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Amazing scape.. I love it !!
keep updating =)
Yippie!! Reptiles and Fishies!
Hi BBA,Originally Posted by blackBRUSHalgae
Yup..i lazy la... don't want to dose all the time. The main thing is to keep the nutrients high and like a buffet for the plants in a high maintenance tank like this one. It helps the plants have a good fighting chance and in return keeps algae at bay.
Sometimes when i cannot water change exactly on the 7th day.. i just dose a bit more and let the tank run for 10 days or so...just to make sure its still a buffet in there for the plants.
For algae, i find that Phython-git helps a ton. i now religiously dose about 10-20 drops everytime i water change.
Hi tcy, the bottle says 2drops every 5 litres mah... so for 189litres, that works out to about 76drops? i just dose 80 and round it off...haha...
Amazing scape.. I love it !!
keep updating =)
Yippie!! Reptiles and Fishies!
Thanks Emmanuel
Here is the update for this week.
Week 10.
Pardon the little plant in the middle. i'm just planting it out.
Added some other plants and a little bit of hardscape.
Thinking about pebbles for next week.
Here is a slightly more creative shot..
Hi there...nice scape!
it is a little bit similar with mine
just some personal opinion:
1) you need to figure out how you want to shape your stem plant, at the moment they look a little bit "one dimensional".....but i guess some trimming will help!
2) on the right hand side, your foreground and stem plant look disconnected. should try to make a smoother transition from foreground to mid/background.
3) your path look a little too tidy, should try to "mess" it up a little bit, as you are creating a jungle, not a man made garden!
above just my very personal opinion, don't take it too seriously.
you have already done quite some good work there!
good luck!
Yippie!! Reptiles and Fishies!
Thanks Stormy!
Totally agree with you. i left everything out to grow and didn't trim at all this week.
Of course the tank won't be left like that when i take the final picture but i really appreciate the feedback and areas to pay special attention to. Thanks!
The path i am going to mess it up... got some gravel and plants to consider at a later stage and also like you said.. thinking of how to make the scape more 3 dimensional.
Actually i already have a plan but have yet to act on it... act on it already also cannot take picture cos if want to go for competition...cannot post.
Do you have any ideas how to increase the dimentionailty of this scape? plants to use to achieve this? where to position it?
I'm planning to do a "V" trim soon... and also to blend (as you've mentioned) the transition from front to back.
Hi...as i mentioned, your layout is already quite nice, whatever improvement coming next, is just icing on the cake!
i was also using straight wood in my last layout, i also find creating a 3-dimensional effect kinda hard. you see, in your case, the main part of your tank (the wood and stem plant) are all pointing up, that's why it does not give people a 3-D effect. to enhance the 3D effect in tanks like that, you can consider the following (that's what i did):
1) add rocks - in your case, i feel that if you add 1 dark color rock among the stem plant, at the location where currently there is a single stem plant coming out from the path is. not to add the rock on the path, but behind your moss "divider" where the lone stem plant is currently blocking. hope you get the idea.
2) shape your stem plant. yup, V shape will help, but to make it better, the slope has to be in 2 direction, left to right (or right to left), as well as from front to back. with that, you don't create a 2-D wall, but a 3D mount.
3) lighting - during final photo shooting, lighting effect is very crucial in bringing out the 3D. in your case, i assume that you should have a back lighting shining right from the end of your path.
4) plant species - at the moment, you have stem plant that is going upward, and foreground (is that HC) that is kinda flat on the ground. if you can decorate your tank with some (little bit will do) wilder plants that is going different direction (i.e. with leafs pointing to the side or pointing to viewer), it will give better 3D effect. plants that you can consider, tenellus and narrow leafs. both are good plants choice for jungle and both give the natural, wild and 3D effect. as for where to put them, you need to figure out!
OK....above are just from my personal experience and i am just sharing with you. there could be many other method to have the 3D effect, i'm still learning.
you already have a nice tank going.....shouldn't be hard to make it nicer!
good luck!
What's this V trim that you guys are talking about?
Yippie!! Reptiles and Fishies!
Wah! Thanks sooooo much stormy. Really appreciate all your opinions and improvement points. i think this is what is great about posting your tank up...many good constructive comments and we learn from each other.
i'll add in my own plans for this tank then maybe others can get some sort of idea what is happening.
1) add rocks - believe it or not, i know EXACTLY what and where you're talking about. Truth is, there is already a rock there!! just that now it is too small and cannot be seen clearly... it was great to sugggest a larger rock...really useful thought..and i will seriously consider how i can make this suggestion work. Agreed that it will add to the scape more.. perhaps it should show a little more rock face then all mossed up?? what do you think?
2) i have to admit the trimming on the tanks looks like crap now. As already mentioned.. this sort of scape the trimming, timing of growth and length and understanding of plant growth is paramount!!! How the plants take shape and look will totally (my opinion is about 75%determine how 3D this scape will look. I've been thinking a while as to the type of trim i'll make and i think left to right should be "V" and front to back should be in the shape of something like "^" . i know some scapes the front to back the shape is just "/"... don't know if you get what i mean... "/" is like low in front sloping to high behind,"^" is like low in front sloping to a high point and the lower again (slightly).
Squee: so "V" in this sense means from left to right, High on both ends and low in the middle.
However, i still cannot fully visualise how to do this practically... so probably need to use a sample drawing or some sort of model to help me see how it would look before a final trim.
3) lighting - You hit it right on the nail on this one... brighter centre from the apex of path.. fading out to light blue around.
4) plant species - Do you think more straight plants will help? i'm worried that if i add more long leafed plant species that i might be over doing it. i bought some Staurogyne Sp. yesterday to try to explore this option.. also thinking of adding some hydrocotyle sibthropoides around the forground to break up the straigth shapes...Do you think these would work? i thought i might try to break the monotony with shapes. Althought i do agree that the E.tellenus will prob turn red and give me colour and that would help break the monotony.
Placing is a problem though..haha... have to see see see long long before i place one plant..haha..
Once again.. just wanna say thanks for the comments.. they really really helped and allowed me to start thinking again with fresh ideas. Thanks Stormy.
LOL...no need to thank me, you did all the hard (and good) work yourself, i just talk (crap) only!
i agree the rock that we both talking about, should be much bigger and show more rock surface. try not to cover too much with moss, you won;t be able to see the contrast.
yup i know the ^ and / slope.....but i think it is hard to bring out the ^ slope effect in photo, it will look like /.
i think it is good to have the ^ slope when you have 2 layer of stem plant, the first layer you do ^, the 2nd layer you do /, so that the 2nd layer will appear further from the 1st layer and add more depth. tried that before, it really look like 2 mountain overlapping.
but with your tank, i think it is quite hard to do as you do not have a thick enough stem plant, so maybe a / slope will do. but you can try ^ no harm!
i do not think adding long leafs plant is a problem, but not too many though. the reason why i suggested tenellus and narrow leafs is that their leafs is going all the direction, it adds to the dimensional effect of your tank. yout tank now is still looking very "neat" and "tidy", you need to make it wilder, and to me, tenellus and narrow leafs are both very sexy wild plants! if this is my tank, i will plant some tenellus around the base of your tree, not too many, just enough to show little bit of its sexiness.....LOL
narrow leafs are more difficult to place in your tank...i wish i can show you my tank....but i guess have to wait for another week!
Staurogyne is also too "neat" in my opinion, but i do see a good place to place them. you should plant your stauregyne in between your HC and your stem plant on the right side, create a nice transition mid ground. at the moment, the HC and stem plant appear to be too.......neatly separated, if you know what i mean!
remember....a forest should be wild and sexy......
but you are doing great! keep it up!
Yippie!! Reptiles and Fishies!
week 12.
Did a rough trim at week 11 and observing this week.
Also added fish... some hyphessobrycon sp. peru blue/red fin.
pardon the floating tupperware and wrapped rocks.
Don't think i like the "v" trim...makes it look a little fake....need to rethink. Perhaps i'll change to a very thin curtain of plants on the rear. ya?
This is my thinking chair..
comments welcomed.
i like what i see...
nice path concept , maybe a light blue or white sticker backdrop to depict the sky
Last edited by limz_777; 1st Nov 2009 at 00:28.
really nice like a path in a junggle wew..
The greatness of a nation ... (Gandhi)
Nice scape Ranma. Looks like a path leading into the forest. I like it a lot.
- Luenny
I should be working not posting
I looked at it and just thought WOW. Good job Ranma.
I thought of something like this-
Use white sand- the brown sand looks a little dirty IMO.
Moved the thick DW on the right a couple of inches and placed two bigger rocks.
Could do well with a fork in the path to open up the right side.
Added another branch on the left.
I wonder if some mini java ferns on the 'trees' would make nice Asplenium nidus effect.
You can if you dare to fail - Stan Chung
Yippie!! Reptiles and Fishies!
Thanks everyone.
LAst week i made a FATAL mistake and forgot that this tank is highly injected with co2. Hence, the plants totally oxygenate the water so much that the water cannot be more oxygenated and the plants give off O2 bubbles. This is also known commonly as pearling or the pearling effect.
This is a problem when you have fauna in your tank and you pump in CO2 at a high rate. When does this problem occur? during WATER CHANGE!!
Anyone care to guess why?
Well.. simply because during water change, you take out about 50% of the water and replace it.. problem is you take out OXYGENATED water and put in non-oxygenated water. This plus high injection of CO2 equals DEATH of FAUNA from co2 poisoning!!
Last week i lost 11pcs of Hyphessobrycon peru blue/red because of this. Bloody lost $200 in 5 hrs!! very very "sian" (disappointed). Managed to save the other 19pcs and hoping that they will do well in the tank.
Wondering how to do a water change...perhaps i can only do it before the entire light cycle and co2 injection kicks in on the timer. For now, this seems the only way.
Yippie!! Reptiles and Fishies!
Thanks for the suggestion Stan.
I feel that what you sketched really opens up the scape, but i am not aiming for that. i want a more.....pathy long look... dont know if you know what i mean...haha.
But i see some really good points in your scape change that i can still apply like rock positioning and other "tree" positioning.
Have about 10 more very thin "trees" i'm going to insert into the scape slightly later.
Also planning some rocks but that one is tricky as i need to remove plants to accomodate it.
Also have about 2 more pots of Staurogyne coming in and some other experimental plants. i know the fern look you're talknig about.. but i think java is too big no? How big are the mini java ferns you mentioned? definitely worth considering.
One last trim this week to finalise trimming style. Then i'm going to insert more "naturalisation" hard scape...kekeke.
I should be working not posting
I don't think I've seen this fish before. Do post a pic!sorry in my excitement I forgot about your loss. I think you can afford to turn down the CO2 a little. An air pump for night aeration would be good.
I think you should go with your gut instinct with your scape-just giving armchair suggestions here!
The mini java fern you can just put in some baby ones.
There's a 'midi' type- however it's not that small but should serve the purpose.
You can if you dare to fail - Stan Chung
If you have decent surface movement, oxygen shouldn't be an issue. You need to see if CO2 is really too high or you did not change water for several weeks and then decide to do a large one (too large a "salt" parameter change similar to that of drastic KH change using baking soda).
Regards,
Peter Gwee
Plant Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger
Yippie!! Reptiles and Fishies!
hey Peter!! great to see you again. Thanks for the feedback.
I do water changes weekly. This was the first water change with fauna in the tank.
And i think you may be right la... my tank got no surface movement or very little of it at least... i think thats why they all "mati" (died). But i got skimmer mah..so shouldn't the skimmer also suck air (at least a little) in?
Think i might switch on the air pump before a water change this time and see how.
Stan,
actually there is a picture on AQ already posted by the hong kong dealer at this link
Can you get any of these midi java ferns or mini java ferns for me to try? the small ones?
i appreciate the comments... going to open up the scape a bit with just trimming this week...then take a pic and see how. good thing my plant selection allows me to do that..as in my mid ground plants can also be foreground plants with added triming... it looks good too..
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