Endless Pursuit Of Perfection

[stevereade]

I swear planted tanks are an endless pursuit of perfection, I've set up the tank added pretty much everything I wanted too and still not happy with it. Today after a botched first try I succeeded with the moss wall, I'm hoping it will grow down the mesh as I used plastic greem mesh from Homebase for two quid and only had enough moss to fill down to the top of my background plants. I picked at the moss to get it all facing the correct way, bunched it in nicely and spent a few hours with a needle and green thread getting it perfect. Next I trimmed the plants, done a water change and got it all cleaned up and after all that I'm now thinking the mish mash of sand with gravel mixed into it is looking a bit messy lol. After all that I can't believe I'm gonna rip it all out and restart the whole thing over substrate I'll get some pic's up once I can get the lights back on and would like some opinions please. Other thing I thought was maybe adding some more sand to cover the bit of patchy gravel and make it look like its just sand but I'm not sure yet tho.

 

[Rafael Dilone]

I know exactly what you feel. When i started planted tanks about 8 years ago or so i always wanted to keep on doing more and more and you tend to mess up and make errors. But its all about trial and error at first. Then you read endless books and gather tons of experiences and sooner or later you will have an amazing planted tank or several in my case. Today i have about 7 planted tanks spread out all over my house and i have finally reached them to what i wanted. It takes years sometimes for a large planted tank to aquascape exactly how you envision. I find that Takashi amano designed tanks always give me new ideas and reason to always keep up with planted tanks. Here are some pictures of his tanks in case you are unfamiliar with him.

 

[Verminator89]

Lol, if anyone is in the planted aquaria trade/hobby and DOESNT know who Takashi Amano is, might aswell hang up their aquatic gloves now so to speak. The guy is planted tank royalty! He's the Richard Branson of planted aquaria

 

[SuperColey1]

A bit OTT there Verminator

Steve. I would turn that moss wall the other way round. If you haven't enough moss to do the whole thing fill out the bottom and let it climb towards...the light.

You may find that with it only being at the top you end up with a green 'floating' hedge

AC

 

[stevereade]

Lol, if anyone is in the planted aquaria trade/hobby and DOESNT know who Takashi Amano is, might aswell hang up their aquatic gloves now so to speak. The guy is planted tank royalty! He's the Richard Branson of planted aquaria

I only found out who he is after joining this forum and I previously had successful discus, community and puffer set ups, I think if you want a planted tank you should use your own imagination. I do admire what he's done but you don't need to know who he is to be successful.

I may get some more moss to finish the wall off supercoley, I'm gonna give it a sort out today with some more sand then I'll get a pic on this thread.

 

[RadaR]

Lol, if anyone is in the planted aquaria trade/hobby and DOESNT know who Takashi Amano is, might aswell hang up their aquatic gloves now so to speak.

 

[ian]

i wonder if Amano would like to be compared to Richard Branson??

I bet he wishes he had his money!

 

[stevereade]

Well here's the pics, what do you think? Planning on leaving it alone for a month or so now to let everything grow up then trim the tops to get them bushy. What ya reckon?

 

[ian]

looks good, once the cabomba bushes out the moss wall will look loads better. Have you thought about some hardscape at all? A darker rock would look loads better in there, then we need to get a couple of mid ground plants in there. Are you running DIY c02 or pressurised?

 

[stevereade]

Its yeast CO2, the rocks do suit it but my iPhone takes really bright pics so it doesn't look right, I'll take some more pics and get the pic editor out and they'll looks loads better, Yeah I'm gonna get a few more plants soon, Pogostemon Erectus, Staurogyne Repens & lots of star grass for the mid/foreground and I'll be moving the swords closer to the middle and getting some more red myriophylum.

That pic was taken just after sorting it all out so now its looking much better already, everything is getting bushy again.