• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

60x45x45 Optiwhite

TBRO said:
One other thing, will the limestone be OK with CO2? My previous experiences with coral sand in planted tanks is massively high pH and kH no matter how much CO 2 you pour in. Which is a shame cos the rocks look awesome.
Click to expand...
Considering that all the Landscape stone used in everyone's tanks is limestone shale I would guess so, I'll post a picture of the AE landscape rock and the stuff I collected, it's indistinguishable. The most notable tank would be MyBoyShays iwagumi, loads of the stuff and his plants all grey wondrously.
 
Garuf said:
Considering that all the Landscape stone used in everyone's tanks is limestone shale I would guess so, I'll post a picture of the AE landscape rock and the stuff I collected, it's indistinguishable.
Click to expand...

that's not to say, they contain the same levels of lime though. :geek:

good luck dude
 
saintly said:
Garuf said:
Considering that all the Landscape stone used in everyone's tanks is limestone shale I would guess so, I'll post a picture of the AE landscape rock and the stuff I collected, it's indistinguishable.
Click to expand...

that's not to say, they contain the same levels of lime though. :geek:
Click to expand...
Very true. Looking the same does not mean they are the same...
 
I did a simple test, to see how they'd effect the water. I weighed each pebble then added 10ml of DI water for each 10gram of rock after a week I measured the ph.
Rocks from AE the ph was 8.8 Own collected was 8.2 the starting Ph was 7.1, Therefore I can only assume that they're very similar in Ph effect and make up.
 
By dead space i meant that the space behind is a little useless, personally i would prefer the hard scape further back with some room for some plants behind and then a nice carpet in the fore ground, using all the space behind for planting taler plants would dominate the scape.
Click to expand...
Ahhh I'm with you, the thing is since I don't plan on having a carpet of plants I have a foreground of sand which will transition into the midground and then the back ground, the rockwork and wodd being so far forward so that I have maximum space at the rear to pack out with midground and background plants that will give the most room for transition. I'm now toying with a foreground infront of the rock before the sand but I'm not sure if it won't leave too little room for what I imagine at the rear.
Pictures to follow tomorrow.
 
TBRO said:
Hey Garuf, I personally think you DO need a good bit of planting space behind the wood, If you want to get that Amano "stem bush" look you need to plant the stems deeply.

Check out this ADA tank http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/stemplants.html, the foreground is relatively small but planted with nice bright glosso, sand would have a similar effect. Looks like a clearing in a forest, you need the depth of stems to trim them so they slope in to the "clearing".

Moss on wood or leave it bare with the bolbitis?

Looking forward to seeing your ideas come to fruition, Tom
Click to expand...

That's pretty much why I have the wood work so far foreward, small foreground, lots of mid ground plent of background, maximum transition. There will be moss, narrow leaved java and bolbitis on the wood and moss in the foreground transitioning from the sand into the wood/rockwork midground planting. I'm getting more of an idea on what I want, I just need to get a scape I'm fully happy with.
 
George Farmer said:
Garuf said:
The most notable tank would be MyBoyShays iwagumi, loads of the stuff and his plants all grey wondrously.
Click to expand...
I think you mean, "grew wonderfully". ;)

Frequent and appropriately large water changes are the key with any material that adversly affects water chemistry.
Click to expand...

I meant grew, yes, and no, I meant wonderously. I rely pretty heavily on a mixture of spellcheckers and automatic dictionaries with being pretty badly dyslexic so sometimes it says it's right when it really isn't.

Waterchanges are something that tend to help no end with almost everything, we don't realise that our tanks are more of a closed system than that of a river so it becomes more important to be dilligent with them and to do the max you are able to. Talking of water changes and Ph affect, I'm sure i'd read that Amano had noticed the ph increased steeply with his petrified wood and his large iwagumi's but I can't find the article anywhere though I was sure it was on his journal. Maybe this is the reason that a lot of his tanks have started to run "softenizers"? o_O
 
Garuf said:
I'm sure i'd read that Amano had noticed the ph increased steeply with his petrified wood and his large iwagumi's but I can't find the article anywhere though I was sure it was on his journal.
Click to expand...

tis true.

AJ:　 How does a rock raise the hardness?

Amano: 　As you know, CO2 is injected into the water to grow aquatic plants. Calcium and elements that are contained in rocks that constitute water hardness tend to dissolve in water rich in CO2. Seiryu-Seki and petrified wood in particular often raise the hardness of the water. Some rocks tend to raise hardness more than others do. You cannot tell which ones do that until you try it.

http://www.aquajournal.net/room/index.html

i've noticed, in the past, seiryu stone raises hardness dramatically , but in other interviews with Amano, he chooses plants to suit the stone chemistry.
 
saintly said:
...seiryu stone raises hardness dramatically , but in other interviews with Amano, he chooses plants to suit the stone chemistry.
Click to expand...
And fish too, perhaps more importantly...

Sawbwa resplendens (Asian rummynose) is a good example. They will only colour colour up to their full potential in hard water.
 
You've obviously touched on a topic of some interest here, Garuf. Given that Seiryu and petrified wood stones raise hardness as much as they do, I am curious to know/learn to what extent Amazonia and Amazonia II (or any other similar substrate for that matter) counter that increase. :geek: There must be some kind of measurable relationship...
 
The only fish I knew I wanted was chocolate gourami so I might have to look into getting some slate. ;)

Yeah it's interesting but I suspect something you'd never get the full picture of, plants would be eating the carbon hardness as well as the AS. I've used AS in my old tank and found that the ph was stable at about 6.5, but I imagine after a while that could rise drastically since it's acidic and would be dissolving more of the stone.
You can actually tell that the waters acidic becuase the surface becomes powdery and easily cleaned with a stiff brush, much like the residue you get when you add a few drops of Hydrochloric acid onto the stone.

It's interesting you suggest Amano picks his fish according to the stones, a lot of his tanks have Harlequin rasbora' which are a blackwater fish, Cardinals which are similarly acidic loving and hatchets which again, are acidic. It'd be interesting to see what he's doing to the water to ensure they're conditions are optimal when the water could be very hard judging by the ammount of rock work, RO water perhaps? I'm sure the arresting properties of clay don't reduce the hardness loads.
 
dsc2123.jpg


What I hope to be my final scape, hc foreground, maximum depth. Though I'm sure there's room for improvement? Critique away, they're always welcome, more brutal the better. :twisted:
 
Looking good, Gareth!

The stone on the extreme left looks a little out of place, but I'm not sure what you're doing with the foreground that may bury it somewhat?

Any reason why you're not showing it off with the tank lights on? It would probably look even better.

How are you preventing the wood from floating after filling with water?

Is this the tank you're moving soon?

Keep up the good work! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top