Zenscape Planted design by AQUOI

[Aeon]

I have a 2 feet acrylic tank. Some plants and a bed of glossostigmas (foreground plant). What I wanted to achieve is a natural aquascape environment for my fishes to live in.

Fishes

20 cardinal tetras
3 cherry barbs
3 otocinclus
3 yamato numa ebi

Plants

Java Fern
Glossostigma
Blyxa Japonica
Forgot the name of the background one...
Riccia fluitans

The plants row on 'ultra-expensive' made-in-japan (not sure why i spent that kind of money, lol!) ADA substrate - total S$98.
The filtration is via an external canister filter.
Lighting is 4 ordinary tubes of fluoro lights 4 x 15W
CO2 for the plants is DIY (sugar solution + yeast culture) and injected via a "flipper".
I started this tank less than 2 months ago.

Pics!!!

The tanks not fully laid out yet. I'm still growing my plants as you can see.


Front view of my tank The metal rectangular thing is my Riccia pot.


The Java Fern is on the leftmost. Glossostigma, which I'm trying very hard to cultivate is in the foreground.
My lights, 4x15 Watts FL, total = 60Watts for my light-hungry plants.


45dgrees, my DIY CO2 kit is at the left.


My glossostigmas, growing upright which is wrong. I recently bought 2 more tubes of light and increased CO2 rate hopefully they'll grow horizontally.


Glossostigmas from top, look so green!! still kinda sparse, giving it time to spread its runners...


My CO2 system, and the transperent flipper inside the tank.


My Atman canister filter.

[MdmBudak]

Not bad.

You might want to trim yr glosso and stick them into the gravel. They seem to be growing upwards.

[Aeon]

Bought the book, Nature Aquarium World book 3 (Takashi Amano) and got lots of inspiration.

Bought a rock at KS at Yishub 101. I think it looks real good. Just need to somehow plan the layout.



I've removed all my rotala wallichiis, cos they clash with my intended design concept.


** I'm giving them away, to someone who needs them more than me. Root growth is extremely good, pulled out alot of my ADA substrate...
Very green, received lots of light, no snails, no algae. Very healthy.

The uprooting process murkified my water...



So I fully opened all the valves of my filter and let it do the work.
Now the water's clearer!


Yeh, I've use the chance shoot my otocincluses.

grazing algae on my glossos.

2 on glass


I'll keep posting, this will be sort of a aquatic journal thing lol!

[Aeon]

This time I put in the stone.


Had to support the with a stick, else it wouldn't balance for this best position.


Slight different angle


... My lights are ugly with the purplish tone. But I think the combination of its blue+red is good for my plants.

[loupgarou]

incidentally, the tank doesn't look like an acrylic tank.
(it might feel like one, but it probably isn't)

ie: gex five plan etc/nisso etc are glass tanks.

[Aeon]

Oh... I thought it was acrylic cos it was easily scratched. There's one but I don't know how I scratched it. Probably my ring... :P

[Sleepy_lancs]

Its a nice start, you might need more glossos.. The stone is rather lonely don't you think? Put 2 smaller ones into your tank... and perhaps grow some plants on it (nana, moss). I think the rotala wallichiis looks quite nice in it. You need need something like crypts infront of them to balance it off and some reddish plant to make a focal point perhaps.

[Aeon]

I'm going to have 3 stones. That's the main big one slightly off center.
Then I'll have a small one in the open, resting among my glossos. So need them to grow!!! Another medium on somewhere on the right foreground.

I'll wait for some natural green algae to grow on the rock face to make it blend in.

Next will come hair grass which I have but not yet planted. I'll grow them around my rocks to blend them iinto the glossos and match my Japonicas, big grass, small grass. Then I'll transplant some taller Japonicas to the back of the big rock.

The Java Fern will most likely go.

Most probably I'll replace one of the purplish tube in the front with a normal daylight and both tubes at the back to daylight.

[mordrake]

hi nice project you have going on here

just wondering what container are you using to put your diy co2 bottle?
looks really nice and secure.

[PeterGwee]

Aeon, just a tip for you though. Try to do water changes whenever you disturb the substrate due to some uprooting jobs or rescaping work. It might seem fine for now as your substrate is still new (and the fact you did not add any mulm to kick start the substrate) but as the substrate grows older over time, there would be heavy bacteria activity and ammonia which can be lethal to inhibitants if a decent amount is being leeched.

A side note on the ADA substrate...have you check your KH and GH? They tend to drop quite fast in the initial stages. Be careful...

Regards
Peter Gwee

[Aeon]

Thanks Peter for the advice. Actually I just changed the water 2 days ago.
It's actually mulmed with my 3 cherry barbs since the 2nd day I started the tank. Reliable hardy fish to cycle the tank.
Normally I would open half of the filter flow cos my filter flow is too strong for my size. like a washing machine if turn valve fully open. whenever I cause a murk, I'll turn the flow to full to clear it up. As for chemicals, my fishes are doing fine, no signs of ill health.

I don't have any test kits but I understand as my tank gets older, I'll definitely need one.

[Aeon]

Bought some new plants today...

Pics:
The razor blade is there for size comparison.

Glossostigma Elatinoides, $5.
Eleocharis Acicularis, $5


I'm selling my Microsorium Pteropus (below) and a bunch of Rotala Wallichii for 2 bucks.

[Sleepy_lancs]

Use your Rotala Wallichii to cover up your equipment. They loook good there anyway, and the java plant can be next to your stones. which will be perfect. Don't throw them out IMHO.

[Aeon]

[quote:3ad6c68dae="Sleepy_lancs"]Use your Rotala Wallichii to cover up your equipment. They loook good there anyway, and the java plant can be next to your stones. which will be perfect. Don't throw them out IMHO.[/quote:3ad6c68dae]

I'm layouing out according to a concept I have in mind, not just to "look nice" , still planning, drawing... but I know Rotala-type plants are not the look I'm after. Maybe Villisneria...

[Sleepy_lancs]

Villisneria spirals (at least they don't grow too tall) I have them. If you want them PM me your contact. I think I'll give it to you for free... If you wish, you can pass me the Rotala wallichiis. I'm willing to adopt them

[Aeon]

Did some research, seems liek Vallisneria Spirallis grows up up 30 - 60cm.
My tank height is low, especially my substrate is thick, I don't think I can have this species. But it looks real nice!!!

I

[Sleepy_lancs]

Yeah it does.. but because its rather slower and if trim it, it will be okay. I kept mine.. and I just trim it say once every fornight. Not too bad.. its about 12 to 15 cm tall (slower growing then most of its species).. not that bad after all.. and if you find it too big, just cut it and throw them away, the side shoots will grow again to fill the gap. Its your call.. have fun thinking (thats half the fun of setting up the planted tank)

[Aeon]

Nah, I think I should decide carefully on what kind of plants I should get. I'm planting my new glossos tonight, after that I'll see how the layout can progress then decide on the next step.

[Aeon]

Phew just finished planting the glossos.

Had to take out 3/4 of the water to plant the tiny glossos. The whole bunch was tangled up with all the runners and the leaves aren't big. I finished planting at 10:45pm, 3 hours of work. and I missed lights out by 2 hours... lol!

Pictures will come tomorrow morning.

[Aeon]

Ok pics, as promised.


As you can see the glossos are really small. I just anyhow randomly inserted here and there.

Bad news!

I forgot to pulled my Japonica leaves into the water and some of it dried up under the strong FL lights. Some leaves are really shrivelled up.

What should I do? cut them off? they still look green and alive. Will they revive?