54 liter tryout

After 25 years brake and suddenly finding aquascapes at youtube i got inspired again. I triggered my fantasies and remembered how nice and relaxing the keeping of an aqaurium actualy was for me. Seeing the making of videos from James Findley realy jumpstarted my interest again especialy the scape Tributary gave the final braketrough for me to pick the hobby back up again. I realy wanted an open top shallow scape with emersed parts, this was something i havent's seen before and gives an totaly other dimension to the aquarium.

But after 25 years brake i didn't feel confident enough to go straight to the final idea i had on my mind. I have nearly no experience with the todays techniques of aquascaping. So i didn't want to create a monster in the living room. Still had an older 54 liter tank standing around and thought lets give that a go to get the feel of it back again. So i started this little tank up again in april this year. tried a little scapping with rocks but quickly found out that's more difficult than it looks. And because there are so many new plants these days i never have seen before in my life, i just went on, back to the basics with what i knew from the early days. Thought make a little jungle setup and tryout as many plants as i can. So i find out what and how to use in the future when the real work starts. Anyway for now i came up with this little jungle in my hobby room and it's still a work in progress.

My camera still is working more against me than with me. that's why it took so long before i was confident enough to show some of my work. But anyway and can keep postponing it but that doens't make it much better. Here are a few shots to beging with. Ill hope i get better along the way..

Soil: Akadama and Colombo
Ferts: Tropica PG, Profito and Rhizotonic

Technical part:
Co2 on a Milwauky SMS122 controler
Lights DIY LED on tc420 timer dimmer controller (about 30 watts total)
Heating 120 watt DIY inline
Filtration 2,5 liter canister filter, adjustable 600 l/h
All parts run on 12 volt with ATX power supply

The plants i used are:
Eleocharis acicularis 'Mini'
Hemianthus callitrichoides Cuba
Micranthemum sp. Monte Carlo
Anubias Nana Petit
Riccardia chamedryfolia- Mini Pelia
Vesicularia dubyana Santa Claus
Fissidens fontanus
Utricularia graminifolia
Rotala Mexicana Goias
Bucephalandra Sekadua
Pogostemon helferi
Bolbitis heudelotii
Rotala mini type 2
Bolbitis heteroclita difformis
Bolbitis sp. 'Buea' (Didymoglossum erosum) (FAIL)
Pygmea Nymphea Rosennymphe Bonsai
Lilaepsis Brasiliensis
Staurogyne repens
Leptodictyum riparium (Sneak in)
Potamogeton gayi
Rotala Indica 'Bonsai'
echinodorus dschungelstar nr 2 kleiner bär
Ricia Fluitans
Süßwasertang
Flame moss
some unknown mosses to experiment with
Peperomia Rosa
Drosera Pymgmae
salvinia
Duckweed

life stock:
7 Corydoras pygmeas
6 Otocinclus V.
12 Hyphessobrycon amandae
13 Amano Shri

Tips, feedback, critisism, anything is welcome.. please give it to me! I can only learn and get better.. ( I hope).

Thanks

Marcel

 

Jason great feature, thanks for pointing it out.. And thanks for the likes..

 

Thank you Jason
The only rare ones you're pointing at i can think of are probably

Rotala Mexicana Goias - Found privatly, i believe this guy is also member of Ukaps
Potamogeton gayi - Also found privatly.
Bolbitis sp. 'Buea' (Didymoglossum erosum) - Now and then available in some shops when import from Cameroon Africa comes in. Unfortunately i didn't clean this little bugger

and it was infested with algae, clado and stag, it jumpstarted the boom in my tank. Did cut all of it out again. Only have few tiny pieces left which survived the slaughter it grows very slow. Thats was a relation gift out of the real jungle.
Pygmea Nymphea Rosennymphe Bonsai - Found via ebay in Germany from a Nymphea hobbyist.

The rest is relatively easy to obtain in the netherlands.

I forgot one Pyrrhobryum dozyanum this is a sort of haircap moss from asia and not truly aquatic, gave it a go but shows only problems, ill take it out again.

 

For me this is a test phase as well, that's why i packet it so full with plants..

My initial idea is actualy a 90 x 30 x 25 cm tank, build in a hole in the wall between kitchen and diningroom. And for such a narrow and shallow tank it's a real challange to make at viewable from 180 degrees around. It needs to be viewable from kitchen and diningroom so it wont have a front nor a back. The wall is a side wall so when you walk in to the diningroom you have to look slope upwards and then you walk around the tank into the kitchen where you have to look sloop upwarts again to the other end of the tank. That Reciprocity scape of James Findley again, gave me this inspiration, tho that scape is massive and i need to shrink it down over 10 times.

But because it will be also shallow i'm very ristricted to plant hight, i can only use forground and maybe a bit midground plants wich don't grow to large or can be kept relatively small. So i took a rather large plant collection just to find out what i can get out of them. In the diningroom/kitchen scape i wont put so many, but before i'm there i know which plants i will and can use to make it work.. The 20 plant species in this small tank i testing now are all for and mid ground plants, which theoreticaly can be kept small, in this tank im trying to learn this technique and how to keep them healthy.. Doing a scape like that from scratch without much experience would only become an expensive and possible ugly dissaster. Therefore this low budget DIY test object to play with and learn.. And mean while i'm lurking the forums for knowledge, other ispirations and idea's And very unexpected meet very nice poeple as well, thanks for that..

Another snapshot for the fun of it.. The bubbling Bolbitis. This i cant shoot in the dark because it's done bubbling than.

 

Keith
Oh yes, rocks are very difficult i've tried several things before which where kinda beautifull in my visualization.. and when i tried to scape it for real it was a dissaster. After a few try outs i gave the rock scape up and went with more dominant with wood instead.

 

Thanks roy, the emersed part is doing very wel fortunately.. Indeed yesterday a did cut a few stems of the rotala indica away.. Today the it's marcandras turn.. I always trim in stages piece by piece and look for a day.. Or wait a week to let the replanted cuttings grow in a bit.. Before i cut the rest.. Also a learning stage still..

 

Today i bought me a (not) new camera, 3 years old. Tried some shots.. The camera does an impressive job and has a ton of settings, no more excuses about that... Now is it up to me, to do the preperations, cleaning, trimming (again ).. And get to know the thing..

 

The Fujifilm Finepix HS25 EXR.. Also great for running around in nature with it's 24mm - 720mm 30 x zoom lens.. It has full auto dummy features and loads of settings to get more advanced in time.

 

Thanks.. Now it's up to me to learn to handle the thing..

 

Keith thanks.. Yup thats the one, and it wasn't all that expensive 1/5 of it's new price...

That 3th photo was a try with a tip from you.. The 15 degree up from the left hand corner. These are tricky shots as well, cause the glass tends to wonk the picture if the angle isn't taken right. Now i have to cover me the back panel, because there is to much light leaving and scatering back from the with wall behind it. Get my new light fixture hanging.

 

Working on it.. Trimmed that bunch of rotala's, they where growing a bit to large and to much for that spot.. Preparing the tank for a nice journal.. Finaly..