouching they have done to an original file by deleting the embedded thumnail image in the exif viewer, it will still show up that photoshop has been used but you cannot now compare the embedded thumbnail of the original image to the picture shown, so you cannot see or compare whether wholesale photoshop has taken place, backgrounds being added etc. 







Edit: I dont know why the image is not showing up bigger, I have the settings set for 1024 x 768 maybe its our own forum thats not allowing me post the picture so big. Heres a direct link anyway which hopefully works better. Edit again, thats not working either. I will work on it to get it working  I was having difficulties yesterday as well posting stuff but this is a new problem.


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y142/dublin6/DSC_0091.jpg



You can (not you only George,anybody can check) check the image posted above against the image that Jeff Senske has posted up on APC forum from the ADA competition, it is the same image, dust marks and all except that ADA have cropped it for presentation purposes.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...55958-2008-ada-layout-contest-top-27-a-3.html

Here's the Exif viewer that I use, its an add on extension for firefox browser, handy thing to download anyway  

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3905

Some of the the other images in this thread have been photoshopped, mainly to get rid of CO2 bubbles that are floating around the tank which are very visible especially against the background. I have upped the contrast on some of them as well in photoshop and probably cropped them, no big deal there I think. I have not deleted any fish or added any rocks or plants or anything like that. Most of the other pictures that I took other than the main competition entry were taken with the equipment operating in the tank, the fish cooperated better that way. I found once the filter went off the fish were much harder to photograph. Another problem with the filter off was using the hairdryer, the fish tended to hide as soon as the hairdryer came on. So I spent a lot of time and trouble on the main tank shot when the equipment was removed, once the filter was on the fish moved around freely so I could photograph them better. I don't see a problem posting those type of retouched pictures here tbh, these are just secondary pictures as far as I am concerned. But It is also the reason that I don't have too many different angles of the whole tank without equipment showing, it was to difficult and time consuming to organise so I just concentrated mainly on getting the front view for the competition entry.

The first image in this thread is cropped, this is NOT how the image was sent to ADA for the competition, I sent them the whole uncropped image file. Its pretty close though, I have just cropped the top and bottom section of the photo in this thread to just give the view of the tank only, I have used no other form of digital altering, contrast ,sharpening nothing at all. If you look to the right hand side of the main image you will an obvious dust mark on the side wall of the aquarium, the dust was on the sensor of the camera when I took the photo. I was a dissed about this later on when I realised there was dust on the sensor. This would be easy to get rid of in photoshop, a couple of minutes work, and something I would normally remove if the photo was not a competition entry. There are many other photos from the other photo sessions with no dust marks, I could have used one of those instead if I so wished, actually I sent one of those to the AGA competition as my entry, it was a cleaner shot as regards dust marks. I had a couple of hundred photos to choose from, a lot of duds as well mind you among them, but the fish position in that shot is the one I liked best, so I knew the image could not be retouched and thats the decision that I made, it was the best shot, dust marks and all, so that was the one I used for ADA . The reason the rocks were so clean was hard work with the toothbrush. 

Sorry about the long winded answer, but as you can appreciate it is a sensitive subject about which I am happy to clarify any questions people may have.


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## aaronnorth

> You can (not you only George,anybody can check) check the image posted above against the image that Jeff Senske has posted up on APC forum from the ADA competition, it is the same image, dust marks and all except that ADA have cropped it for presentation purposes.



whats the difference? just that the top & bottom is cut off  :?:


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## Tom

How far are you allowed to go with photoshopping?

When I do my photos, theres loads of barrel distortion coming from using a fairly wide angle so I have to straighten the image out, and it comes out a funny colour from the bulbs I'm using to photograph it. Instead of sorting that out in the camera, it's easier to do it in photoshop with a couple of clicks. Then before I convert it from RAW I sharpen it as it always goes softer in JPG. 

Tom


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## Mark Evans

how many flash heads are you using? this is the problem i have, im relying on the luminaire at the mo. i have just 1 flash head, and its not enough by a long way.


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## zig

Heres  a shot that I did photoshop, just an example of the CO2 bubble problem I was talking about. This shot is the same as the one shown above and it was photoshopped primarily to get rid of the CO2 bubbles, this was probably the worst one actually, bit of dust in there as well  . I think I upped the contrast and cropped it mainly to reduce the background, less work that way! But no big game plan I was just doing them as I went along yesterday and I thought it was a nice shot. Some of the other shots were photoshopped and some were not but they might have been cropped in some way or other, but I didn't spend a lot of time photoshopping tbh





Thanks very much to everybody for the interest in this thread, I was just posting random shots and thoughts about the tank, I was making it up as I went along tbh (haha the way I aquascape a lot of the time ) I am not trying to tell people how to do it or anything like that, there are much more capable technical people around these forums than myself.

Edit: aaronnorth there is no difference except they (ADA) have cropped the image, that is really the point. It is to clarify  that the main image is not photoshopped. There is no difference between the original untouched file and the picture posted over on APC, it is also the same image as the main image, albeit my cropped version, that I have posted here as my main opening shot on the first post of this thread.

Tom for the ADA competition the rules state NO image manipulation, so the answer is none is allowed, period. That is my interpretation of the rules anyhow. The exact wording is....

"Do not make any image processing such as trimming or retouch"

For the photos you have to find the optimum distance between you and the tank before you start to get barrel distortion with the lens that you are using, Thats what I did here anyway because I knew I couldn't correct it later on.


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## Mark Evans

and the lighting? what flash did you use?


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## zig

saintly said:
			
		

> and the lighting? what flash did you use?



sorry mate Im not skipping questions on purpose, I was posting the last post up as you replied and then I had to split to do something else.

There are a couple of other questions as well unanswered, I will get around to them  

I was going to do something separate about the photography on this tank but seeing as how you have asked 8) 

yes the photoshoot, I was going to get on to that, all my secrets will be laid bare  which I have no problem with BTW.

I have used two professional flash heads to photograph this tank, even powerful flash strobes like these will not give you enough coverage unless you really want to diffuse them by using soft tops or lots of tracing paper, basically soft tops are very large diffusers for flash heads like these. Diffused light will give pretty boring flat photos though so one flash head will not be enough IMO unless you have a very small tank.

These are old Bowens studio flasheads that I picked up cheap, they are probably 15 years old or something like that. This is the first finished tank I have photographed using them. 

Does it give me an advantage over anyone else using these? I don't think so really, sure you can take nice photos with these, just like any flash really, but you must have something nice to photograph first of all that is a basic prerequisite I think. Two ordinary flash guns would give the same results if used correctly.

The main advantage these give you is that they recycle quickly, still slow mind, maybe a second or so before you can shoot again, but a lot quicker than an ordinary hand held or off camera flash head. They also recycle each time to the same power setting, so you dont have to worry about batteries draining etc because they are working off electricity. You can shoot at better f stops with them for what you want to do and obviously they stop the problem of blurry fish in photos. Another big advantage is that they have a modelling light which you can turn on and off, the modelling light gives you an idea of where the flash will fall on the subject. Lots of these for sale on ebay, hard enough to pick up secondhand though for a decent price. basically they are just big flash guns really.

Heres the photo setup, although this shot is taken during the day, all the photos of the tank were taken at night. The flasheads are triggered remotely using an infra red device which fits in the hot shoe on top of the camera, so no wires between the camera and the flash strobes.





And the view at night





I used a good bit of black card around the tank as well when I was taking the shots to stop any flare from the flash.


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## George Farmer

Thanks for the very comprehensive reply, Peter.

I hope I didn't cause offense by asking my question.

The fact that your photo has not been re-touched is further testiment to your skill as a plant grower, aquascaper and photographer.

Cheers.


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## Mark Evans

awesome zig. this exactly what i was hoping you'd come back with. my plans involve a couple of flash heads. (hired of course)

im loving the hair-dryer holder too!

quality mate, seriously! 

thanks for the reply!


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## zig

SuperColey1 said:
			
		

> Zig - Congrats on the scape and the result.  Not often anyone from this side of europe gets anywhere near as close as you did there.  All the pics in this thread are great seeing it in action so to speak and also to show others not to despair when things go bad etc.
> 
> That inline diffusor looks interesting.  Where did you get it from?  Do you have a link to anywhere that sells them?  Its not even on the Boyu website. lol
> 
> Well done matey
> AC



Thanks a lot Andy  

Here's where I got the Diffusers, pretty cheap, get two so you can keep one on standby.

They work good but you do need a high bubble count, exactly the same principle as the in tank diffusers in the way they  turn out tiny bubbles, but they come out the filter outlet so you have the advantage that they are getting blown around the tank on entry, you can see the bubbles in the pic I posted on the previous page.

Delivery was about ten days as far as I remember, its a while ago though since I ordered from this guy so check recent feedback etc, you know the drill mate  

http://cgi.ebay.ie/CO2-Carbon-Dioxi...20758QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262


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## Mark Evans

zig said:
			
		

> Does it give me an advantage over anyone else using these? I don't think so really, sure you can take nice photos with these, just like any flash really



back when i did weddings etc blablabla/.... i used bowens flash heads, i also owned a metz pro flashhead. give me heads anytime! .


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## aaronnorth

the 1st pic with the flasheads makes the scape look even more impressive,


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## zig

George Farmer said:
			
		

> Thanks for the very comprehensive reply, Peter.
> 
> I hope I didn't cause offense by asking my question.
> 
> The fact that your photo has not been re-touched is further testiment to your skill as a plant grower, aquascaper and photographer.
> 
> Cheers.



George no offence taken  

I was going to post about the photography on this tank so your questions just pre empted my replies. No harm in clearing the matter up in a comprehensive manner though.

Hope all is well in Afghanistan (at your end anyway  )


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## George Farmer

zig said:
			
		

> George no offence taken
> 
> I was going to post about the photography on this tank so your questions just pre empted my replies. No harm in clearing the matter up in a comprehensive manner though.
> 
> Hope all is well in Afghanistan (at your end anyway  )



All good then mate.

All is well here, thanks.  Even better in 2 weeks by which time I'll be home enjoying 'normal' life once again...

And keep up the great work.  It's really super to get an insight into Peter's aquascaping world!


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## jay

This is quite amazing, and very insightful. The set up for the photography is so advanced but with this thread, seems achievable even for a novice like me.

Thank you very much Peter.  

And I love this pic.... that room is AAALLLL about the tank  


			
				zig said:
			
		

>


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## zig

jay said:
			
		

> This is quite amazing, and very insightful. The set up for the photography is so advanced but with this thread, seems achievable even for a novice like me.
> 
> Thank you very much Peter.
> 
> And I love this pic.... that room is AAALLLL about the tank



Thanks mate there are 3 tanks in that room. Two on the other side.


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## jay

*Drools*


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## GreenNeedle

Sorry Zig, I have a few more questions matey. lol .  Hope you don't mind.

Theres no mention of heating in this tank.  Did you use any heating?  (Trying to gauge how much equipment you had inline really)

Also with the old '10x' filtering that is usually used I notice that you used a filter with 6(ish.)  Did you notice any problems with the circulation or with it being quite a substrate base scape do you think that may have played a part where a traditionally planted scape would've need more circulation due to the plants 'disturbing' the circulation?  How much did the 6 blade impellor increase flow by (in your opinion)

AC


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## jay

I would have thought 10x filtration being quite a hindrance to this scape, maybe uprooting the HC or making it grow in an awkward position?


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## zig

SuperColey1 said:
			
		

> Sorry Zig, I have a few more questions matey. lol .  Hope you don't mind.
> 
> Theres no mention of heating in this tank.  Did you use any heating?  (Trying to gauge how much equipment you had inline really)
> 
> Also with the old '10x' filtering that is usually used I notice that you used a filter with 6(ish.)  Did you notice any problems with the circulation or with it being quite a substrate base scape do you think that may have played a part where a traditionally planted scape would've need more circulation due to the plants 'disturbing' the circulation?  How much did the 6 blade impellor increase flow by (in your opinion)
> 
> AC



Andy no problem with the questions they keep me on my toes around here  

Andy there was no heater in the tank until the fish went in, I just used an ordinary in tank heater.

There were no algae problems other than the GDA, so the circulation was fine going by that measure. It was quite an open aquascape really so I didn't expect any real problems using that filter tbh. 

When I modified the filter I ran extensive tests, I put my finger over the open outlet tube and felt the water pressure compared to the unmodified filter, this told me after various calculations that the pressure was stronger  

I didn't do a flow test I will test it out and report back  

The flow certainly feels stronger anyway, I would be surprised if the results did not show a 20% + increase after I run the flow test and compare the two impellers.


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## Stu Worrall

great photography and its great that youve shown the flash setup. Given me a few ideas for mine as i can borrow studio flash kit from mold camera club that im in 

How long did you leave it before you added fish as this is something im wondering about for mine as ive only just planted but with an established filter.


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## planter

Nice work Peter! Congratulations on the Ranking ... a real inspiration. Out of curiosity Have you enterd this scape into the AGA?


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## zig

Thanks stu! stu the fish were added after the tank had been running for a few weeks, I can't remember exactly when, maybe 4-5 weeks before the photos were taken. I think in future I will start new tanks like this with Seachem stability http://seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Stability.html that should avoid the problems I had with the GDA to ensure the filter has sufficient bacteria build up to cope with any problems before I add fish, you can then add the fish any time you want basically, great product I believe.

Thanks planter man! I have entered this tank into AGA along with the first mountainscape, I don't know what they will make of this tank tbh, I think this tank will split juries down the middle, some people will like this tank and some people will not, a small panel of judges would not be in my favour either I imagine. I entered both versions, but on reflection maybe I should have only entered one, don't know what make of that either, 2 similar looking aquascapes by the same entrant, could be a first anyway


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## Dave Spencer

I bought a second SB600 flashgun to use for photographing my tanks, without realising I can`t use them, or the built in camera flash in commander mode. What a clown!  

The salient point of this thread is that it is the subject that is far and away the most influential aspect of the final photo. The IAPLC has been won by scapes that still look fantastic, despite the awful photo.

Congrats Zig!!

Dave.


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## nrwatson

Wow
thanks for sharing
And well deserved it is refreshing that you are so happy to share your results I suspect many who had down so well in a competition would have kept them to themselves so had a better chance next time
Well done deserved better


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## joyous214

WOW


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## pompeyfan

FANTASTIC WORK, CONGRATULATIONS


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## jaxx

im new on here i can only dream of having a setup like that,my names jaxx.


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## mr_ED

Mountainscape V2 really surprise me. i am not sure if i could handle same scape. congrats as aga/ada winner


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## George Farmer

Just read through this thread again. 

Incredible on so many levels.  Quite humbling really.


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