60x45x45 Optiwhite

[Garuf]

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!

Yeah that stones a total bug bare for me but I don't have any that are the right shape/size so I plan on hiding it with moss and hc, I reckon I'll lose about 80% of it's visible surface.

You're right this is the tank I'll be moving with next month. an exercise I'm not looking forward to. In regards to the wood I've tested it for floating and only the 2 largest bits float, I'll simply leave them in a spare barrel of water I have knocking about so that in theory should cure that, I'll probably zip tie some slate to the bottoms in any difficult areas.
The reason the lights are off is pretty simple, I forgot to turn them on.
I'll try and take a snap with them on later, I bit the bullet and ordered the plastic for my LED Lumiaire. I need to email the LED seller and make sure I've got the right drivers then I'll be all set. A nice evening project.

Nice hardscape looking forward to seeing this planted. Graded sand/gravels for the front right?

Yup, that's the plan. I've got the sand, it's sitting waiting for use, it's a real stress having the sand in their while your doing loads of scapes. I need to get a few more grades of gravel, the fact the smallest bags are 10kg sort of puts me off.

 

[Garuf]

As promised, a shot with the light on. I can already tell I'm not going to have fun positioning the intakes and outlets.

 

[Dan Walter]

Hey Gareth, looking good man. Is the wood locked down by the rocks or will you have to soak it first?

I'm really looking forward to seeing this filled in and planted, any time soon!?

 

[Garuf]

I'm able to move into my house for the next 12 months on the 26th of May. I plan on planting it the week after. I decided it was best to slowly collate all my stuff and bide my time rather than rush to get a scape out, move the tank and ruin it all.

It's a bit of both, Dan. Half of the wood is weighed with rocks, the rest will need soaking. I'm not too worried about that I plan on zip tying a lot of it together to limit movement. I should add slate too, to limit movement further but it's a boring job, if I don't it's one of those things I'll probably end up regretting I suppose. I need to cut some clear plastic to create a boundary to prevent it substrate slip as much as possible.

 

[TBRO]

IMO wait for the wood to sink on it's own, slate can be a pain when under the substrate and the wood never sits right. On the other hand I can't wait to see this planted so I bet your dying ! All the best for the move, T

 

[Garuf]

Yeah, I'm dying, If the tank had arrived on time I'd have it planted right now! I can wait it out though, I have plant choices to keep me busy!

I'll just soak the wood, I'd used slate before and found it fine but I know exactly what you mean about it meaning nothing sits right. As soon as you get a bit of substrate settlement it always seems to sit high.

 

[George Farmer]

Looks better with the light on....

All the best with the move.

 

[Garuf]

Thanks, George. I've decided I'm going to get my spare tank set up as a grow out tank, does anyone have any input on plant choices? I know what slow growers I want, but I'm at a loss for other choices, especially in the background, I was thinking Hm? I'd want a focal plant for behind the bolbitis, I'm thinking maybe a ludwigia or something with a warm colour, nesea pediculata maybe? I'm toying with the idea of using some echinodurs in there in place of crypts but I'm concerned about sizes.
I'd like to use one of the larger Anubias, in the area imediately right of the central large stump. I think something more structural would suit that area well. I'm thinking a lot like the below at the minute. I'm easily swayed.

 

[Garuf]

I'm thinking something like this at the moment, More anubias though. Totally open to plant choices. Crit away.

 

[Garuf]

Subtle tweaking, zip-tied everything together. Still need to choose plants.

 

[Garuf]

After a lot of thought and catalog and website trawling my finalised plant list looks a lot like this:
Foreground:
Christmas moss
H c
Acicularis parvula ( other options are E tennelus/Lieanopsis or Blyxa japonica)

Midground:
Hygrophilia pinnatifolia
Echinidorus parviflorus "tropica" or Cryptocorne bullosa
Staurguayne sp.
E. parvula (other options are E tennelus/Lieanopsis or Blyxa japonica)
C. helfri

Wood:
Anubias Barterii "coffeefolia"
Anubias Barterii var nana
Bolbititis heudellotii
Microsorum pteropus "narrow"
Chrismas moss.

Background:
Undulata sp "green" < anyone have any experience? rotalla green if I can it for a none stupid price.
H m
Didiplis diandra
Prospincaca palustris "cuba"
Nyphea sp.
Possibly Limnophila aquatica, depending on what people think I really like the texture but don't want it to be the focal point plant which would throw my ideal by having two focal points.
I'm not sure there's enough room for all the species and I'm not sure the colours and texture will compliment each other so some tuning might be needed but there's is 40cm from front to back of plantable depth so I don't think I'd struggle to accommodate them. There's more than 14 species too.

 

[nayr88]

Fully Bonerfied
Nice wood, i have some weeping moss that definatley deserves some Mazatania
thats a whole loada plants, alot different from the windows paint sketch , im sure yourll get it all in

oh and Vot is Ze catalogue you are using?

 

[TBRO]

Hey Garuf, think I'll be taking down my big tank soon so will have some xmas moss, narrow java and bolbitis going if you want? T

 

[Garuf]

Oh yeah that'd be amazing! If you could pm me with a time frame that'd be excellent.

 

[Garuf]

Cheers, Nayr88. More or less every one going! I've got the tropica distributor lists and all the aquafluer stuff and aquadip so I just went through found out about the plant and whether it suited my needs or not and ticked it off as I went.

Oh yeah I'm sure I'll get it all in, my last tank took I think it was 32 pots of plants and I could have still found room for another 10 or so more, this time I've got half as much space again so yeah I reckon I'll be able to, just, I'm going to maximum texture and impact, as per saintly's latest offering, a really inspirational scape that.

I'll probably post another ms scape, I do love ms paint.