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Rescape after only 2 months

L

lstratton

Member
Joined
28 Jan 2008
Messages
100
Location
London
Here is what it looked like when I first planted it up
IMG_0003.jpg

It still has the same path, but I have moved the driftwood over to the left now and the right has pretty much just cambomba at the moment, a lot of it.

Basically, I want less sand to see, so was thinking of moving the path and having one like Dan's in the featured scape section (sorry for stealing that idea, I'm don't really know what I want until I see it, hope you don't mind).

Some quick stats on the tank -
240l (Juwel Rio240)
Pressurised CO2 (FE @ 2bps)
Filtration - currently Juwel internal filter (1000lph) and Tetratec EX600, going to be updated after easter to 2 Tetratec EX1200
Substrate is Eco-complete where the plants are and playsand for the path
Lighting is 2x 54W T5 lights and 2x 38 T8 lights with total of about 3wpg.
Plants - cambomba, rotala rotundifolia, vairous mosses, anubias nana, hydrophilia of some sort (not in that picture) and some golden creeping jenny.
Fish - 4 otos, 2 queen arabesque plecos (L260), will eventually be 10 otos, 5 South American Puffers (Colomesus Asellus) and 5 QA plecos.
Ferts - EI, 50% change weekly (been posting for your advice - all the BGA has gone, fingers crossed it stays that way)

So I basically have no idea what I want it to look like except a few things - it needs to be fairly heavily planted for the puffers, to keep them busy and hunting. Also, I never seem to be very good at growing mosses (they seem to be brown as well as green), so would love to sort that out. Was thinking that a nice lawn of riccia at the front on the left would be good, should be getting some rotala green at somepoint as well, thanks to Simon on here.
What do you think about having a pile of lava rock with loads of moss growing all over it on the right slightly smaller plant bed?

Sorry for the long garbled message, hopefully some of it will make sense
 
Hi lstratton,
Looks like a pretty nice start so far. 😀 You know now how to keep BGA away. Remember also that as the plant mass increases you may need to tweak nutrient/CO2. Two groves of Limnophilia aromatica, one in each of the aft corners would do well in that environment and would satisfy your requirements. I always have loads after a trim so PM me if you'd like to try some (I just cant bear tossing them in the bin). Mosses are excruciatingly slow growers but they will fill in after a few months. 😀

Cheers,
 
Oh I like the look of that plant, i've never seen it before. Will give you a PM when I am about to do the rescape. Am going to do some rough sketches on the computer and then I'll attach it to a post to see what you all think.
Nice to know that it will take a few months for the mosses to fill out, still gives me hope. Thankyou
 
Okay, so I have done a quick scape plan, let me know what you think.

2 tall red plants in corners are Limnophilia aromatica
Red plant in middle is rotala rotundifolia
Green carpet plant at front is riccia
Green carpet plant on left is glosso or riccia - was thinking of having it sloping upwards slightly
Brown lines are the branchy driftwood which I'll cover with various mosses
Dark green short tufts - blyxa japonica
Yellow bit - sand path
Muddy brown circles - mid ground plant to fill in around wood, was thinking golden creeping jenny, but up for suggestions.

tankscape.jpg

Let me know what you think, be as ruthless as you want
 
lstratton said:
Let me know what you think, be as ruthless as you want
Click to expand...

Ok....

Only kidding, good starting point. However I would move the sand pathway a little nearer the centre so it sits on the Golden ratio. I'd also angle it more so the back of it is lost behind taller plants and you don't see it hit the glass at the back when looking straight on; hidden paths suggest there is more behind and trick the brain into thinking thing are larger (great trick in your garden too BTW).
I'd have more Rotala and less Limnophila and the Blyxa should be behind the Riccia and other things and will work as a great mid-ground plant in front of the stems. For other mid-ground tanks how about Java ferns or anubias tied to the wood at the base or some crypts?
 
lstratton, L. aromatic isn't red (at least mine isn't) I assume you just used that color crayon to distinguish between the different plants right? Is that a mound or an incline on the far right corner? That would be a brilliant idea. :idea:

Cheers,
 
thankyou for the tips. Will sketch a few changes and then see what you think. Did think that the L. aromatic was red, that is what it came up as when I googled it, but not too fussed. Think it would look better having just 1 red plant (rotala rotundifolia) anyway.
Yep that is meant to be a slope, thought it would kind of depict a valley, with the sand path being the river and the planting on the left a sort of meadow or something. Do you think I should put glosso or riccia on the slope?
 
lstratton said:
Think it would look better having just 1 red plant (rotala rotundifolia) anyway.
Yep that is meant to be a slope, thought it would kind of depict a valley, with the sand path being the river and the planting on the left a sort of meadow or something. Do you think I should put glosso or riccia on the slope?
Click to expand...

OK, just as long as you know. If you're having a slope have you thought about how you will keep the slope stable? If you just pile gravel up it will slowly un-slope. Riccia is too messy for me but many have done tremendous things with it. I would opt for HC or Glosso on the slope but have a think about it. That's just me. If you like riccia then go for it. You could even do fissidens on the slope if you had the patience.

Cheers,
 
I like the second one much more. The one advantage of doing the right hand slop with Riccia is that, as you have to tie it to rocks, you could make the mound out of rocks carefully stacked up, rather than a slope which, like Clive said, could slip.
 
yeah that was what I was thinking with the riccia on the slope.
Do you think it would slide less if I built the slope from rocks (have dones of lava rock not doing anything) and then covered it in eco complete?
It might have to be a riccia slope, just so that it doesn't slip.
 
what are your ideas of adding some straight vallis along the back of the tank and then the rotala in front of that?
Just another thought that entered my mind
 
Well I've ordered some Riccia, which should hopefully arrive this week and have some Blyxia arriving from Andy (thankyou). i'm going to re-do the hardscape this weekend and then just swap out the plants that I have with the ones that I want as and when I can get my hands on them.
I have decided that as much as I love the scape that I have drawn, it isn't completely appropriate for dwarf puffers that need lots of plants to break up lines of sight and to keep them occupied with hunting for snails, so am going to change it a bit.
I'll keep the path in the same and the riccia lawns at the front and the slope will now be a bumpy lawn of riccia (going to attach it to lava rock) with some plants interspersed between the 'hills' and at the back. Think I'll add some vallis all the way along the back, as I like the effect of it when it grows up to the surface and bends slightly.
Will be a work in progress as I seem to be really awful at making my mind up with these aquascapes, I'm not too good at visualising how it will look eventually.
 
Okay, thankyou for that.
So I have put in an order with aqua essentials for some rotala green and more rotala rotundifolia. They also had some p. helferi, so I got some of that to help with the carpeting plants, so think I might do a quick re-sketch of what I'm planning on doing this weekend for you all and I'll do the basic rearrangeement of the hard scape this weekend as well
 
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