Garden standing around…

[Ady34]

Hello,
Thought I would start a journal for my latest project, ‘Garden standing around’…..

About a year ago I purchased an ADA 75p tank, garden stand and Ada solar 1 light unit from UKAPS member @Kalum.
It has been ‘standing around’ since then except for the test fill, holding tank scape I set up to hold my fish and plants while I did a rescape in my EA900 tank…

Since this little temporary outing it has been sat in my garage.
The tank was very badly scratched so I decided to try and source another tank….fortunately for me another UKAPS member @Epiphyte was selling one and I snapped it up, meeting at UKAPS sponsor @Aquarium Gardens to collect and catch up with some fellow hobbyists, the AG staff and obviously enjoy the amazing showroom scapes 😁

Having irreconcilable differences 🤣 with my latest EA900 scape Stumpy, I decided to give the old system a proper outing and dedicate a scape to it….
Out of the garage she came and a new tank location within our home was chosen. The tank was cleaned up and other second hand sourced equipment positioned ready for use….

Equipment:
ADA 75p
ADA garden stand 75
ADA Solar 1 metal halide light. 150w nag bulb. ADA 90 light arm.
ADA es600 Super Jet filter
Generic Co2 bottle with Strideways regulator.

To be continued…..

 

[Tim Harrison]

Very nice Ady, next level scaping.

 

[Kalum]

Great to see you getting the time and space to get this set up @Ady34

Scape looks amazing, very impactful

Will be good to see this one progress and how you plan on planting it

 

[VarunA]

Looking amazing. Wow!!! Love your setup. I have been looking all over to get a hold of a used garden stand for my new 90p.

 

[Ady34]

Very nice Ady, next level scaping.

Thanks Tim, that was just a holding tank I got carried away with. It only ran for about a month but was quite an unusual concept for me at least.

Great to see you getting the time and space to get this set up @Ady34

Scape looks amazing, very impactful

Will be good to see this one progress and how you plan on planting it

Thanks Kalum, I knew I’d use it one day and the time was right. As I just mentioned to Tim above that scape was just a very temporary iteration that was me getting carried away with a holding tank 🤣🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[Ady34]

Looking amazing. Wow!!! Love your setup. I have been looking all over to get a hold of a used garden stand for my new 90p.

Thanks, yeah there is something about the garden stand. It’s not to everyone’s taste and holds its own issues regarding the under tank tech which we can normally hide behind doors, but I love the floating nature it gives the tank.
Good luck with your search for a 90 garden stand 👍🏻

 

[Ady34]

The next step once I had decided to scape the 75p was to actually decide on how to scape it 🤣
I’ll be honest, I had no idea what I was going to do but a trip to my local @Horizon Aquatics inspired me.
The tank dimensions are slightly unusual at 75 x 45 x 45cm, which make for a slightly less panoramic and more vertical aesthetic.
I saw an amazing piece of Talawa wood, but also there was some remaining pieces of horn wood left on a shelf. The Talawa was a stand alone piece which is almost a scape in itself which I’ll utilise one day for a more botanical inspired scape, but the horn wood I pulled out and had a quick play on the shop floor and liked it. I purchased the pieces and tried them both in the tank…..I really liked the horn wood and knew I could make a planted aquascape from it. The Talawa definitely spoke more botanical for me. So that was it, horn wood scape….

Four horn wood pieces knocked up on @Horizon Aquatics floor…

And with the Talawa wood…

I then tried them in the tank at home….

The next step was to consider rock type and substrate.
I was feeling a simply planted scape with moss and ferns so thought that black lava rock would work well, a nice dark stone at the base of the wood which would lend itself well to epiphyte attachment.
I have never used lava rock before so it was quite unique for me. I again sourced it at my local horizon aquatics and had an idea of how I wanted the rock to look so hand picked several pieces. I also picked some sacrificial pieces to break up for detailing or back filling if I needed.
I started to consider substrate, did I want a full soil substrate, no soil at all with just sand, or a mixture of part soil and part sand? I’ll be honest I couldn’t decide so added the stones in hope of clarity….

I was feeling a more sand substrate, but I did a rough mock up of soil vs sand for a visual comparison…

I could have gone either way, there was so many potential planting options but I had a simple initial vision so thought I’d stick with that. That planting plan lent itself more to the sand substrate, but to offer some rear planting choices I decided to use soil at the back. I filled gaps in the lava rock with crushed lava rock pieces so I could add the soil without the fear of it mixing with the sand foreground.

This is where I am at to date, substrates added and hardscape glued. I have used Ada la plata sand in the foreground with dooa tropical river sand for a little texture. The soil is Ada Amazonia with a base of Ada powersand and additives. I have opted to use seachem steel pipes to keep with the aesthetic.

I am trying to finalise a vision for planting and then I will get it up and running. It will be mossy and ferny but the background is relitively uncertain. I will be using some cyperus halferi from my existing ea900 scape, but I am deciding upon any other species I want. I am unsure that I want a lot of stems, although they would work nicely, I feel I should fulfill my first vision and keep it simple back there 😬😁

Cheerio
Ady.

 

[hydrophyte]

Expert level! Wow!

The mid-century decor especially this wallpaper and that clock coordinates your scape and tank hardware perfectly.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Thanks Tim, that was just a holding tank I got carried away with. It only ran for about a month but was quite an unusual concept for me at least.

Was slightly confused when I saw your Instagram. Now it all makes sense lol.

 

[Ady34]

Expert level! Wow!

The mid-century decor especially this wallpaper and that clock coordinates your scape and tank hardware perfectly.

Thank you 😊

Was slightly confused when I saw your Instagram. Now it all makes sense lol.

🤣

Well I finalised my plant list and have planted this up.
The plant list is:
Microsorum trident
Taxiphyllum barbieri
Fissidens fontanus
Riccardia Chamedryfolia
Bolbitis heudelotii
Cyperus halferi
Helanthium tennellum green
Cryptocoryne wendtii green
Cryptocoryne mi oya
Hygrophila sp. Tiger

Most of the impact is from the trident fern, moss, bolbitis and cyperus halferi.
The background plants are mostly lower level supporting the cyperus and eventually the hygrophila tiger which will add a nice contrast at mid to 2/3 height 🤞🏻

Here are some during shots and an image taken once filled and equipment running. It is a little cloudy due to either the horn wood or old Amazonia soil leaching.

I changed some of the equipment for final set up as I felt that glass would suit better the scape style. I chose a skimmer outlet also and removed the vuppa, again reducing visual distractions within the tank…..also, I find the vuppa poor in performance 😬
I have a lightground on order which will add another dimension to the scape.

Cyperus halferi pulled from my 900 scape; it’s a lot bigger than I thought 🤣

Hopefully this develops nicely, although ideally nothing much will change except for the plants growing more naturally. I’d like to keep a relatively open aesthetic and keep the plants thinned.
The Ada superjet produces much less flow than I am used to, so keeping plant mass sensible will help with distribution of co2 and nutrients and aid the dispersal of plant waste. I may need to look at flow in the future but I will see how we go.
The photoperiod is set at 6hrs to start and I will increase as the scape matures.

Cheerio,

 

[LondonDragon]

damn! this one is a stunner! love the Nature scape! When you done with it you can come over and rescape my tank!!

 

[Tim Harrison]

Very nice Ady. Great to see it planted in a more traditional Nature Aquarium style too; showcasing the retro hardware and doing it the justice it deserves.

 

[bazz]

Stunning, as ever!

 

[Kalum]

loving this @Ady34, fitting you've went for more of a nature style in the full ADA setup

even though the hardscape is quite aggressive, the way you've planted it should turn it into a nice calming scape to view, looking forward to seeing it grow in

 

[Conort2]

A proper Ada style nature aquarium, love it!

 

[Ady34]

damn! this one is a stunner! love the Nature scape! When you done with it you can come over and rescape my tank!!

Thanks Paulo 🤣

Very nice Ady. Great to see it planted in a more traditional Nature Aquarium style too; showcasing the retro hardware and doing it the justice it deserves.

Cheers Tim, yes a classic look for a classic set up, I’m really liking the garden stand aesthetic, the scape takes centre stage and I guess that’s the point of the design.

Stunning, as ever!

thank you 😃

loving this @Ady34, fitting you've went for more of a nature style in the full ADA setup

even though the hardscape is quite aggressive, the way you've planted it should turn it into a nice calming scape to view, looking forward to seeing it grow in

Yep, NA baby!
I wanted a strong hardscape to match that of the industrial look of the stand and light, the green then aids with softening and naturalising the overall aesthetic.

A proper Ada style nature aquarium, love it!

Thanks 🙏🏻, yep, a classic concept. NA 💚

Here’s a recent shot now I’ve done a couple of water changes and things have cleared up.

Cheerio,

 

[CooKieS]

Curious to see the growth with this old metal halid lamp from Ada, great scape, simple but effective. 👍

 

[Ady34]

Little update.
The tank is doing ok. There was a minimal amount of diatom algae which have quickly disappeared, especially with the addition of a clean up crew compromising otocinclus, clithon snails and shrimp. More worryingly I had a little Cyanobacteria on a couple of very small areas of riccardia. This however has also subsided with manual removal and general maturation I think alongside a circulation improvement.
I added a wavemaker to increase overall flow and distribution as the single superjet 600 filter was vastly underpowered. I have since removed the wavemaker in favour another superjet filter with glassware which is much more subtle, if still a little weak compared to what I am used to and that produced by the wavemaker….we will see if this is good enough.
There is also some staghorn algae developing which I am hoping will fade with good maintenance and plant settling.
I have trimmed the moss twice already just to try and encourage more compact growth and so it doesn’t get out of hand.
The cyperus halferi took a little hit after the move from my 900 Aquascaper scape, and the tips developed algae and a little browning. New leaves are forming though so I will snip off the older effected leaves to make way for the new healthy growth.
The crypts that melted at the rear are sprouting new leaves also and the hygrophila tiger is growing well.

I did find that the left foreground rock looked a little at odds and distracting from most angles, so I decided to alter this for a better overall aesthetic and to give better access to the sand area in front for cleaning.
The rock itself had a good shape for its location, however it could have done with going back about and inch or so. This wasn’t possible due to an unmovable piece of wood shown in the images below. I didn’t have a suitable alternative rock, so decided to use the existing but drill and dremmel out a cavity on the underside so it would sit over the wood. This allowed the rock to sit further back and I feel it grounds the scape more on that side. It isn’t perfect but I’m happy to excuse that as wabi sabi 😁

Here you can see with the bare hardscape the left foremost rock and the wood….

I removed the rock:

I drilled and dremmeled the rear to form a hollow to sit over the wood. I then popped it back in and was much happier.

Here is the tank with the adjustments made and now I have also added a group of tiny jellybean tetra and a siamensis flying fox as an addition to the clean up crew, neither of which you can actually see and are near impossible to get a decent in focus shot of 🤣

I am dosing with the ADA fertilisers as per instructions, Green brighty mineral and Brighty k.
Water changes every 3-4 days now and should be down to 1 or 2 per week as of next week.
The photoperiod is still 6hrs, if the algae doesn’t worsen I will look to increase that steadily to 7 hours over the coming weeks and possibly to 8 hours long term.
Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[hydrophyte]

Love this setup.

 

[Ady34]

Love this setup.

Thank you.
Here’s a bit more spam 🙂

Cheerio,
Ady.