Courtneybst
Member
Admitting is the First Step
It's OK to be 'over' a setup before it's 'finished', and I suspect that is what happened with my Cenote biotope. The biotope and concept itself is beautiful but I was ultimately cramming a square peg into a round hole. To really grasp the epic nature of the cenotes I think you need a huge tank where the lilies and algae can grow to their maximum potential and not be cuffed by the ever-waning water level of a 90L aquarium.
The scape was still in relatively good condition but you can guess what happened after leaving pearlweed unchecked with high CO2 for 3 weeks...
Rapid Refresh
Recently I've been making adjustments to my setups to make them more manageable and therefore more enjoyable. For this tank in particular I'm thinking of changing to a HOB filter (still haven't fully decided on this) and making it a low energy setup. The only mild inconvenience I will inflict upon myself is that I'd like to cut the water with RO to bring my water parameters down to more palatable levels. I've also only ever run tiny soft water tanks so it will be an interesting challenge...or perhaps it won't be a challenge at all! Who knows.
I've since stripped the tank of all the plants, removed all the hardscape and rescaped completey. I used the 'off-cut' from the jumbo piece of wood I used in my Tidy Jungle because I wanted something simple, something that clearly wasn't going to float and also made just as big of a visual statement as a high energy scape.
After a few iterations I've gone with this layout. I only had to glue two things which fills me with joy lol.
This is the planting plan; a carpet (hopefully) of Lilaeopsis brasiliensis, interplanted with Cryptocoryne albida brown, Cryptocoryne parva and Helanthium tenellum. I'm undecided on the midground transition plant for the left hand side, but the back will be a mix of Cryptocoryne balansae and Cryptocoryne spirals 'Red'. The theme is all quite grassy textures and ideally no stems but will submit for a very nice and easy one. I may even use the pearlweed from the last scape temporarily and will probably add small bits of Anubias and Bucephalandra for contrast.
It's OK to be 'over' a setup before it's 'finished', and I suspect that is what happened with my Cenote biotope. The biotope and concept itself is beautiful but I was ultimately cramming a square peg into a round hole. To really grasp the epic nature of the cenotes I think you need a huge tank where the lilies and algae can grow to their maximum potential and not be cuffed by the ever-waning water level of a 90L aquarium.
The scape was still in relatively good condition but you can guess what happened after leaving pearlweed unchecked with high CO2 for 3 weeks...
Rapid Refresh
Recently I've been making adjustments to my setups to make them more manageable and therefore more enjoyable. For this tank in particular I'm thinking of changing to a HOB filter (still haven't fully decided on this) and making it a low energy setup. The only mild inconvenience I will inflict upon myself is that I'd like to cut the water with RO to bring my water parameters down to more palatable levels. I've also only ever run tiny soft water tanks so it will be an interesting challenge...or perhaps it won't be a challenge at all! Who knows.
I've since stripped the tank of all the plants, removed all the hardscape and rescaped completey. I used the 'off-cut' from the jumbo piece of wood I used in my Tidy Jungle because I wanted something simple, something that clearly wasn't going to float and also made just as big of a visual statement as a high energy scape.
After a few iterations I've gone with this layout. I only had to glue two things which fills me with joy lol.
This is the planting plan; a carpet (hopefully) of Lilaeopsis brasiliensis, interplanted with Cryptocoryne albida brown, Cryptocoryne parva and Helanthium tenellum. I'm undecided on the midground transition plant for the left hand side, but the back will be a mix of Cryptocoryne balansae and Cryptocoryne spirals 'Red'. The theme is all quite grassy textures and ideally no stems but will submit for a very nice and easy one. I may even use the pearlweed from the last scape temporarily and will probably add small bits of Anubias and Bucephalandra for contrast.
Last edited:
