Dutchy's 180 gallon scape "Moments of Tranquility"

Hi,

Here's my scape as it is now. My goals have changed a bit over time as less maintainance is getting more important, so I made some changes recently, it still needs some weeks to fill in.

Lately I pushed back the plants backward from the front window and increased substrate height in the back corners to around 10 inch. This gives more perspective. I'm still thinking about making some small rock formations in the front near the Blyxa, not sure yet. If you want to give me advice about that, please don't hesitate.

Fish are now around 50 cardinals, 18 hatchets and some Apistos.

Too bad the upcoming AGA aquascaping contest closes in 4 weeks, I don't think it will be ready on time to enter.....



Filtration is provided by two Eheim 2078e's and CO2 by a pH controller with two AM1000 reactors. A Vortech MP20 takes care of surface agitation. Lights are 4 rows of T5 at 6500K with 10 hours of duration. PAR is around 75 at substrate level.

 

Hi Gerry, well, I was in a dilemma what I was going to do scapewise, I didn't like the looks of the tank that much anymore so no pics....

Thnx, and actually, it is L. aromatica in that corner... I agree it needs some colour. Good remark, I have to see what I can improve there.

There might be more cardinals, but I'm also waiting for a school of red pencils...

I might actually try something like that and post a new pic. Anyway they are easy to remove if I don't like it.

I've been reading along with your topic also and have to say your tank made dramatic improvements after a difficult start. Looks better all the time

 

Thnx. The tank has a closed top btw.... The hatchets wouldn't also survive very long....

Beckfordi's are also very nice. Depending on their origin they can be very red and the behaviour of the competing males is very nice!!

 

I love the colours of your 120, but the style is too much arranged for me. What I'm trying to do is a nature style scape, disarranged but no chaos and also no terrestrial scenery under water.

Scaping is even harder than growing plants. I'm getting better at it, but it takes a lot of trial and error. The problem is often limited hardscape resources, not having just the right size rock, or wood....

For others who want to know more about aquascaping, Amano's Aquajournal is a good resource.

 

Thnx Jerry,

I'll try to keep posting a pic every now and then. More people should do so btw. I just need a better camera...

 

I made some changes.

I added Cyperus helferi in the right corner and also water sprite (Ceratopteris cornuta) The Ludwigia inclinata that was in the right corner moved over to the left, but will be replaced by Bacopa colorata. There is also some Ludwigia super red in the tank, but this still has to grow, there's only one stem visible at the moment, although there are more. This will be a larger bunch and bring some colour together with the Bacopa colorata.

I also made a forced ventilation from a PC power supply fan in the closed canopy to promote gas exchange. This resulted in a higer pH in the morning (from 7 to 7.2) and more pearling during the day, which might implicate O2 levels are higher now.

If you look back at the first pic you can see the growth over one week.

I'm going to add some more cardinals, although I have 50, they are masters in hiding and mostly come out as soon as the light decreases in the evening.

 

Yesterday I changed some things besides the normal trimming. I added a piece of wood to the left side to make it look less arranged and planted the Bacopa colorata, which is still in emersed form, so very green. I want to redo part of the right side, mainly the wood and the center plant, I ordered some M. trident after seeing Gerry's results. Also the water sprite grows too big and too messy. I ordered some new manzy pieces from Tom to redo this side. There also might be an arch between both sides, grown over with mosses.

I doubled the amount of cardinals, another result of looking at Gerry's videos. It looks better, before it was a bit empty. Maximum will be around a 100 for my tank, because Dutch NBAT competition rules don't allow more fish than 1 per 1.25 gallon. If I do more, this will cost me points. And the Dutch jury will be at my house to judge the tank, so no photoshop.

 

@Jerry: Thnx, yes the stauro has to grow in more, but it will not completely fill in the foreground. Or do you think I should?

@Tom: Can you elaborate a liitle bit more about the location for the H. araguaia?

The water sprite is exit tomorrow, this will be filled in with trident. I ordered a plant, but it takes long..... If you have some?

Tomorrow I will buy a few more cardinals and look out for some checkerboard cichlids (crenicaria)

 

So today I removed the water sprite and changed it for some java fern as an intermediate solution while waiting for the trident fern. It looks better now, but I still need a plant right next to it, in front of the Cyperus. The P. erectus was replanted a little bit more to the rear. I also bought a small patch of giant willow moss. Plants are very cheap here, a big size java fern is only $3.

The tank is virtually algae free but high summer temperatures have risen the water temperature too high which is always visible on some plants. Nothing I can do, just wait until it cools down again

The cardinals are showing themselves much more now, seems that numbers do matter. Could not find any checkerboard cichlids, but I found an online source with next day delivery. Should be ok because fish also are imported that way. I might try that.

I made the pic with a different camera, so if you notice difference, there are no light changes or something like that.

 

Thnx for explaining. Good ideas, I will seriously think about that. Seems that I found a well known source for some plants that we both know Will take some weeks though but maybe I can do it at the same time with the new wood.

The Stauro is actually not more than 2 inch from the front glass, but I was afraid there would be too much of a "line effect" if I use a carpet. But if it looks better that way, I'd better do it. The good thing about leaving a little bit of open space in the front is that the tank actually looks bigger.

Anyway I have to be careful when I change things now, the AGA contest closes in two weeks and the NBAT contest is within two months.

 

Hi all,

I took another pic yesterday after (again) some changes. Since I decided to focus on the Dutch national scaping competition end of october, after a hint from Tom, I still have some time to make it better.

First of all I removed the Cyperus helferi in the right corner and replanted the Pogestemon erectus which gives a nicer more lengthwise view of this corner. Also totally on the right I planted some Heteranthera zosterfolia, with the intention to keep it kind of low, but make a bright contrast in a somewhat dark corner, which also won't make it grow that fast. More changes to come on this side of the tank....

According to Tom's suggestion I planted a red-brown crypt in the middle part which gives a nice accent between the green Blyxa.

I also received the new branches of manzy I ordered from Tom. One of the pieces is an arch which I want to try in the middle overgrown with some mosses. Will take some weeks before most of the tannins leach out and maybe I want to wait to make big changes until after the competition.

Not much fish visible in the new pic, there are like 100 cardinals now but as soon as I approach the tank they are gone for some time.

The weather is cooling down now so the water temp is dropping again to it's normal value and plants immediately resume their normal rate of growth, which looks a lot better.