2ft Optiwhite - The Rising Sun

[blue33]

Here it goes! My mock up opti-white tank "The Rising Sun" using Photoshop adding photos of plant and hardscape. The scape has since evolve differently. More pictures to come on the way... being very busy lately... Btw i love this opti-white tank.

Tank size : 60cm X 40cm X 40cm (8mm thickness)



--->>> more to come... slowly...

[Verminator]

That foreground looks very unique. Do you actually plan to plant what appears to be a dwarf riccia. It certainly has the "curtained" effect that is common with well grown dwarf riccia.

The only bit that looks odd is the large "bush" in the right corner. Looks weird in contrast to the stem plant in the left corner which you plan to have.

Will be keeping my eye on how this progresses

[torque6]

Looking forward to seeing it when everything is finalised.

[Fei Miao]

Interesting scape , try one with white river sand in the foreground.

[blue33]

That foreground looks very unique. Do you actually plan to plant what appears to be a dwarf riccia. It certainly has the "curtained" effect that is common with well grown dwarf riccia.

The only bit that looks odd is the large "bush" in the right corner. Looks weird in contrast to the stem plant in the left corner which you plan to have.

Will be keeping my eye on how this progresses

The foreground is now river white sand. Yes is dwarf riccia, here we called mini riccia. Was quite worry on the bush effect but it turned out to be the best part after setup, you'll see the update in later part. You'll like it i guess.

Looking forward to seeing it when everything is finalised.

Hopefully it turn out to my expectation, currently 70% turn up to be expected, as some of the plant melted but is recovering back, is normal they reborn itself again.

Interesting scape , try one with white river sand in the foreground.

The scape was a mock up in early stage, after wife some suggestion, it has a new image again, will update soon. The foreground now is white river lapis sand, didnt realised when i bought it, was more brown colour, luckily the boss let me change again after few days.

[blue33]

Was busy setting up my SUPER Core2 Quad processor computer! Ok! Time for updating, since my laptop slow down my photo editing tools.

[blue33]

DIY stuff! My own design fishing leads line for hanging the lights and fan, each line can hold around 22kg, cause is make of metal line.

Tools as below,


Here's the final product,


How it works,


And here's the final layout, for lights and fan also,

[blue33]

Here's the tank testing for any leaking, 60cm X 40cm x 40cm (8mm) opti-white tank.

[blue33]

Tools for scaping the sand, bought it from DIY shop(Singapore), cost around $1.35(SGD), it also can use for scraping algae on the glass. Make of tough plastic.

[blue33]

Wood structure being soak for awhile already, ready for arranging.




The white styrofoam is the separator for the white lapis sand and aqua soil.

[Shadow]

Your rack may not be strong enough to support the tank+water+substrate weight

[blue33]

Timing to fill in the soil. Change a thinner styrofoam separator. Stones use is to stable the separator and the soil moving around. Some of the equipment also in place to see how it look like.

The lapis sand bought initially was too brown, went back to the LFS again to change to a more whiter one, didnt know they have different colour of lapis sand though all the same. Aqua soil looks like chocolate chips to me, feel craving for chocolate each time i look at it.



Used a ruler to measure both sides of the soil(i know the photograph is showing one cm and the other is inches, but they are same reading/distance).

[blue33]

Time to remove the separator.



Perfect straight line! Loves it! Will shift some of the soil to make it more natural after placing the rocks in. More rocks coming soon...

[firefox]

Very nice and very special scape....

[blue33]

After arranging the rocks, is time to mist the soils before flooding the tank. After misting the soil, i let it settle down for around 30-60mins, so that the dust and soil will cement down, this way the water will not be cloudy at all.



I mean mist the soil and not flood.

[blue33]

Is time to flood 1/3 of the tank with water, for planting convenience.



You can see the water is crystal clear during flooding. I use the plastic cover for introducing water to the tank to prevent any rushing of water causing cloudy.

[blue33]

Next step is to prepare the plants for planting, remove any death plants or roots. I use Toyogo box cover for my plant arranging.



Plant surgery! As usual trimming off and cutting. Plastic cover is good for holding plants during planting than hand.

[blue33]

Your rack may not be strong enough to support the tank+water+substrate weight

Is about a month already! Saw in internet, quite no of people using it, got to get those thick bar one, not those thin one. And got to place a kapo board to distribute the load.

[blue33]

Filled 1/3 tank with water and start to do planting, really backache after doing this. Lots of elbow work.

[blue33]

Filling up the tank with water, fix the filter inlet with sponge to collect dirts and use net at outlet to collect debris. Got a fishing lead weight to weight down the wood to prevent from floating as i've taken out the wood for quite sometime .

Added hornworts to suck the nutrients. Water is still pretty clear at this time. Added Petite Nana between the wood also. Will tie the wood with moss later part cause the wood still in semi floating stage.