Awesome is as awesome flows... my 20L

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

lol dont know that I'll keep that name, but AWESOME is the only thing I could think of when I finished this..

here is hardscape, planting to be done tonight... lots of anubias, DHG reg and belem, all three of the hydrocotyles, some moss, maybe some riccia, HM, and a little local plant I found that I love... also maybe a small crypt or two

BTW thank you Tom Barr, I would never be this advanced in the hobby without all the info you throw out there for us, and my scape would not be possible without the beautiful DW I got from you....

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

here is the build

this was before de rim and when intial planning was going on

then de rim and wood setup

little substrate before the intial rocks, also added more slate to build up back island

placed rocks and added a support to divide substrate on other side as I wanted smaller rocks over there

added these two things in combination to build the riverish sand thing : )

after that prepped to add worm castings and osmocote plus, flourish black was laid on bottom, did not rinse at this point

added too much osmocote and rocks, I didnt weigh it and thought I was putting in correct amount.. its about double what Tom recommended and he said what was recommended was alot...

added worm castings after boiling and let settling and running water through till it was clearish, the worm castings that is, then added them to tank, mixed in a little old substrate from another tank to add some bacteria

capped with flourish reg, black, and black sand that was taken from another tank, soaked in part glutaraldehyde to kill any algae lurking, and thoroughly rinsed, for a good twenty minutes to make sure it was all out and all roots lurking were rinsed out as well leaving a very nice and clean flourish mix...

you can see how nicely the large part of the DW goes over the river in the middle where no plants will be planted

initially this was the scape, the top layer of soil is UP aquasoil

finished hardscape before planting

 

[Gilles]

Really really nice man! I hope you get better results with WC then i did. Since i've completely swichted to ADA (no additives like bacter and shit) my plants really flourish!

 

[jerrybforl]

Looks good so far! Can't wait to see the pics with the plants in it.

added too much osmocote

...that is a LOT of O+ hehehe

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

here is a teaser will post better pics tomorrow when water clears up...

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

got some real bad diatoms and stunted/no growth for over a month, whatever the issue the tank has stabalized and is showing nice signs of growth

here is some of the emersed I started about a week ago, just a clump of riccia that is stuck on some of the little branches sticking out of the DW and a little moss to help sutff root... the wide leaf watersprite is doing super well and the hydrocotyles are showing signs of emersed growth along with the glosso, should fill out nicely....

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

here is the emersed growth about a week later...

trimmed the E Belem, took out the glosso, should have some E trandra (sp?) here prob tomorrow from Tom I am planning on planting

here is current shot of tank

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

FTS

if anyone is paying attention lol, know its kinda DB name for the thread, but no replies?

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

Lol its been a while since I had any feedback on this thing, what do you guys think???

also think I am going to remove the HM on the left behind the Elatine Triandra, and replace with some S. Repens from Tom

Thoughts on how this will look??? I will move some stuff on the right and add the HM over there where I am keeping all smaller leaved plants to give the perspective of being in the distance.

IMO the elatine triandra made the HM loose its appeal on that side

also thinking of putting the HM where the hair grass on the left was and is growing back ultra slow after its last trim, although I may need to put crypts under there as it receives very little light due to the wad of semi emersed stuff on the wood....

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

took out most of the equipment so you can see the awesomeness of the open space in the middle

so even tho no one is replying, with 900+ views at least your looking at it.

The HM was removed and put on the right in the front, and it was replaced with staro repens

 

[jerrybforl]

Looks awesome! I love the emergent growth. What is the red plant in the back? Looks very nice. Where did you get the rocks from?

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

rotala margenta, I believe. There are a couple stems of amania as it was listed at the LFS on the left behind the stargrass as well.

rocks are from a small place called bloom beach around here. Free is the best price!.... I still have a large canvas bag with maybe 30-40 lbs of them for a 75 gallon build in the near future...

 

[Chunks]

Wow you have done well with earthworm castings. This is what I want to do in a tank of mine soon. I'll be coming back to read what you have done. You got a link to some info you used?

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]

didnt find much good info other than I should mineralize them, from what I understand of it, you keep it in water for 2-3 weeks, changing some of the water every couple of days, then let it dry in the sun and bateria take care of the organics in it so not so many will get into your tank.....

it was early spring when I put this tank up and the weather would not purmit that so I just boiled it and changed the water a bunch for 2-3 days after, then only used the stuff that was settled on the bottom.... lol dont know if that even helped as I had some serious diatom issues in the begining of the scape

 

[Gerryd]

Hi,

The tank looks nice and plant growth seems healthy which is my focus, as I can't scape my way out of a paper bag...

You are posting I think in one of the forums that require a sub iirc. So, not as many folks can comment as may like as they are not a subscribed member...

 

[Green Thumb Aquatics]