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would say a very colorful setup, the variety of plants alone amazed me!
have you thought of adding any woods?
Different pic, time lapsed, scape and layout does grow and change
randomized pics in orderly fashion. For a complete timelined story you have to visit theplantedtank.net and look for the author medicineman under 260gal tank
would say a very colorful setup, the variety of plants alone amazed me!
have you thought of adding any woods?
Last edited by richietay; 12th Oct 2006 at 11:42.
The Happiest of people don't neccessary have the best of everything;
they just make the most of everything that comes along their way
When will there be 25 letters in the alphabets?
@richietay,
These setups are of different tanks at different times (rescaped). Both are of roughly the same size and using almost the same equipment: DIY 3 x 150W metal halides, some fluoroscent lamp, overflow sump filter, CO2 injection via reactor, DIY chiller, JBL base fert and DIY PMDD. Driftwood? there are plenty in those setups back then, the plants are just too lush and full, but if you study them closely you will find quite a number. Back then (and until now I guess) I like to collect and try different kinds of plants to see them react and grow. Plants are cheap and plentiful around here! Some are very expensive though.
Have had read your journals in theplantedtank.net, your hits(views) runs in the thousands. Amazing big tanks and a indoor sunken garden project in the making. Welcome to AQ, medicineman.
I should make more friends with the nearest neighbours (AQ members are mostly Singaporeans, just "a throw of a stone" away from me)
Should have made more friends with the locals around here but it is more difficult to do so when many of them does not hang around the net.
No intention on showing off while hiding the "behind the scene" secrets, I just love to share my works, to the details when possible. I find people's details and their given out secrets/advises to help me a lot as a newbie (even until now), so I'm doing the same to help others in return. I'm still learning and will continue learning from people
*those who follow my work may find that I have failed miserably over and over and learn the lessons
Now that is an interesting topic which is under construction. I will also need AQ's advise so I may reduce mistakes and do more things right from the start.and an indoor sunken garden project in the making
Thanks for the welcome neighbour!
More of black sand setups
I should be working not posting
Hi Medicineman, may I pay you a visit next month? I'll be there early November!
You can if you dare to fail - Stan Chung
hi medicineman,
Nice set-up you have. What gravel are you using?
Cant seem to figure out what plant (post no.6, 2nd pic)
Thanks
@standoyo,
That can be arranged
@Betta Almighty,
I used naturally occuring volcanic sand from Malang. Not really a good choise, sure the colour is great but the stuff is too light and becomes very quickly anaerobic (just in several weeks). I've given up on the darn substrate... giving me too much trouble.
The plants on second pic of 6th post are (L to R)
-hornwort
-anubias nana
-some orange marsh plant that I dont know of (newbie mistake)
-lobelia cardinalis look alike. Turns out to be marsh knock-off.
-on top : hemiantus M
-naessea sp
-java moss
If you decide to re work this tank, you might search for a nice mound like setting, namely driftwood, I think this would complement the through tank viewing the best.
Alternatively, a slope from one side to an open field might also be very effective.
I'd try reducing the species number and try building the groups larger and running longer rows of them etc through the layout.
I know it's hard to give up certain species, but you can always get them later, it's not like no one will ever have them again or something.
Scrape the substrate back away from the glass, this will make the tank look bigger and greener etc, who wants to view gravel in a tank?
Sometimes it's okay on purpose, but generally not.
A nice mound of driftwood would do well and then your Crypts and stem plants worked around that central display.
That would make your overall impression more balanced and a lot less work.
You can try more wood and perhaps rocks and that will make the scape more "defined".
Fish choice is good, congo's are nice.
Regards,
Tom Barr
Hi tom,
Meet you again here (as all the time in PT
I've been considering using less number of species, or at least use more species of the same kind of sub-species so they will look alike. Actually I already started to do that.
The many kind of plants you saw earlier is a a newbie's disease. I was too eager to try all kind of plants, observing which can grow under my setup and local water hardness and watch how they grow. It is a part of my lesson really
If you watch the later setups in PT you will find that I use lesser and lesser plants, even though sometimes I would be naughty and get several piece of never tried before plants and tuck them on concealed areas (not too notable due to the tank size).
Driftwood... also use a lot of them on the later half of the setups. They are just no visible enough even though sometimes I use huge pieces. Most of the time they got covered by huge ferns of a layer of moss that nobody notice there are huge drifwoods in the tank.
You are right about the substrate, I should buy a bigger brush and pull the frontmost substrate back more often. I did set the front lower but my cheapskate substrate flows quite well after 2-3 weeks that it kinda even out again
Thanks Tom, you've been a great help to the community!
Collectoritus is viewed by some as a disease, but you need to get familar with the plants to know what they do in a scape also.
So folks go through this stage at some point.
Main thing is to evolve and try some ideas you want.
We all neglect tanks etc, I tend to try to get folks to settle in more with an easier to maintain weed farm that has some character still even if you neglect things a little.
Big tanks require a fair amount of work.
So the issues are larger.
Branchy pieces of wood work very because they can still poke up and out of the plants. The lower parts can still be planted and it's easy to tie plants to small branches vs large blocky pieces of wood.
I just drill the wood full of holes to plant on blocky pieces.
Plug the weeds into the holes and wait.
Anubias, Java narrow left ferns, Bolbitus and Crypts all make good plants and then you can add the whisp of stem plants and color in there.
That makes dealing with them easier.
Also makes a nice design.
Gaint tanks with lots of stem plants is tough over time.
Regards,
Tom Barr
lol...so you planning to change your subsrate?Originally Posted by medicineman
hmm... could be in Emersed form? how long has it been in your tank?
@Plantbrain,
You know very well how tired it can be (youre the man after all) to handle multiple setups at one's house (in this case 2 x 1000L tanks and so on) and I've been considering to lower the maintenance level in any possible way. Plant choise, phyton WC/constant bleed and leech, lower lighting in the future perhaps? Your idea of making setup that looks OK when I have no time to prune in a month is also good. Branchy driftwood? that is something I must try by next re-scape instead of constantly playing with blocky pieces.
@Betta Almighty,
The black substrate was replaced long ago. At first it is great, but after sometime, nightmare is 100% guaranteed!
Eversince then I use very traditional old school white silica sand, 3-4mm in particles. I missed the black sand, but dare not try different substrate for now. Lesson learnt : next time I decide to try some new, natural occuring substrate I should test them out for a month or two in 50-100 liter tank. Save the trouble!
That plant was a hoax, supposed to be lobelia and I've been had. I've tried true lobelia cardinalis, emmersed and submersed form and they are much bigger.
Here is a bunch in emmersed form
note the purplish and thick leaves
I tried again and it changed into submersed form several weeks later (please dont mind the caladium... I was a naughty one).
Note that the leaves turned light green and a bit thinner. This plant is even great for bigger tank foreground, just check it out!
Med-
Yes, Dwarf lobelia is great for a foreground tank, here's a super hardwater tank I did maybe 10 years ago?
Last edited by Plantbrain; 21st Dec 2006 at 17:00.
Kinda boxy foreground back then Tom, but I like it. (perhaps it is the way people scape back then). I see that it actually work very nice as foreground
Hard water? good news if they do grow better in hard water, getting water hard is easier than making soft water.
A problem I can observe when using lobelia is it should be given enough light and no shade or else some under shadow coverage will grow taller for light (as you can see what happened to the back row of my lobelias).
Awesome Set up dude you sure know what you are doing... i simply love those Congos in there~!
like the backdrop behind the tank in the first pick.
very nice!!!
Thanks for the kind words... even though the scaping was great back then, but growth isnt
Back to the topic... shots upon shots taken these the two tanks, as a picture can say thousand words.
Some shots of the dwellers
pack of rummynose
Pot bellied rainbow shark (was puny and skinny)
and even fatter still
SAE in action (later removed because they nip at plants)
CAE, the duster
A bronze corydoras
Trio panda corydoras
A moonlight gouramy
Last edited by medicineman; 18th Oct 2006 at 17:59.
You mentioned plants are really cheap in Jkt. I visit Jkt quite often and would lke to know where to go. Especially for nana petite. I have a newly set up low maintanence tank and need lots of nana to fill up the bottom
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