A Tree, In Repose - 90x30x30 Tree Stump Scape

[cldskt]

Hi all,

Came back from long hiatus as life got in the way (as is the usual convenient “excuse” people often give 😛).

Last scape was set up around April/May 2022, so naturally it’s time for a new scape!

Bought a bunch of wood pieces over various visits to different shops, so wood grains/textures/colors might be slightly different. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem after flooding and planting I reckon.

Arranging the wood outside the tank, just to see what I’m working with:

First iteration (please pardon the toiletries behind lol):

Second iteration:

While waiting for the tank to be prepared, I soaked the wood pieces to avoid excessive tannins when set up:

Will keep playing around with the arrangements in the next few days, especially with rocks in the tank. Most definitely will change some bits and bobs.

Cheers,
cldskt

 

[cldskt]

Simple plants planned:

1. Monte Carlo (foreground)
2. Bucephalandra ‘Mini Phantom’ (foreground, amongst crevices)
3. Bucephalandra ‘Phoenix’ (foreground, amongst crevices)
4. Crypt Affinis Red (midground)
5. Blyxa Japonica (midground)
6. Bolbitis Heudelotii (midground, on trunk)
7. Ludwigia Arcuata / Rotala H’ra / Rotala Blood Red (background, behind trunk)
8. Nymphoides Hydrophylla ‘Taiwan’ (background)
9. Nymphaea Zenkeri (background + floater)

 

[cldskt]

Old scape decommissioned, always saddening to decommission a tank despite the innate excitement of scaping a new one. I believe that it is a necessary sacrifice when you can only afford to realistically maintain one single tank properly.

 

[VarunA]

Nice looking tank and rootstock. Interested in seeing how it comes together. 🙂

 

[cldskt]

Nice looking tank and rootstock. Interested in seeing how it comes together. 🙂

Thank you. You and me both 😀

Put some semblance of rock structure today with the tank. Feels like this way would be more natural than just “stump” sitting on sand.

The base substrate layer is ADA Power Sand Basic (S), something that has worked well for me in the past. The rocks are from the previous scape, some type of lava rock that’s far more dense than usual, similar to the one called ‘Icelandic Lava Stone’ by Glass Aqua here.

After toying around with the roots/branches I have:

Glued some of them with the old paper towel + liquid super glue + sawdust combo, and in particular happy with a little ‘cave’ that I have created:

Cave is around 10cmx15cm in size, should be perfect for a wee Scarlet Badis I reckon 😎

After toying around further with the main structure:

Most of the above are just lodged in place and/or zip-tied, because I don’t really like the two jutting structures circled above. The position of the main stump feels abit too far on the left too, would probably shift it to more of the one-third point of the tank.

Anyone has the usual feeling when you came up with something, not very happy with it, and decided to let it sit for some time? Yeah, going to let this one sit while I go back to the drawing board.

Cheers,
cldskt

 

[cldskt]

Some further progress pictures (don’t mind me photo dumping here 😛):

The black straight branch in front is clearly jarring. Putting them in because I have that piece around, and would like to see what it could look like.

After adding and removing bigger branches and tying them together with a ziptie, finer branches were put randomly just to get a feel on how the ‘stronger’ branch would look like with some details.

The two straight branches at the side of the main stump made the structure look absolutely weird, as there is lesser ‘taper’ if you will. Again, putting them just because.

Backpedalling to this for now, but the main stump is too straight for me and lacking enough tension. Quite pleased with how one of the smaller branch on the bottom left touches the rock underneath though.

Leaving it for the next few days for me to ponder and touch up here and there where necessary.

Cheers,
cldskt

 

[VarunA]

That looks fantastic. It reminds me of a scene in the rainforest or the redwoods...a huge tree base with buttress roots stretching out. Are you planning on adding an elementon the right side (just rocks/stones or another smaller version of this stump) to accentuate the sense of scale? I think that would make it a potential IAPLC top level scale. This is perfect material for a diorama 😀

 

[cldskt]

That looks fantastic. It reminds me of a scene in the rainforest or the redwoods...a huge tree base with buttress roots stretching out.

Appreciate the kind words, VarunA. That's exactly the look I'm going for!

Are you planning on adding an elementon the right side (just rocks/stones or another smaller version of this stump) to accentuate the sense of scale?

I did give this a thought, on whether I should add a smaller stump and play with reflections on the right glass panel to make the scape "wider" than it actually is. Would need some expandable foam probably to fill in gaps. Achieving proper depth from front to back could prove quite challenging though, as this tank is only 30cm deep after all.

Probably going to finalise the main stump first before playing around with leftover materials for the smaller accent hardscape. Good shout regardless

Cheers,
cldskt

 

[cldskt]

Decided that the initial wood structure is lacking proper taper, so back to ground zero it is (well except the earlier ‘cave’ structure like mentioned some posts above)

Slowly rebuilding again from the right side (longest piece of wood).

Cheers,
cldskt

 

[cldskt]

Went through two more iterations of shape as below, each with minimal differences:

Some closer shot:

Ignore the lose piece of the small driftwood, will use that somewhere else.

At this point the left part of the main trunk is not glued yet, along with the smaller branches at the bottom.

Another iteration (with main trunk less ‘open’) at the top:

Second one feels cleaner, but I like the dramatic effect/tension of the first iteration more, as if the trunk has been struck by lightning and left alone for years.

Perhaps I should try to balance the un-glued portions and try to get the middle ground between both. Nothing a filter bag filled with small lava rocks wouldn’t balance.

Lastly, some very rough sketch of what I envision it to be (without sandbed / detail gravel):

Cheers,
cldskt