New 220 Gallon lava scape for a client

[Plantbrain]

20 Days after planting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIc_5oOMS-Y

Client wanted something open and different, and low maintenance.
400-500 Cardinals, and 100 amano's and about the same of PFR shrimps.
The stocking will start next week.

[thebaldingaquarist]

Looks good!

But from the view in the video, the tank does not seem to match the interior decorum. feels like a green meadow in the middle of heavy industrial area.

Most impressive is the tank! I wish i have one as large as this without bracing...

[Plantbrain]

Yep, pretty sits in his living room and takes up too much space, not designed for the living space at all.
Not my tank though!

[Dodofish]

Looks good, is the light finally gonna be mount on the ceiling? And isn't some fengshui thing that the tank can't be leaning towards the wall?

[Atham]

What is the length of the tank? Is big and impressive. Will want to catch this when the live stock move it.

[anttz]

Nice! Can we have some detail specs?

[bennyc]

Amazing to see such a huge tank with a minimalist look. Wonder how the tank can be safe if there are no bracing. The pressure on the glass wall must be huge.

[Plantbrain]

Looks good, is the light finally gonna be mount on the ceiling? And isn't some fengshui thing that the tank can't be leaning towards the wall?

It's his tank and that's what he wants, it's over sized for the room to be certain, Fengshui never entered into any of this.

[Plantbrain]

Glass is 19 mm thick, and has no bow at all, many reef people use these type of tanks in the USA in this size range.

Wet/dry filter, bean animal overflow, Vortech powerhead, ADA AS(nothing else added). 72x20x36 inches.
ATI light, running 12 x 39watts. CO2, EI dosing modified to about 1/2 normal EI, with 2x a week water changes till things settle in a bit more.

[thebaldingaquarist]

anyways, who cares about the room. hahahaha

When i enter the room, my eyes would be fixated on that tank!

Unless, of course, there is something/someone that's even more tantalizing to my eyes!

[Plantbrain]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN6l3RBqX6E#t=149

[zhou yuande]

Simply impressive scape!!! Thanks for sharing. Love the huge tank

[TS168]

Beautiful.

[blue33]

Thanks for sharing. Nice rocks! My view is stones and stones only... where's the focus and where's the lead main stone? Maybe that's what your client want?...

[Plantbrain]

Thanks for sharing. Nice rocks! My view is stones and stones only... where's the focus and where's the lead main stone? Maybe that's what your client want?...

The focus is from where he sits working from the couch actually.
There is no "lead stone". Hardscapes can look very nice and still break the rules.
There is a focus point, I suppose, a golden section where the eye is drawn to if you sit in front of the tank, but it's not suppose to be a tank for a FTS photograph.
I rarely every bother with such scape styles personally. Nature is unexpected beauty that I most enjoy, not the expected.
A series of mountain ridges. I had some other ideas for the foreground plant, but he had trouble growing that plant.

I was considering a large Unzan ADA type of layout, but why Copy that Style?
I like this better and so did my client.

This is a scape for someone who lives around their tank, literally, the thing takes up most of his living room.

He has a more traditional type of Seiryu stone layout in a 57 Gallon tank, then a 75 GALLON with Cypress knees, which I've not seen any aquascaper use.
So he's got a few different layouts in 3 different aquariums.

[thebaldingaquarist]

Hi,
I have a few questions, not sure if you mind answering them.

1. What was your considerations for the foreground plant? From what i see, there is more than 1 viewpoint for the tank. The tank can be view from the sides as well as the front.
2. between the stones, what were your thoughts on the plant selection there? i see gentle slopes, if it was me, i would have gotten some hydrocotyle sp or downoi or eleocharis.
3. I have never been a good moss tie-er, hence i have this phobia against putting moss in my tank. I did not see any moss in the tank as well. Why?

I have no intention to question you on your selection. Just plain curious.

Thanks.

[Plantbrain]

Erctheanda,

Yes, I asked the same questions myself really.
I just typed out the respone, but it reset and erased it. SOB.

Here's the tank with some of the fish to give you an idea:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmER1o02LT4

[dhmy2kgto]

Lovely scape. I suppose at the end of the day, it is what the client wants and is happy with the outcome that is most important and not want we perceive as right or wrong.

[thebaldingaquarist]

Hi,
Cannot really grasp what you are trying to communicate to me via the video.
It seems that the space is designed for fish to school and swim, giving an air of "spaciousness" in the tank?

[Plantbrain]

Hi,
I have a few questions, not sure if you mind answering them.

1. What was your considerations for the foreground plant? From what i see, there is more than 1 viewpoint for the tank. The tank can be view from the sides as well as the front.
2. between the stones, what were your thoughts on the plant selection there? i see gentle slopes, if it was me, i would have gotten some hydrocotyle sp or downoi or eleocharis.
3. I have never been a good moss tie-er, hence i have this phobia against putting moss in my tank. I did not see any moss in the tank as well. Why?

I have no intention to question you on your selection. Just plain curious.

Thanks.

I did not do the video.
I just set up the tank based on the client's demands and abilities.

I would have chosen other plants, like Monte Carlo Micrantherum etc. That was the plan originally, but he liked the mini hairgrass more and wanted to do the whole thing with that after about 1 week prior to coming over to do the aquarium. So I had to scramble to get enough hairgrass!
1. Yes, the tank can be walked all the way around, so you see all 4 sides as well as the top open area.
The foreground needed to be an easy plant that required very little trimming or work, so this grass fit that requirement very well.
2. Yes, I thought the same. He cannot grow Downoi. I can grow it like nothing all year long and sell lots of it, but not him.
I would have gone steeper slopes actually if it were my own tank.

I think I'll see if Mini pellia will do well(it will) on the rock, this will give more of a tropical fluted cliff(Hawaiian's call these Pali) effect with nice mossy green darker color. Add some mini riccia mangled in there, this would complete a nice tropical island feel.
We will see if he wanted to do that.

Maybe, maybe not.

I think the idea is good, maybe not him.
The series of ridges are conducive to this theme along with the moss/liverworts attached to the rock.
The main view is from the couch which is L shaped, but you still need to consider the rest of the views.
In person it's really impressive.

Old old saying: if it looks good, it is good. Not what I would have done, but it's not my tank, so I get to try new novel things and approaches.

3. Moss can infest hairgrass and be very hard to get out. Riccia and mini pellia also. I'm good with any type of moss or liverwort. I did a lot with riccia years ago, maybe 10-20 years ago now. Not much since.
So moss can go either way, the darker Fissidens would look best against the Cardinals personally. Mini pellia would give a very nice effect and you do not need to tie anything to the lava rock.

The original plan was similar to an ADA Unzan stone type layout, I have plenty of Unzan type lava like that. A stone forest basically with a nice carpet below.
So there's plenty of idea, but .................the client needs to decide, not me.

They have to live with it.

Taste are much wider here I think than many other places, but I've seen "Hello Kitty" in aquariums in Japan and Oliver Knott has some tacky items added to aquariums also.
So as long as they look good, and the client pays well, I'll do anything they want of me.

Still, the tank is certainly different from the typical. Which is something I much prefer vs a standard ADA clone.
Still, the idea is based on nature.
I had many of the same ideas/questions as you did by the way, as I went through all this.

and then some.

1-2 years from now, I'll likely redo the tank and make it into a reef. That's what the client seems to think.
No client has ever given me 100% total freedom.