My Planted Tank Lay Out

[tear-scar]

This lay out is finished! I will continue taking photos of the tank all the way up until it has to be taken down (I'm a college student in California USA but I will return to Honolulu, my home town, for winter break on Dec. 16). I will keep trying to get better and better photos for future contest use. But enough explanation, here are the photos:

An overhead shot:

Close ups:

My Checkerboard Cichlids:

Botia Sidthimunki :

Despite having botias, I still have a sizable snail population:

It seems like the Spakling Gouramis show more interest :hihi: :

M. Umbrossum Pearling:

Hope you enjoy the photos, and keep looking cause I may post more here as I take more photos.

 

[wei0204]

Lovely, just miss that tank so much, it is really so artistic...
Good job dude...

 

[Sibelius]

It looks really believable with those fish in. I think it's very natural, and clean. Good luck with sorting out your snails!

 

[RadaR]

Great looking tank. Glad to see it finished. Inhabitants look very healthy and happy (aspecially the snails ).
Foreground has changed since I last saw it. You decide not to keep the HC?

 

[mikster]

Great tank, was waiting to see how this turned out. You have a great artistic approach to it and its turned out very well as a result. Hope to see more tanks after the spring break.

 

[CAC]

Wow, great tank
How did you make that solid structure, or did you buy it? Its very cool
Saw the 1litre planted "tank" on your deviant art gallery, and its so cool, is it still going, or was it too hard to keep going?

Great tanks

Mikey

 

[trout_pout]

...............................Wow

 

[tear-scar]

Wow, didn't know there were people who followed me here besides George.

Wei-- thanks for the PMs, feedback, and support dude. There should be a sizable community of planted tankers in Malaysia so why not get involved? Or perhaps you are more into the livebearer breeding (which I hear is also big there . . . ?)

Sibelius-- Thanks!

RadaR-- Unfortunately, I had some algae issues and while I was on vacation, the HC got smothered and died. I tried to grow another carpet in time, but didn't make it. Filling the HC space with sand was my "back-up" plan. Though I'm not sure if it is necessarily "worse" than the original.

Mikster-- Thanks for following my work. I look forward to making more scapes too!

Catfish-- It took a lot playing with the hardscape and aquasoil. There's no artificial structuring (like eggcarts in terrariums). I set up the rock lay out with ADA aquasoil like making a regular iwagumi. Then after, I filled the back right corner with more aquasoil until it was at about half the heigh of the aquarium. The foreground "pool" was left complete empty all the way until the end so that it has no part in the lay out's structural integrity. If you're interested in the steps taken to make the aquarium, you can look through almost all of them in the "scraps" section of my deviantart website.

The 1 liter was part of a series of tanks made in my highschool days in Hawaii . . . and, I no longer have any tanks set up in Hawaii. Sorry to say. It's pretty easy to make a tank like that though-- maybe you should give it a try!

Trout--

 

[atmmachine816]

Nice tank, what plants are those or did you already mention that.

 

[tear-scar]

Nice tank, what plants are those or did you already mention that.

Bacopa australis, Micranthemum umbrossum, Echinodorus tenellus, Heteranthera zosterfolia, and behind the middle e. tenellus I have Rotala rotundifolia sp. "green"

 

[dasmall1]

I'm happy to see it turned out so nice!

 

[Naughtygirlrlw]

So lush and green, it's absolutely beautiful!