Wookii
Member
So it's time for a rescape after the last scape, Kinabalu grew out to the point of being beyond recognition with the original scape.
My own personal interest in scapes has leaned heavily towards Biotope/Habitat style scapes over the last 6 months, however I still have one foot firmly on 'Nature Aquarium' ground. On the one had I like the more natural look with a sandy bed, structural leaf litter, shadowy low level lighting, more muted planting and the like. On the other I can't quite let go of the lush stems, and vibrant colours of the bright Nature aquarium style. If anything, therefore this new scape is something of aconfusion of styles reflecting that inner turmoil!
In the end this scape involves a bit of experimentation for me, a chance to try out some new techniques - sand with enriched substrate, leaf litter, minimal hardscaping, whilst still having a last play with bright light and bunches of background stems.
HARDSCAPE:
Hardscape design first; two things I have learned from my last two scapes is a) I always use too much hardscape, b) no matter how much hardscape I use, I can barely see any of it it after 3-4 months!
With this hardscape I wanted to try and use up the bare minimum of front to rear in tank real estate, as I only have 40cm to play with (I could really do with the 60cm width sized tank in all honesty), and wanted as much open area at the front and possible. Whenever I try and I also wanted a way to reliably separate a front sand substrate, from a rear soil substrate, with a decent difference in height. Attempting such construction with rocks is tricky, and always takes up much more width area than I wanted.
In the end I went with perspex - not a typical hardscape choice, but stick with me here . . .
So I cut a strip of 6mm clear perspex, and using a paint stripper heat gun, proceeded to shape it into a curvature that I wanted to for the rear of the sandy area.
I then assembled some random bit of wood against it to form the basic structure and shape I wanted to achieve. I wasn't too concerned about the detailed aesthetics, because a) wood tends to looks much more similar when its wet, and b) my earlier comment that most of it won't be visible in due course.
I had to account for my proposed depth of sand, where I planned to put any large plants (like my big chuck of Trident fern), and where I wanted to add a few lumps of lava rock for attaching epiphytes. once I'd settled on the positins, I then drilled the perspex, and screwed the pieces of wood to it with stainless steel screws, before finally cutting the top edge of the perspex to shape:
This achieved the main objective of minimising the front to rear depth used by the hardscape. I know the wood looks a bit random here, but hang in there, it'll make more sense later.
Once made, I soaked the whole assembled structure in a tub for about 6 weeks to water log it, and ensure it sank. Then it was time to assemble the tank proper:
Wood/perspex pre-fab washed and in:
Then bags of crushed lava rock and soil were added to the rear. For this I used mostly the old stuff from the last scape to try and kick start the tank maturation, and then capped it off with 10-15mm of new Tropica Soil Powder.
To the front I created a nutrient rich base layer using a mixture of Eheim peat granules, a couple of handfuls of old bacteria rich aquasoil, a couple of handfuls of new soil, and some Bonasai Kanuma soil, with a sprinkling of a little Osmocote graules and some strategically placed Seachem root tabs. I secured this mixture in place as best I could with a layer of fine plastic mesh before adding a decent layer of silver sand combined with a sprinkling of ADA La Plata to vary the texture. The perspex did the anticipated job, and managed to keep the soil and sand separate:
I left this to run on a dark start basis for a few days to clear the initial ammonia release from the new soil. Then drained it again and added a few bits of lava rock ready for planting.
I also added a small piece of Hygrolon, and whipped it in place with some DOOA Terra tape, to wick water up for a tiny bit of emergent growth on the piece of wood above the water level. I had wanted a little more than this exposed, but this is how it worked out.
Those with keen eyes, and a distaste for obviously made made items in the aquaria, will undoubtedly have spotted that the perspex is still visible. However the huge amount of plants I had left over from my previous scape ensured I could cover all visible areas - and so, onto planting . . .
My own personal interest in scapes has leaned heavily towards Biotope/Habitat style scapes over the last 6 months, however I still have one foot firmly on 'Nature Aquarium' ground. On the one had I like the more natural look with a sandy bed, structural leaf litter, shadowy low level lighting, more muted planting and the like. On the other I can't quite let go of the lush stems, and vibrant colours of the bright Nature aquarium style. If anything, therefore this new scape is something of a
In the end this scape involves a bit of experimentation for me, a chance to try out some new techniques - sand with enriched substrate, leaf litter, minimal hardscaping, whilst still having a last play with bright light and bunches of background stems.
HARDSCAPE:
Hardscape design first; two things I have learned from my last two scapes is a) I always use too much hardscape, b) no matter how much hardscape I use, I can barely see any of it it after 3-4 months!
With this hardscape I wanted to try and use up the bare minimum of front to rear in tank real estate, as I only have 40cm to play with (I could really do with the 60cm width sized tank in all honesty), and wanted as much open area at the front and possible. Whenever I try and I also wanted a way to reliably separate a front sand substrate, from a rear soil substrate, with a decent difference in height. Attempting such construction with rocks is tricky, and always takes up much more width area than I wanted.
In the end I went with perspex - not a typical hardscape choice, but stick with me here . . .
So I cut a strip of 6mm clear perspex, and using a paint stripper heat gun, proceeded to shape it into a curvature that I wanted to for the rear of the sandy area.
I then assembled some random bit of wood against it to form the basic structure and shape I wanted to achieve. I wasn't too concerned about the detailed aesthetics, because a) wood tends to looks much more similar when its wet, and b) my earlier comment that most of it won't be visible in due course.
I had to account for my proposed depth of sand, where I planned to put any large plants (like my big chuck of Trident fern), and where I wanted to add a few lumps of lava rock for attaching epiphytes. once I'd settled on the positins, I then drilled the perspex, and screwed the pieces of wood to it with stainless steel screws, before finally cutting the top edge of the perspex to shape:
This achieved the main objective of minimising the front to rear depth used by the hardscape. I know the wood looks a bit random here, but hang in there, it'll make more sense later.
Once made, I soaked the whole assembled structure in a tub for about 6 weeks to water log it, and ensure it sank. Then it was time to assemble the tank proper:
Wood/perspex pre-fab washed and in:
Then bags of crushed lava rock and soil were added to the rear. For this I used mostly the old stuff from the last scape to try and kick start the tank maturation, and then capped it off with 10-15mm of new Tropica Soil Powder.
To the front I created a nutrient rich base layer using a mixture of Eheim peat granules, a couple of handfuls of old bacteria rich aquasoil, a couple of handfuls of new soil, and some Bonasai Kanuma soil, with a sprinkling of a little Osmocote graules and some strategically placed Seachem root tabs. I secured this mixture in place as best I could with a layer of fine plastic mesh before adding a decent layer of silver sand combined with a sprinkling of ADA La Plata to vary the texture. The perspex did the anticipated job, and managed to keep the soil and sand separate:
I left this to run on a dark start basis for a few days to clear the initial ammonia release from the new soil. Then drained it again and added a few bits of lava rock ready for planting.
I also added a small piece of Hygrolon, and whipped it in place with some DOOA Terra tape, to wick water up for a tiny bit of emergent growth on the piece of wood above the water level. I had wanted a little more than this exposed, but this is how it worked out.
Those with keen eyes, and a distaste for obviously made made items in the aquaria, will undoubtedly have spotted that the perspex is still visible. However the huge amount of plants I had left over from my previous scape ensured I could cover all visible areas - and so, onto planting . . .
