"The shadows of Mordor"

[Lauris]

As a great fan of Middle-earth stories and the mystery tales about the Land of Shadows,
Orcs, Trolls and mighty wizards, gained my inspiration and decided work trough it in my next project.

The tricky part will be the composition. The goal is to work towards "negative composition" with the
lines and forms. I wish I would have a little more space

So a little bit technical information:

Tank: Custom build 60x40x40 cm
Capacity: 90L
Cabinet: IKEA, 65x60x40 cm
Light: Radion XR15FW
CO2: Injected
CO2 dissolving: in-line atomizer +
APS 2L prefilter as reactor (on inlet)
Filtration: JBL e1501
Heater: Hydor 200w (external)
Pipework: Lilly pipe, Glass surface skimmer
Other: Twinstar nano

Soil system by ADA:
Amazonia soil, Amazonia powder new, Power sand
Bacter100, Clear Super, Tourmaline BC, Penac-P, Penac-W
ADA Sarawak sand - ornamental

Water Chemistry:
RO+JBL Aquadur, Tropica Specialised, EL Potassium, EL Ferro (if needed)

Hardscape:
Seiruy rock (approx 30kg's)
Dried bonsai

Plants:
Riccardia chamedryfolia,
Fissidens nobilis,
Eleocharis sp.Mini,
Hygrophila sp. Araguaia

Live stock: TBC

And few photos.. sure things will change a bit, depending how well I will manage to squeeze in everything







Challenge for me now is to make both stones creating gap to make stand in the way
as in pictures. It means i may need to drill a holes on the bottom to join them with
supporting stones under. As I see no other way (no silicone or putty will hold the weight)
and in the same time I don't want to break them up with drilling. If any suggestions
please feel free to share

 

[Martin in Holland]

Nice sinister scape there.
Epoxy glue might do the trick for your rock placement challenge.

 

[ismayandi]

that is a spooky tree

 

[parotet]

Hi Lauris

IMO there are two very strong focal points, the gap and the tree... but when you look the layout your eyes goes from one to the other. Maybe some pieces of wood more between the rocks on the left could help to solve this problem and even to reinforce the gap focal point. Take for example the first picture, the wood on the left could create the illusion of a tunnel, with the gap at the end. My two cents 🙂
Anyway, I'm sure it's going to be another great tank!

Jordi

 

[Lauris]

Jordi thank you for your input. this will be taken in consideration when I will set this all in the tank. I would love to have a small tree on other side but I'm not confident about the pattern of what it will create (it may well do the composition static). unless I can find 2x smaller tree. or probably I just need to work with two focus points. it's just a matter of balancing bot out

I am planted!

 

[Martin in Holland]

Maybe just try to turn the tree so it will hang over the gorge ?? (counter clock wise 90 degrees)

 

[Lauris]

might try. thanks.

as another option that might work just lower the tree and raise higher the stones creating the gap. so just a change of focus point importance, if I experss it right

I am planted!

 

[The_Iceman]

Interessting hardscape!

Looking forward to seeing it placed in a tank and planted!

 

[Halley]

I would take the tree out and put a rock in its place but the hardscape looks great!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[foxfish]

Awesome, looks great get planting.....

 

[Wizard]

Love that layout ....should of known I'd find you here too lauris 😉

 

[Lauris]

Little update.
at first decided to go today with ornamental sand. I think the colour of this will suit in well
I have a plan for some certain areas get covered with it. ADA Sarawak sand.


Fluval epoxy putty did a brilliant job on fixing the left stone of gap.





It is pretty solid at the moment. Now I need to work out the stone on right.
I think I will try with same putty, in worst case scenario it will not hold it together and
I will be able to test it before it will go in scape

 

[Alexander Belchenko]

Have you tried to put wood at left? It needs more space, atm it limited by right side glass. Or test advice from Martin. Right now your hardscape seems as 2 separate parts, IMO.

 

[Lauris]

Thanks. I will try to settle it in few ways. when the hardscape will be in the tank itself. now it is little hard to tell about how much space actually it needs.

I am planted!

 

[Newbiedoobydo]

It's scary! Definitely Mordor-ish!

 

[Clint Hewitt]

Can't help seeing the tree as a freaky hand

 

[Joe Turner]

I think given the right plant selection this tank will be amazing! Cant wait to see it develop🙂

 

[Lauris]

Joe thanks!

Any suggestions? I have a plan to start dry with moss and yoghurt, but still haven't decided on rest of the planned planted areas

and my plan for the tree is to leave top without plants. as it should carry a purpose of "dead" tree

I am planted!

 

[Joe Turner]

Joe thanks!

Any suggestions? I have a plan to start dry with moss and yoghurt, but still haven't decided on rest of the planned planted areas

and my plan for the tree is to leave top without plants. as it should carry a purpose of "dead" tree

I am planted!

Eleocharis Mini in the bottom valley, if you're planting it that is? It's fine leaves would compliment the pointy dead tree pretty well I think. Some Cyperus helferi could be used elsewhere to the same effect?

What moss are you going with?

 

[Lauris]

Hi!

It is time for an update, i guess..

Last Saturday finally decided to clean the tank, prepare it and hardscape it. The easiest part was to take everything apart,
move live stock and plants to temporary tank before I will decide what to do with all the contents..
So fresh start.. I was waiting for this moment a good while..


This time I decided to try complete soil system, so prepared goodies. Mainly all powders will last for another 2 scapes at least
so in the end it is not that bad..


Bottom layer in.


Before adding soil tried to see how well I can manage to fit the gap. to get rocks together
Fluval SEA epoxy putty did a monster job. it is solid and looks like it does handle the weight pressure very well


so the next part was the hardest for me. I'm not claiming master degree in composition (still on the bottom of my learning curve), but tried to work
towards the goal aimed. had a lot of struggles with right side of the tank.. too close to foreground, too much detail,
too much attention.. was close to get rid of the tree..


I can't say I'm 100% happy now, but it is a little better after few days. pushing, adding, removing and moving things..
Decided to raise soil in background for a fair bit, so the tree is losing now against dark background, but I have a plan for
Elocharis sp.Mini. I think it might help once formed nicely in green carpet. could not say no to that little tree as it is a part
of the lot story. If in case it will not fit.. in the end.. it is not glued to rocks.. I can move it away any time




and few photos in detail..




Spent a good time reading trough one of the G.Farmers journal and decided to go the method of moss DSM he used.
so today painted few areas with Fissidens (greek yogurt, moss and ro water). Interesting experience and definitely
it will be a challenge for me. Tomorrow I will paint more with Riccardia (i hope this will be a god choice for this project)








sealed with cling film.. hopefully it will do. so far T in tank is +23 (I hope it is the right mark), Humidity in 2 hours did raise up to 55%
Now I need to observe how it will act tomorrow. Just in case I have a heat mat, think I can install it in somehow to keep the T up and so humidity with it.
Light now is set to 13 hours with 1 hour ramp up and 1 hour ramp down. Don't know if that sounds right but if any one has better suggestions
please feel free to give me some tips