Attaching Mosses And Making A Path/river

[SuperColey1]

One of my current scapes 'Lallana Point' is not being updated journalwise at the moment because I want to enter it into competition in a few months time however I thought it would be good to share how I go about making some small details within a scape.

So here is my 'how to' make a path/river with sloped banks. No full front shots of the tank I'm afraid but the pictures give a good view of what I am doing.

Firstly This is how the area I am working on looks beforehand. Ignore the algae on the rocks. This tank has a lowish plantmass at the moment so not enough to fight algae off however that will change and hopefully it'll all be gone closer to the end of the scape.

As you can see it is a wide open space at the rear centre of the scape. Also this area is sloped front to back and therefore I have used gravel. There is no real transition between the sand in the foreground and the gravel used to slope but that is because if I used fine sand from the start on the slope then it would just level out with flow and shrimp involved. Fresh sand will cover this up at the very end.

A couple of sketches on top of the pictures above to show the plan.
As you can see I want a nice smooth bend to the 'river' as if it disappears around the corner. I also want the 'banks to slope upwards from the river to where it will meet the trees (Rotala Rotundifolia.) It is these banks that I will be using flame moss for.

I am going to use flame moss because it grows vertically and I can then just cut it at any angle required i.e. a short haircut close to the river and slanted up to longer strands where it meets the Rotala.

There has to be a small bank a little forward on the left to hide where the right hand curve ends and complete the effect.

So that's the plan. Next up the process

Andy

 

[SuperColey1]

To get a smooth curve I can't use larger stones. I rarely do anyway with moss. I will be using individual gravel pieces and one larger 20mm piece of slate for this as seen below. Just normal gravel from the same bag as the substrate in the tank:

Then grab some flame moss from the spare plants cupboard Only a small amount needed here. About 2 portions equivalent from the Far East suppliers.

pinch a little bit of the moss and roll it inbetween your finger tips. These are similar sized to the gravel pieces as you can see from the ruler

Get your superglue (make sure it is the gel type not the liquid type) and put a small blob (2mm diameter) on the gravel piece

Get the rolled up ball of moss and push it onto the glue. Give it one firm dab with the finger and no more because otherwise you will get moss stuck to your fingertip with a piece of gravel stuck to it.

Carry on making them

When you have finished give them 10 minutes before dropping them into a little water for a while to cure (and stay wet.) You can also see in this tub (never throw takeaway tubs away, they are really useful) the piece of slate with 6 balls attached.

So ready to get to work and away we go

From above

And from the front. In the second picture you can see a stone I did a month or so ago which has been pruned since. This was also several little rolled balls glued to the stone. This method works well.

I will have to move some pieces back into position as shrimps move them however after a while they will 'knit' together and not be a problem anymore.

Once I am ready to take final photographs the water level will be lowered right down and then I will use a filter funnel to 'drop' fresh sand directly into the 'river'. After that I will slope it, take pictures and then not be too bothered if it 'scatters' once the filter is returned and the shrimp stmp up and down on it

Next piccies probs in a month to show how this area is coming along.

Andy

 

[coldcazzie]

Looks great Andy looking forward to seeing it grown in. You're not wrong about getting moss stuck to your fingers either, I've done that many more times than I care to admit!

Wish I had as many shrimp as you - I love tanks filled with shrimp

 

[Biulu]

Nice, and very informative! Good luck with the scape in the competition!

 

[SuperColey1]

Looks great Andy looking forward to seeing it grown in. You're not wrong about getting moss stuck to your fingers either, I've done that many more times than I care to admit!

I walk around permanently with rock hard finger tips Always doing something with Superglue. Love the stuff.

Wish I had as many shrimp as you - I love tanks filled with shrimp

That tank is quite sparse really. 'Portinho' the 125ltr struggles with shrimp too These 'few' are fighting over algae pellets that I put in front of the Cory's cave. lol

Nice, and very informative! Good luck with the scape in the competition!

Shouldn't think it will do very well but worth entering. Much as I poh, pooh competitions would be intersting to get some feedback.

 

[coldcazzie]

That tank is quite sparse really. 'Portinho' the 125ltr struggles with shrimp too These 'few' are fighting over algae pellets that I put in front of the Cory's cave. lol

Wow! See that's what I wanted mine to look like, and they've barely increased their population at all...

 

[Biulu]

This is insane! I left a 5 gallon tank with about 8 cherry shrimp on its own about 2 months ago and hope to find out tonight what happened with them...

 

[SuperColey1]

I bought 10 originally for that tank about 2 years ago. 14 arrived Sold 2000+ since then. Probably 1000 or so total in this 125ltr tank at the moment. i.e. if you can see 200 then there are 5x or more in there

No secrets really. I don't feed them anything. I just feed the fish well. A good pinch of flakes at lights on, then catfish pellets + Astax Crumb (Like Tetra Prima) about 2 hours before lights out.

Seems to be doing the trick. Maybe it is the food?

I buy my food from here:
Astax Crumb - I use Grade 5 for the fish but also have grade 2 for any fry I may have. microrasbora go mad for the grade 2 as well
http/www.ta-aquaculture.co.uk/Dried_Foods.htm

Flake: standard tropical flake near the bottom of the page. 1 bag of 150g will last you a year+ on a normal sized tank:
http/www.ta-aquaculture.co.uk/Flake_Foods.htm

With both I put a month's worth into a pot and then leave the rest in the sealable bag in the fridge.

Once a month when I open my filter there are 100-400 swimming in there which I fish out and put some into the little tank.

Now you know why I say that all my tanks make me a profit. Plant and Shrimp Sales outweigh purchases by a huge amount.

Just looking at the way I've done the first 2 posts I think this may be a more useful picture. This is the area as it did look (left) and how I want it to look when completed (right.) Looks like 2 different tanks

Andy

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Very impressive Andy, looking forward to seeing it grown in, I'm doing the same thing with glue, Fissidens, Weeping, Xmas and Peacock moss on wood at the moment and my fingers are numb and rock hard.

Same with the Cherries too, my 60 litre is swarming with them, I bought 10 and have added another 3 at a time from when they started breeding (just to cut gown on interbreeding) from time to time and now have about 500 in 6 months lol. Always finding them in my filter too.

 

[coldcazzie]

I seem to have sold all the breeding ones to minnnt and Hanny! Their populations have exploded while mine seems to have remained the same. Bizzare.