Freddy's Tanks

[timebomb]

Hi, folks,

Freddy Chng who had problems uploading pictures to this forum sent these pictures of his tanks to me this evening. He said he was inspired by the simplicity of my latest aquascape. If you are wondering what he meant by simplicity - Less is More







Loh K L

[turaco]

That must be the happy Simp. magnificus in the 3rd pic . Nice! I'll try to show you guys my 'jungle' tank if I can figure out how to use my friend's D cam tomorrow..

Gan.

[zmzfam]

freddy,

very nice tank! what are you using as the ground cover? also, what happened to your fern wall?

[A.Rashid]

it looks like a palm beach with a small jungle juxt next to it... very good design here....

[FC]

Thanks fopr the compliments.

I hope the Sim Magnificus (from Au) are happy there, they are very nice fishes, very dramatic in their expressions/movements, I have lots of fun. Best fish I ever had.

The fern wall, yes, I had removed it. They were not growing well in my tank, very slow till BBA starts to attack them 3 weeks ago. I had discard them all together.

The low plants are the E. Diandra (or locally called APP). I bought 3 weeks ago, spread them evenly and they grow like mad. It is a much easier plant than glosso but not as nice in look as it lacks character. They will look much better in 1~2 weeks' time when they fully cover the ground.

The idea of the tank is to create a serene feel to the viewer. I have no real goal/target/theme, I am still searching. The Ludwigia Brevipes are the main plant, the B. Japonica are used to cover the lower part of the Brevipes and to restrain them from over-growing. When both of them mature in look, the Japonica will be dense furlish look with the super-dense Brevipes overflowing over it. It should be dramatic then because Brevipes has the sun set/sun rise colour (pinkish orange/brown).

The Tonina is used to create an island. Couple with the vast low ground, I hope to create a sense of depth. The black back ground should enhance the idea further.

I will update the tank in 1~2 weeks' time.

[checkerboard]

Hi Freddy,

Going for the island look too! Very nice! I love your brevipes bush. I agree that APP lacks the character that would otherwise be there is glosso is used instead. I find that APP looks too "tame".

But a small point, i find that the tonina island does not contrast enough with the APP. Also, us\nless you trim the tonina regularly, soon you will have what you want to avoid with the brevipes, that is the bare lower stems showing. That's why i used hairgrass in my tank because they grow taller than APP or glosso.

But, it is truly a lovely tank i have to say. Congrats! Congrats!

[FC]

Hi Yew Kiat,

Thanks for your comments. Great to see you here.

Going for the island look too! Very nice!

Yap, just like yours but in lower tone.

i find that the tonina island does not contrast enough with the APP."

I chose Tonina for sentimental reason, they were from Sia Meng who brought them to my place. I like the plants though the contrast with the E. Diandra is not there interms of leaf size and colour.

As a whole, the aquascape was inspired by Kwek Leong's latest "zen" like setup. I like Less for More but I am still not quite there yet.

[FC]

My another aquascape I had in Jul 2001:

[virce]

I wonder how you can find the heart to throw away so many plants (or at least, replant somewhere else), Mr. Loh.

[A.Rashid]

Annette,

I think it's not throwing away. I dunno abt your place but here in Singapore we have abundance of LSF selling plant and if you have good hands they grow very fast and healthy too. Many of us rather give away or may be sell it if it's a hard to get plant but normally those easy to find plant get toss out to the bin when no one wants to claim it....

[timebomb]

I wonder how you can find the heart to throw away so many plants (or at least, replant somewhere else), Mr. Loh.

Nah, I don't throw plants away, Annette. That wasn't me. That's Freddy. When I have excess plants and there are a lot of them, I give them away to fellow hobbyists. If there's just a little, I give them to the fish shops.

But I can understand why some hobbyists would rather discard plants than give them to other hobbyists. Many times in the past, hobbyists who said they want my plants when I offered them for free don't turn up to collect them. So for weeks, I end up keeping the plants in tubs all over the house waiting for them to turn up. It can be very troublesome. Sometimes when we give them to the fish shops, they give us nothing in return and hobbyists get upset over this.

Recently, I wanted to throw away a bunch of narrow leaf java ferns because I left them in the car for too long and they have all turned black. I actually meant to bring the ferns to a farm but never got around to going there. Ronnie was with me then and he thought it was such a waste to throw away plants even though they all looked pretty dead. He brought them home and 3 days ago, he told me he managed to revive them.

I guess there's a lesson here for all of us. It's like throwing away food. I hate doing that too because I know there are many hungry people in other parts of the world. So I can understand how you feel, Annette. You are starved for plants and would surely feel it's such a sin to throw them away. Too bad you don't live in Singapore but on the other hand, it's better to be starved for plants than to be starved for food

Loh K L

[kennedy_ng]

freddy your tank really look better than the last time I saw. It is really nice.




Regards,
kennedy