Complete Re-Start

[kylealastairlove]

hi all
 
past few months I kind of lost interest in the whole aquascape/fishkeeping hobby, so (I really regret this decision) I took the whole tank down, passed on my fish emptied the tank and it was just sitting their in my room all lifeless. I had very little money to put into it and I just wasn't enjoying it, now however I seem to have got the love and interest back
 
so im starting my tank again, so after removing the internal filter factory/block/huge eye sore from my juwel lido I just recently brought myself a tetratec ex700, I already love it!
and I have decided to place the hardscape for now as theres not a lot else I can do whilst my tank is still cycling, oh I also brought some much needed new t5's
 
i was having a hard time coming up with any kind of scape so i watched some aquascape vids gained some inspiration and this is my finished product
 

 
please ignore the random assortment of rocks as they are just there to hold the wood in place for the time being ...

so tell me what you think, or if you have any suggestions on improvement
 
and the main reason i came here was to see if anybody could advise me on plants, i just have no idea what plants i want to use. except for maybe a bunch of vallis to fill the back left corner and i was also thinking of trident java fern to go on and around the largest piece of wood, please give me some ideas im really stuck! i don't have the best lighting system or substrate (just running 2x 24w juwel high lite tubes and will be dosing with liquid carbon) but tell me what you think would look good

 

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Nice looking piece of wood. Will be interesting to see what you do with this!

 

[daizeUK]

Kyle - it looks like you had the same sort of ideas and inspiration I did!
I got a Juwel 120 just like yours recently and I also went for an island scape with wood sticking up in the middle.  I think it's the best sort of style for this shape of tank and yours looks great!
 
I used narrow leaf java fern and moss, anubias and monoselenum tenerum - I think these work great for this sort of aquascape.  Mine is still in progress but have a look here to see what I've done so far http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/426608-120l-juwel-lido-eternal-cycle/

 

[kylealastairlove]

thankyou lunar, im excited to get to work on it
 
daizeUK- i just took a look at your 120, it looks fantastic i really like it also i think youre right the island scape is probably best way to go with these kind of tanks, ive tried a lot of different things with my tank but the island in the middle suits it best do you think i should move all the wood more towards the middle ? i cant work out if it looks right or not ?
 

 

[daizeUK]

Thanks Kyle, when I look at your tank I can see the plants being more heavily concentrated on the left hand side, perhaps with some tall narrow leaf java fern filling in that V-shaped gap to counterbalance the branches emerging from the right hand side, so I would be tempted to move the whole thing a couple of inches to the right so that the bulk of the planting is a bit more central.  That's just an idea though

 

[kylealastairlove]

yes that's what i am seeing too! well you have certainly just gave me something to go on right there now i look at it i do think it would be better if i shifted it all to the right slightly

 

[DiddleBug]

Looks good!  Keep us posted!

 

[kylealastairlove]

quick update!
i decided against the driftwood in the end wanted something that would fill a bit more space and so i went for bogwood instead
i have also planted the tank now too, with vallis, narrow leaf java fern and weeping moss, im probably going to add some hydrocotyle in the back too and a smaller hydrocotyle species in the foreground, im pretty happy with the tank now, especially picturing how it will look when its all established i just have to hope i don't get impatient and want to change things again lol i must stop doing that!!

im trying to post a picture for you from my photobucket account but its not letting me attach the image code here

 

[kylealastairlove]

sorted, here we go

 

[kylealastairlove]

im dosing with easy life easycarbo too, the plants have been in about a week already, some of the vallis seems to be melting off but I guess that's due to it coming from one tank and then adjusting to mine
I also took some matured filter media from my dads tank to kick start the cycle!! and there are 3 platys in my tank too which my dad had put in there without me even knowing! to help the cycle process he said (im probably gonna get a beating from some people for this lol!)

 

[Xzavier247]

Looks good.

 

[daizeUK]

It almost looks like you're going for a tree stump look, was that intentional?

 

[kylealastairlove]

it wasn't intentional, it just sort of happened

 

[Shelster]

Looks great Kyle, glad you are back into the hobby.

I really liked your last tank too, was it the kuhli loaches?? I remember leaves in the substrate