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My next aquascape

M

maverick786us

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Joined
6 Nov 2024
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146
Location
Columbus, GA
Tomorrow I am going to buy the hard scape material for my next aquascape it’s a medium sized tank with dimensions 24 x 18 x 18 inches.

The hard scape will be 2 land masses on both sides of the tank. On the foreground there will be a river that will keep narrowing down as it passes between these land masses. Something similar to what you see in this video



But I don’t have that bonsai so I will try to create something like this using rocks and spider wood. When it comes to planting the hard scape it’s always going to be Anubias, Java fern, trident fern and Bucephalendra though Bucephelandra I will not use until the tank matures.

Coming to foreground and background plants I want to cover the entire land masses with grasses and maybe use some sort of giant hair grass on the background I need suggestion on giant hair grass. If possible dwarf Amazon sword which might match with giant hair grass.

For foreground I was thinking to go for Glossostigma and dwarf hair grass.

This time I decided to use Dry Start Method and see if it will work with these grasses. I always had a hard time with grasses in a newly setup tank.

Any advice and suggestion will be greatly appreciated
 
To add more clarification my aquascape will similar to this



The difference will be…

1. Instead of bonsai I will use rocks and spiderwood on both sides of the river. The combination of rock, driftwood and plants will be something similar to what MD Fishtank does while making an island in the river.

2. The river that you see in the above video will go all the way to right side of the tank.

The landmass I want to cover with the grasses just like the way you see in this video.
 
If you want a medium long hair grass Helanthium Tenellum gets pretty tall (10cm) but stays very thin, the red variety is really lovely if you’re open to a pop of colour.
 
It’s a good plant. Thanks. What will you recommend for long grass? I’ve seen MD Fish tank using long leave plants in some of his nano tanks I didn’t remember the names
 
He has been recently using Vallisneria.
It’s not a plant I have used before but I believe it gets very long so would likely lay on the waters surface in a tank of your size.
Someone with more knowledge than I can probably suggest something more size appropriate. Potentially a Crypocoryne Spriralis or suchlike.
 
For a classic iwagumi style where you trim the grass to keep it very dense and flat, I believe so.
If you plan to let it grow to its maximum height and leave it, then I think it’s much easier.

I only have experience of letting it run wild and then thinning it out now and again.

I would expect that getting smaller and slower growing varieties would make maintenance much easier. Someone else more experienced may weigh in.
 
OK guys I am almost done with the hard scape. How does it looks? Does the main wood looks too tilted? I can fix it in 2 ways.
1. By Glueing patches of drift wood on the left of it
2. Break it and escape.
Whats your opinion on the plants that I am gonna use here?



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Moving forward...

1. Added some tentacles to that spiderwood by gluing patches of woods. I added some more rocks. Though it will look more natural
2. I applied soil, and sand. The sand is mixture of natural sand and cosmetic sand. I used ADA Start kit under the sand and soil.
3. I used ADA root tab capsules on both soil and sand before planting. Now I am not using powered sand so I hope toot tabs will provide essential nutrients to some plants that are growing on sand?

This is my first time I am using Dry Start Method. I will not flood it for 30 days and before flooding I will have some Anubias and Java Ferns.
I will mist it twice a day to keep the plants moist. Do I need to mix littlest of liquid fertilizer with the water I am going to mist? How do I ensure that moulds don't start developing? What all other things do I need to take care in DSM?

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OK so I realized that I wasted a lot of foreground space for the river. So I decided to plant slow growing crypts and Hydrocotyle which doesn't have dense leaves. I planted these plants sparsely so that it doesn't look like a dense jungle or a carpet. I want it to look like grassland on shallow water of river.

Now I am not using ADA power sand. its. a mix of natural river gravel sand and cosmetic sand. So I doubt if I will contain the nutrients that Aqua soil contains. I took few capsules ADA Root Tab and buried it under the sand. I hope it should be suffiecient for the plants to get their nutrients?

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I love the layout and think you're off to a good start, but you are going to need to be really thoughtful at managing the light in this tank. You have a lot of slow growers out in the open (not in shade), so too much light is going to cause an algae issue, but you can't dim it too much or the hair grass will get sad. You might consider floating plants for the start up period to give you some cover. It wouldn't have to be forever, but it will help in the beginning. You are smart to hold off on the buce. 👍
 
Thank you. Yes floating plants and some Anubias and Java ferns I will glue them to the hard scape to provide some extra shade to these plants. In fact the light is temporary. In a couple of months I will buy premium lights from twin star whose intensity, color can be controlled using smartphone. That whole setup is expensive and gonna hurt my wallet thats why I will upgrade everything step by step.

1. After flooding I can only spend $$ on pressurized CO2 kit and some more plants.
2. I won't be able to afford an expensive filter setup (Fluval 207 with steel Lily Pipes) so I have inexpensive Sunsun XBL 600 which I will use temporarily and once I get my next paycheck I will buy Fluval 207 and steel lily pipes

With pressurized CO2 I expect better plant growth and reduced algae. And yes from my past experience with Buce Phalandra I will hold it off for 2 months or maybe more after flooding.
 
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By Sunday it will be 2 weeks. I will not flood it for another 4 weeks. How much time does it take for these grass to form runners and expand throughout the soil? This is my second tank in which I will use pressurized CO2. So this isn't a low tech tank. But it's small ( 24 X 16 X 16) inch so I won't call it a high tech setup. In the past I always had hard time with grass. So this is the first time I am using DSM.

I will soon share my previous tank setups in which I tried carpet grass and it turned out to be a big big failure
 
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