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ADA aquascapes from the cancelled Kew garden's seminar

bengill

Member
Joined
12 Feb 2021
Messages
31
Location
Leeds
Hi all!

I've got a small story time I wanted to share with you all who may not be on Instagram or follow me on Instagram.

Some of you may remember that in 2020, ADA were due to host a seminar at Kew gardens, showcasing aquascaping at a private event. Now unfortunately, as we all know, this was the year of the dreaded covid and like most things was cancelled.

Everything however was set to go for this event, scapes and equipment had been shipped from Japan, even the plants were sat waiting to go. Covid hit, and it was all put a stop to.

The kew gardens representative if you like and host for this event was a very talented scaper called Jean Michael Touche.

I was fortunate enough to meet Jean by chance on Instagram. He posted a photo of a waterfall in 2021 that was local to me, I commented and we got chatting from there. He explained how he used to live in London and work at Kew, but decided to move up north and out of the city to a quieter life.

He told me about the planned event at Kew and how he came to know the incredible scapers at ADA. I was fascinated by the stories and also the great effort and detail that went into an ADA led event. 20200203_kew_001.jpg

Over the past few years we became great friends, he was kind enough to teach a newbie such as myself many of the techniques that were taught to him by the guys at ADA which were invaluable in my scaling journey upto now.

Fast forward to the beginning of this year, Jean expressed how he wanted to move back home to France, to be with his family. This is when he asked me to help him move on his collection of ADA he had amassed over the years. Part of this collection were some of the planned scapes from the ADA seminar.

There was 3 scapes, along with the meticulous paperwork showing the hardscape from different angles aswell as planting guides etc. He didn't want to sell these, but also decided he wanted to take a hiatus from aquascaping when he returned home so was in a conundrum.

I asked him if maybe he would be willing to let them go to me and I would set them up as planned for the event, so that he knew they would go to someone who would genuinely appreciate them and enjoy them as originally planned.

After discussion with Yuskuke Homma from ADA, this was a suitable solution. Homma asked if I would set them up and document the story, so they were not wasted.

The scapes in question were a 90P scape, a DOOA terra 30 scape, and the first one I plan to set up, a DOOA aqua 30 scape.

The DOOA aqua 30 scape I initially planned to put in a 30cm cube.. as this is all I had. I had already put the hardscape into a cube. But ultimately I decided it was only right to set it up exactly as Homma had planned the scape so I've purchased (yet to pick up) a DOOA aqua 30 system to replace the cube.

Once I collect this I'll he transferring the hardscape and then planting it up. All being well this will be in the next few weeks and I will update in due course! 20240311_193720.jpg
 
I planned to attend the Kew Garden event. It would be wonderful to see the scapes. Thank you for sharing this. Could you possibly share the plans with your scapes?
Yeah sure!
So here's the aqua 30 scape, actually in an aqua 30 tank. These are a few of the photos I've been given in order to set up the hardscape as close as originally planned. 20240312_103555.jpg

As for planting, it's mainly mosses on the wood, eleocharis acicularis the mid ground allowed to grow out to a good length and then Limnophila sessiflora in the back ground. IMG_20240402_192637_620.jpg
 

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Update!

So I picked up the aqua30 at the weekend and got the hardscape moved over into it. Also planted it with weeping moss, eleocharis acicularis, eleocharis montividensis and anubias pangolino.

20240714_193948.jpg

The original scape had Limnophila sessiliflora between the acicularis and montividensis however horizon didn't have any in stock when I visited. Need to visit my LFS and pick some up.

A little bit more about the hardscape. It's 5 ADA manten stone, with a single piece of Hornwood. Substrate is ADA basic S with amazonia 2 and La Plata sand and ADA gravel foreground.

Light is the ADA G301 and I'm using the DOOA co2 kit.

Any questions, feel free to ask!
 
How’s the circulation in that thing? I’ve always had the intention of getting one of these as I love an AIO and there aren’t many if any that come with a white background.
 
Its actually much better than I expected to be honest. If I remember correctly it's a 180lph pump which is ample considering the front section is only around 20L. It pushes the co2 bubbles absolutely everywhere. I've got the little lily attachment on the outflow aswell to disperse the flow abit better also. The pump section at the back would allow for you to swap in a bigger or smaller pump to your requirements aswell, I'm considering putting in a variable pump at a later date as I want to put a betta in there.
How’s the circulation in that thing? I’ve always had the intention of getting one of these as I love an AIO and there aren’t many if any that come with a white background.
 
Added Limnophila a few weeks ago to the Aqua30. Also switched out the foreground as I found it incredibly difficult to maintain and keep looking well in the space.

Fish are 6 CPDs along with 6 amano shrimp who are doing a great job at keeping things clean while throwing soil absolutely everywhere 🤦‍♂️.

Here's and upto date photo! Screenshot_20240901_154504_Gallery.jpg

Just need the eleocharis to grow out more and moss to spread abit.
 
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