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Shady woodland stream

SteveMid

SteveMid

Member
Joined
24 Jun 2021
Messages
80
Location
Manchester
I just wanted to share our very simple tiny 10L project. As a family we love our woodland walks in the Yorkshire Dales. So, inspired by so many beautiful UKAPS creations, I set the kids a challenge to set up a scene that reminds us of those walks. The catch was that we could only collect items from our garden (with slight cheat of some spare aqua soil and some pebbles). We found some broken bits of York stone from one of our raised bed walls to start the hard scape and we were off. I fitted a small filter behind to circulate over the wall to keep it wet.
We can start adding to this in the future with little specimens we find on our walks.
I may add some leaf litter or if anyone has good recommendations for miniature temperate plants to grow under water that we could use/find that would be great. I think the water body is too small to sustain any livestock so will probably leave that. Also, need to find taller plants to hide the pipe work at the back.
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SteveMid said:
I just wanted to share our very simple tiny 10L project. As a family we love our woodland walks in the Yorkshire Dales. So, inspired by so many beautiful UKAPS creations, I set the kids a challenge to set up a scene that reminds us of those walks. The catch was that we could only collect items from our garden (with slight cheat of some spare aqua soil and some pebbles). We found some broken bits of York stone from one of our raised bed walls to start the hard scape and we were off. I fitted a small filter behind to circulate over the wall to keep it wet.
We can start adding to this in the future with little specimens we find on our walks.
I may add some leaf litter or if anyone has good recommendations for miniature temperate plants to grow under water that we could use/find that would be great. I think the water body is too small to sustain any livestock so will probably leave that. Also, need to find taller plants to hide the pipe work at the back.View attachment 206840View attachment 206844View attachment 206845View attachment 206846
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When I first saw that stone wall in the first picture I wasn’t keen but this looks amazing now it’s grown in. Very unique scape.
 
It really is quite striking when you go walking just how much plant life there is above and around the water and how little of it there is actually in/under the water. This is very well reflected in your 'scape, which I like very much. Of course, you could go 'off theme' and add a bunch of low-tech underwater plant just for funzies... :p
 
A couple of small additions over the weekend from the garden. Some duck weed, leaf litter and a lovely little “pearlwort” (had to look it up) that was growing in a small gap between some paving stones. It seems to cope much better than the moss up at the top drier part of the wall - minute little flowers. I think I’ve now exhausted the garden for the source of specimens and may have to wait until we are out walking again 😀.
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managed to get out into the countryside and collect some further inspiration and specimens. Not sure how much of this I can squeeze in but looking forward to giving it a go . Btw kids have lost interest now this has become an individual pursuit 😂
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Growing in nicely. I get so mischievous pleasure from this little tank. Some of the plants don’t quite like how wet it is on the wall but others love it. I suppose it will find a balance. As always wildlife finds a home and some water daphnia have appeared (hitchhikers on the duck weed) and some midge larvae spotted in there either (probably similar hitchhiking opportunity). I may be mistaken but I think one of the terrestrial mosses is actually growing under water unless it is just “surviving” submerged. Is this possible or will it eventually die off?This piece has been submerged for about 3 weeks
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Love this tank 😄

SteveMid said:
I may be mistaken but I think one of the terrestrial mosses is actually growing under water unless it is just “surviving” submerged. Is this possible or will it eventually die off?This piece has been submerged for about 3 weeks
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Its possible it could grow submerged, but 3 weeks is quite a short time in moss-time. They grow so slowly that they also tend to fade away or die very slowly too.
So you would have to keep observing it for many months to see how it works out.
Many of the terrestrial mosses will put out some thin upwards growing shoots in order to try to get above the water again.
But since so many of them are accustomed to growing in very wet conditions, they can spend a pretty long time under water before they cant handle it any more.
If yours grows more horizontally that is a better sign, it looks a little bit like something I fished out of a local river too, so maybe it can grow under water. Only time will tell 😊
 
Hufsa said:
Love this tank 😄


Its possible it could grow submerged, but 3 weeks is quite a short time in moss-time. They grow so slowly that they also tend to fade away or die very slowly too.
So you would have to keep observing it for many months to see how it works out.
Many of the terrestrial mosses will put out some thin upwards growing shoots in order to try to get above the water again.
But since so many of them are accustomed to growing in very wet conditions, they can spend a pretty long time under water before they cant handle it any more.
If yours grows more horizontally that is a better sign, it looks a little bit like something I fished out of a local river too, so maybe it can grow under water. Only time will tell 😊
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Thanks @Hufsa, does look like the moss trying send shoots to the surface but will enjoy seeing how it develops
 
Geoffrey Rea said:
Was wondering what mischievous pleasure was 😂

Beautiful and engaging setup @SteveMid and all done in a 10l no less 😎
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Haha, yes damn autocorrect 😂. Thanks anyway, I’m glad you like it. It’s really surprised me how much I sit and gaze at this little tank and it was so easy to set up and maintain - it just looks after itself. I just keep topped up with a little rain water every 4/5 days
 
So quite a few of my mosses have died off as a result of too much water trickling over them. Oh well, I’ve learnt and have now redirected the flow to more over the back of the wall. I can try again with more moss when I get back from holiday. I am going away for 3 weeks so have rigged up a hare-brained scheme to hopefully avoid the water level dropping below the intake of the filer inlet. I have connected a vase to the tank via a siphon with cling film over I am hoping this will compensate slightly to moderate evaporation loss.
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Fingers crossed🤞 😬
 
Back from leave and water level control worked . One plant taking over so need to sort this out and get some new mosses in. Can anyone identify what the very small creatures are on the glass?
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They are like tiny transparent molluscs of some description. They move to slowly to observe movement but they do shift a about the tank.
 
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