My real ADA 60pxd, Scapers tank 55 and UNS60f hobby return.

[Garuf]

It’s a real easy tank to run this one. It’s not without its faults, almost all of them to do with putting my sticks and bricks in a glass box in a stupid way, but it really has been a painless setup and that’s nice sometimes.
Still a couple more weeks before the stems look good again. Some small bits of algae and if i had a brain I’d have made it possible to actually get my hand into the foreground…

 

[Karmicnull]

It’s not without its faults, almost all of them to do with putting my sticks and bricks in a glass box in a stupid way

Ah yes. I subscribe to that design philosophy too!

 

[Garuf]

Ah yes. I subscribe to that design philosophy too!

It’s all part of my brand of being the best aquascaper who isn’t shilling on Instagram and calls it “a room” not a gallery and a fish tank not an aquascape.

 

[ScareCrow]

View attachment 189150
It’s a real easy tank to run this one. It’s not without its faults, almost all of them to do with putting my sticks and bricks in a glass box in a stupid way, but it really has been a painless setup and that’s nice sometimes.
Still a couple more weeks before the stems look good again. Some small bits of algae and if i had a brain I’d have made it possible to actually get my hand into the foreground…

I love this tank, it's how I wanted my tank to look but I lack self control when collecting plants and the discipline to keep on top of trimming.
With regards to spacing of the sticks, I found having a trial run of the layout in a cardboard box the same size as the tank really helped. I got fed up of my hand and arm bouncing around the hardscape like a pinball in my previous layouts.

 

[Garuf]

I love this tank, it's how I wanted my tank to look but I lack self control when collecting plants and the discipline to keep on top of trimming.
With regards to spacing of the sticks, I found having a trial run of the layout in a cardboard box the same size as the tank really helped. I got fed up of my hand and arm bouncing around the hardscape like a pinball in my previous layouts.

Ahhhh, that’s very flattering and all and very kind but really the perceived self control is not really down to will power but more to poverty - the tank reused 90% of the plants from my farm and the previous scape the pots of plants I did buy were m. Guyana, a pot of h. araguai some erio and a pot of buce brownie ghost I had put in my aqua sabi basket on a whim and thought I’d removed but hadn’t and then got in a parcel.
Same goes for the rotalas. They weren’t the first choice, particularly, they were just what I had and buying new ones just to get a different green seemed wasteful and my back of the envelope maths said I could buy a 60f instead if I didn’t do a total replant with new.
I’ve added 2 plant sp since, ranunculus to fill a gap some krabi moss again on a whim.

I will be totally honest with you, this is much easier to trim and keep tidy than you’d expect and easier than the big tank. I spend maybe 15-45mins a week doing little tweaks and trims daily and then do one big hard trim roughly every 6weeks and that takes roughly 3 hours with tidy up. I haven’t done a replant of the tops yet but it’s coming. I anticipate that will be a day long job from past experience.

I had one better than a box, I put my bricks in live and I still managed to make a scape where I need rubber bones to do maintenance. Classic “it looks good there, I’ll make it work” territory.

 

[Garuf]

Went to collect a bucket of seawater today.

 

[Garuf]

 

[Garuf]

And after a real hard trim this morning. I’d think it’ll be nice again in about 2 weeks.
Lots of substrate bound staghorn so I’ll do another water change this evening and glut the substrate zone to try and take care of it.

 

[Garuf]

 

[Aqua360]

Great set-ups👍

 

[Garuf]

A pre-maintenance snap shot.
It needs a little love soon to tidy the moss and some remnant algae.

The cube and the 55 scapers days are numbered I feel. The cube for certain will come down in the next couple of weeks, I’d like to go back down to 3 scapes for the foreseeable.

What to do next with the 55 though… I have no idea.

 

[Garuf]

Things have gone a little bit sideways in the 55 as of late.

Like all hardscape endeavours that are 60% superglue the backbone of the scape has come unstuck with repair needing the kind of open heart surgery that is hit or miss.

I’ve tried to pump a whole tube of gel superglue in there in the hopes to stabilise it but the only thing keeping the left hand wood in place now is the roots of the pinnatifida.

In other news, the hot weather has absolutely destroyed my elantine carpet. Normally I can get it through the warm patch by keeping the substrate extremely clean (for me) but this time it didn’t really work.
My shrimps deciding to level the substrate on top of it finished of what was left in the corners.

I had resolved myself that this scape was short lived but I expected to take it into October and do a rescape as my winter holiday project.

Now what next I aren’t sure.
I have an iwagumi, a nature scape and this is a pseudo-diorama. So really to stick to my “one of each” plan I should go for similar in style but if I’m totally honest. I don’t really love dioramas.
A more balanced wood and stone scape is most likely but do I really want to do another triangle composition again, I aren’t sure though it would be a good compliment to the scape in the big’un.
Especially if it’s more colourful…

The alternative is of course to try and carefully pull this layout apart and repair the wood and do a push things around while keeping most of what I can.

 

[Garuf]

I’ve been thinking a lot about this scape because it’s not really going the way I want and the stems I did add aren’t doing what I wanted.

I was also wondering what had happened to my c.balansae and the e palifolia I’d added. The answer was found rather immediately when I started to pull out the rotala Ceylon, they are so badly shaded out that they have done little more than hold on.
The rotala was always a filler plant so it carried little pain pulling it out. But even this showed that I need to do a rethink on my planting plan. Especially in the left corner.
Not necessarily a rescape. But more a this plant is the wrong plant and a rationalising now I can see a bit more clearly how things grow in in reality vs principal.

The p. Gayi is a very nice plant. It is also a total weed. I have yet to figure out how to maintain it and have instead elected to just rip it out at the root whenever it pops up where I’d prefer it didn’t.
The bolbitis will get a trim soon and the Java fern too.
I aren’t won over by the bucephelandra and crypts combo in the far left foreground but I am loathe to throw out good plants. Especially as I’ve only very recently managed to get rid of the staghorn that plagued my start up.

The bones are fine but it requires a ruthlessness I have yet to find.

 

[Garuf]

 

[Garuf]

 

[Garuf]

Hmm. Black prolly isn’t going to fly.

 

[Wookii]

Hmm. Black prolly isn’t going to fly.

Nah, you need one of these (cut to size):

The LightGround Gradient Blue/white

The Light Ground Gradient Blue/white Gradient film for The Light Ground backgrounds If you are buying a light ground from us this colour comes with all our light grounds

www.horizonaquatics.co.uk

Might need to cut some of the blue and some of the white off to get the right effect visible behind the DHG.

 

[Garuf]

Nah, you need one of these (cut to size):

The LightGround Gradient Blue/white

The Light Ground Gradient Blue/white Gradient film for The Light Ground backgrounds If you are buying a light ground from us this colour comes with all our light grounds

www.horizonaquatics.co.uk

Might need to cut some of the blue and some of the white off to get the right effect visible behind the DHG.

“Ikea sells lighting panels that would probably work and they’re like 1/4 the price. Something to consider if I can get over the one more thing burning money.

I’m still leaning more towards a purple background for colour theory and to feel moody/post rain. But a very good thought.”

You can ignore all that, the link didn’t open so I thought you were talking about a light screen not a vinyl.

 

[Garuf]

I did some more gardening and I’m a bit more hopeful about how it’s going and the gut feeling that a major replant is necessary is perhaps misplaced for the moment.
I removed all of the Pogostemon octopus, I removed what was left of the rotala and a whole tonne of p.gayi - I love how it looks, I hate how it gets absolutely everywhere.

I also moved all the p.yatabeanus (a plant I chose because I thought the name was funny) you can’t see it but it’s there. I chopped back all the m.keisak back and reduced it down to about 8 stems worth, it’s where it was but, less of it.

I dug around in the back and while ripping out p.gayi I found the e.Montevidensis I thought I’d lost. I also ripped out the hairgrass in the far left corner. It got lost behind the crypts so I replaced it by spreading out the e.Vietnam that also got smothered by the p.gayi.

And that brings me onto the crypts; I figured out what I don’t like. Scale, they’re a bit too big for the midground. And colour. I am not into red plants, here it makes the eyes dart around and adds a sense of weight to the left hand side I don’t much care for.
I couldn’t see the c.balansae in the back but it was tiny before and I suspect it didn’t pull through. The same goes for the e plaifolius. I’ll replant then eventually, but only once I have ripped out the dreaded p.gayi and have found something a bit less…prolific.
My fear of bare substrate has gotten me in trouble here.

Other thoughts.
My Java fern is struggling. I do not know why.

The intake😱uttakes need to be moved to give better flow. I don’t know to where.

I am having a boom of shrimps which is nice.

I’m having a bolbitis boom, I need to get in there and hack it back but given that I removed a bucket full of plants already, I can let it be for a week or two more before attacking it.

I also have bad news. My d!ckhead neighbours are doing renovations and drilled and hammered on the wall behind the tank. The first day I lost 5 rainbows that shat it and leaped out of the tank. I stayed at a friends and when I came back I’d lost all but 6 so - 15or so in 3 days.

 

[Garuf]