Chris Cummins' Planted Adventure

[Graeme Edwards]

This tank has great potential. Some more plants like in your scetch will bring the design more atmospher. Personaly i like the white background, i feel it adds to your design and the atmospher it brings.
The wood you are using appears to have artaficial cut ends, IMO it will be worth trying to conceal these areas with moss ( i see you have tried already).

All in all a good design with great potential.

Regards,
Graeme.

 

[ChrisC]

Perhaps you may want to consider a black background to accentuate your colorful plant layout.

I've used black backgrounds (bin bags are ace ) on all my previous tanks and while I do think they do an excellent job of accentuating plants/fish, I prefer the look of a bright white background on fw planted tanks, they just seem to look more "natural".

I've had numerous forgrounds over the years, and found that hairgrass is the best in terms of long-term maintenance. E.tenellus just grows too fast and invasive in my opinion. Also, if you don't give it enough light, it can grow quite tall. good luck!

Thanks for the info. Have you had any problems growing hairgrass? I've heard lots about it being an ace crap collector and also being hard to grow/carpet.

The wood you are using appears to have artaficial cut ends, IMO it will be worth trying to conceal these areas with moss ( i see you have tried already).

Yup, 'tis annoying but was not enough to put me off buying it tho, my entire inspiration for trying fw aquascaping was this pic, and I love the look of tangled, branched wood:

Thanks for the comments.
Chris

 

[Underwurlde]

I know what you mean by getting inspired.

The cleverst aquascape I've seen by far is where some chap had used wood that was placed in a fashion to look like mangrove tree roots like you see in the nature documentaries about life in the amazon river. These bits of wood started with the thicker ends OUTSIDE the tank, tapering into the water and then into the substrate. He then planted some moss in patches on these 'roots' to make it look like the roots wrere coming from an old established tree.

The fish were then simming into & out of these roots and he had even placed some 'old & rotting' looking roots in the substrate.

I don't think my explaination does it justice but it was beyond clever.

Andy

 

[wei0204]

The drift wood is matched with many nice looking plants, which gives a nice view of it. I personally LIKE that part.

But I think it is still a bit empty on the other side of the tank, and some carpeting should give a greener look.

Slowly add in new plants and enjoying the growth... Hope to see more pictures coming up sooon.

Good job...

 

[Dubby]

Great looking tank. I really like the white sand spaces which makes it look like a walk on the seashore. The driftwood, broad leaved plants and the red (looks like seaweed) all add to te effect. I wouldnt spoil it by using a carpeting plant.

 

[ChrisC]

There seems to be mixed feedback over whether a carpeting plant would be beneficial. From my POV, I'm not too worried about hurrying in a carpet of plants. Instead I'm going to add some more lighting (2 x 18W PCs), C02 and basically just kick back and watch how it develops. Thanks for the feedback. I'm thinking about going EI, I'm still researching tho, although it seems to fit my maintenance regime fairly well (I don't mind doing large water changes but testing a billion water stats was the bane of my existence during my marine period.

Chris

 

[ChrisC]

IDEA II
Now that I'm fairly comfortable with experimentation in aquascaping, I've decided to do my first "true" aquascape which is not an emulation of an Amano tank, although it is still heavily influenced by his work. The result is a deliberately off balance aquarium.



This idea was then taken and manipulated to come up with this idea:



And without the moss on the wood:


The red plant is Ludwigia Arcuata, the green plant on either side is either Hemianthus Micranthemoides or Micranthemum Umbrosum, the carpeting plant on the substrate/wood is a mix of Vesicalaria Dubyana and Riccia Fluitans and the three bunches of plants are a mix of Cryptocoryne Bullosa and Cryptocoryne Wendtii.

All feedback/criticisms/comments appreciated as always.

Chris