My brief journal in aquascaping

[o2bubble]

Hi guys, I finally have a bit of time now to make recap of the roads I had traveled in the aquascaping arena for the past 6 months. It was not easy and many times, I really thought of giving up... am glad now I did not I will not go into details but a brief description and crude photos to show how I arrived at the final design which I will continue to work on to improve. I will appreciate your honest comments for improvements! Note: All the pictures are taken either with handphone camera or just normal digital camera poorly by me only. I beg your pardon for this

1st design, Start: End June 2007, Life Span: 2 months
Concept: Simple Iwagumi rockscape to create a glassy, wild, natural look.
Reason for retirement: The rocks appeared too small compared to the tank size and felt a bit uninteresting...



2nd design, Start: End August 2007, Life Span: 3 weeks
Concept: Low maintenance, mossy look with glosso/tenellus foreground and crypt balansae background.
Reason for retirement: The woods appeared too big and made the tank feel small, crypt balansae all melting and not growing much.



3rd design Version 0.8, Start: Mid Sept 2007, Life Span: 3+ months so far



3rd design Version 0.9 ("Over the Rainbow"), Start: Mid Sept 2007, Life Span: 3+ months so far
Concept: High maintenance fast growing stem plants with many varieties of delicate green/red/yellowish plants to provide depth and colors. The woods resemble wings of birds flying in the skies while the plants are arranged to reflect the scenery after a heavy rainfall with a rainbow above with the various colors.











Note:

- The plants are recently trimmed for growth but not properly for the desired slope and design yet. Thus, appear not in line with each other.
- The crypt wendtii (tropica) on the right behind the golden nana and under the wood have not yet grown up to the height desired (30 cm) yet and thus, there appears an empty space there.
- The R.Macrandra (narrow) on the left behind the P.Stellata are still growing (not visible yet)
- The E.Tellenus are just trimmed and appears ugly. Waiting for new leaves to grow.
- The side with the MM needs some minor rescaping to close the gap and create some shadows on the left so as to force the viewer’s glance towards the right.

I will post another update in 2 weeks time after the stem plants have grown and trimmed to the correct shape to match the layout. By then, the Crypt Wendtii and E.Tellenus should have grown a fair bit.

[williamng]

Yo bro! Nice. I like design 1

[hii]

nice work, will visit you this weekends.

[o2bubble]

Thanks bro, you are welcome anytime as usual. Btw, I'm waiting for the plants to grown so I can trimming to the final shape for the layout. Think will be another 2 weeks more. Then will be another 2-3 weeks before the layout will be 90% complete. just posting ahead (only 80% complete now) so I can keep a record of my journal here..

[|squee|]

The first two pictures are really good trys. Reminds me of Amano's style immediately.

[hebi]

nice scapes really if compare my first scape to yours, mine really look like **** haha. the first rockscape is really good, really look like some of the amano tanks i have seen. nah the rock isnt too small, its the tank that is too big

[hk75]

Very nice scape you have... well done...
bro, just check with you, what is the green stem plant at centre left behind the crypts?

Thanks bro, you are welcome anytime as usual. Btw, I'm waiting for the plants to grown so I can trimming to the final shape for the layout. Think will be another 2 weeks more. Then will be another 2-3 weeks before the layout will be 90% complete. just posting ahead (only 80% complete now) so I can keep a record of my journal here..

[o2bubble]

Thanks.. I think you mean Didplis

[hk75]

the last photo behind the crypts

Thanks.. I think you mean Didplis

[Ahzai]

nice work and healthy plants !

[o2bubble]

In the last photo, the plants are P.stellata, L.Aromatica followed by Didiplis in the centre. Bro, as mentioned over sms, I will pass you some didiplis after I do my trimming next weekend

[o2bubble]

Thanks, all using ADA ferts.. Expensive but really good stuffs!

nice work and healthy plants !

[hk75]

Thanks you

In the last photo, the plants are P.stellata, L.Aromatica followed by Didiplis in the centre. Bro, as mentioned over sms, I will pass you some didiplis after I do my trimming next weekend

[rwalker]

Nice tank you have there!

You may want to switch off the room lights before you take photo next time as you are in the picture as well