🌿🍀🍃 Inspiration Post 01🌿🍀🍃
In design I always start a project with a mood board, so this is mine I suppose. Should include a photo of my current 60l tank here, see it on page one.
My walls are painted a soft blue which makes a nice natural backdrop to my tank, and I think naturally lends itself to a light, meadowy tank with lots of grasses and movement, something quite playful and summery. I'm inspired by river banks, and also that bit of the countryside where a meadow becomes a forest, so it's very grassy and soft with small delicate textures, transitioning into something darker and richer. I want to make sure my fish are happy, so there will be a nice bit of sand for my sand sifters (possibly everything will be capped with sand), some piles of dead leaves and different kinds of dense planting to make little terriorities and sight lines, and areas of light and shade. I want it to feel quite naturalistic, so I'll use a lot of moss and small grasses.
I already like the feel of my current tank, I like the mix of plants and will move them all of them into the new tank. However my current tank has no hardscaping other than 2 pebbles hidden at the back - it's all defined with plant growth, with a flat base so there isn't enough variation in height, and of course it's a third of the volume. It's been a great tank to play with and I've learnt a lot, but I'm looking forward to changing it. In this new tank, I'm gonna try out doing hardscape the way that fancy aquascapers do it, separating the soil and the sand with hidden rock walls and dramatic wood. I think the wood is really key, it has to be great and I'll spend some time finding the right pieces. I also think a dry start is important, so I can get that luscious moss look on the wood and rocks, and give it that natural feel. The depth of the tank (50cm) means there's a lot to play with.
I want the wood to have a darker, richer feel, like the beginning of the forest, so I'll use a of mix java ferns, mosses, a few buces and some hygrophila pinnatifida as it looks like oak saplings (I've only just got this plant and I'm not sure how it does in lowtech so we'll see). The below tank has a nice feel of woodland-meadow-y ness to it. With some dead leaves, even better.
Also really like this
I bought this tank thinking it would be high tech, but now I'm not so sure. The big reason I wanted to try CO2 is the colour - in my real job I'm known for being a colour obsessive, I love bold colours and mixing them, and the outrageous reds and blushes and oranges you can get with the CO2 stems is so beautiful. Here is my favourite hightech tank - I really like the use of wood in this, the landscape of it flows nicely with a good amount of dense planting vs open space and a bit coming out of the top, and probably what I will base mine on, I like the arch too. And of course, that red and the orange details are stunning, and the richness and variation of the greens and textures is fantastic. I really like the mix of mosses and grasses as a filler, with little buces and the creeping tripartita. I know I can't get something as thick and beautifully coloured as this without CO2, but I'm hoping I can take some elements to enhance mine.
Personally I like tanks where the back 2 corners are covered, rather than island-style designs. I want it to feel like a special hidden oasis, and I think the fish like the comfort of being enclosed. I'll have a sandy area in the front, going into the back in a similar way this one does (but bigger). I'd like to make the sandy area a bit interesting with wood embedded in it and somelittle detail plants, a bit like daveaqua05 does on Instagram (see further down).
This video shows how the scaper made his tank which is really useful.
I also love this youtube video, the mix of stems is so beautiful it's like a floral bouquet.
Ok one more I love, from daveaqua05 on Instagram, his scapes are really nice, with quite different hardscape which I really like, often the wood appears buried in the sand. The colours he gets from his stems remind me of coral reefs, they're so interesting.
I think I'm going to start lowtech as I'm not sure if I can keep up with the 50% waterchanges yet, I want to wait and see and try it out first, while growing out my baby apistos. If I was doing 100% tap it would be easy, but all my favourite fish are soft water, and living in London my tap is hard af, I think that the fish must come first. I've not done badly at all with my lowtechs, I have luscious growth in all of them and can grow a few extra plants because of the soft water. So I think that's what my first challenge will be - can I make something that has some of the granduer of a hightech, in a lowtech? I'm hoping I can!
If later on I think I can manage the regular water changes with rainwater, then I can upgrade to CO2 with the same scape easily and add stems.
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I'm hoping to add a few stems which don't mind me, and some which I can attach to a high-up point at the back of the wood to have a small emergent section. I love the emergent part of the ADA scape above with the emergent echinodorus (which I have tried in another tank and works well) and the stems encouraged to grow out. It wouldn't be the focus of the scape as here, but hopefully a nice little area poking out adding some interest.
That's it for now, I'll share more inspo as time goes on and my ideas of what I'm doing inevitably change!
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