The 20H ptII

[Nospherith]

Hello and thanks for visiting this thread. This is my 20g aquarium. Just my compact version of nature that I get to keep at home. A swirling mass of waterlife amidst the cold concrete and electric microwave ovens. Granted it's not much right now, and it's still striving for balance but I would be happy to share it with you as it is:

 

[konrad05]

nice tank, what lighting do you have there? Also how old are the plants?

 

[Nospherith]

This is the tank *before*, a few months ago.

The light that you see in the pic is the 55w All-Glass PC light over a plexiglass hood. There's also a 15w from initial set-up that I sometimes throw over the hood to give it 65w or 3.5wpg.

The new plant is Rotala rotundifolia, the bushy one on the right. It looks kindof clunky right now because it's been growing relatively slow since I got it a few weeks ago. Looking forward to when it grows up to the surface and the individual bunches will be indistiguishable. I figure it's still growing roots and such.

All the other plants are still there: crypt lutea, apons, tiger lilly, amazon sword and ludwigia repens... However I binned the "mondo grass". I think it's a cold-water plant as it didn't grow at all. The vallis, on the other hand, wasn't doing much of anything until recently. Now it's sending out a new runner every few days.

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the vallis is turning a golden red under the increased light. wierd cus I never heard of such a thing. anyway here's a pic of it:

 

[pseud]

Awesome looking tank, love it.

Great photos; what type of camera are you using?

 

[Nospherith]

It's a Casio EX-Z55. It's about the size of a credit card and is very thin, great ultra-compact camera.

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And just some info on how I went about scaping the tank:

I used scalene triangles to design my aquascape. Everything in my tank is in odd numbers: 3 crypts, 1 red tiger lilly, 3 guppies, ect... A scalene triangle is that of which no angles or sides are the same. Basically that's what I went for: absolutely no presence of order. With no order, your eye isn't immediately drawn one thing and can abosorb the entire aquarium easily.

The method of setting up was quite simple, actually. First was substrate and terracing. Then hardscape, ie rocks. The hardscape was the foundation for the entire layout so I spent the most time with this just looking at rock placement from different angles, ect. After hardscape was foreground/midground plants. I had three crypts and set them up in another scalene triangle horizontally inverse to the scalene rock triangle, sortof like this: (* == rock, & == plant)

..............*......&.......
..&..........................
.........&............*.....
.....*.........................

Since I was just starting out, I didn't have much other plants to work with besides a few aponogetons, some twisted val, ludwigia repens and an amazon sword. I threw together the remaining plants, this time based upon how they looked with the central theme of absence of order. This is where I moved plants around the most. In the end, it looked like this:

This picture was taken a few months ago and the aquarium has changed/filled up much since then as you can see.

 

[sinistral]

I really like what you've done with this tank. I think asymmetry in aquascaping tends to be overlooked. What's the white gravel in the left foreground signify?

Rotala indica (rotundifolia) is one of my favorite plants as it gets the nice reddish tint that you have on yours under more intense lighting.

Mondo grass is a big scam as it is not a plant that tolerates being fully immersed for more than a few months. It is mainly used as a landscaping plant (on dry land) as ground cover. Too bad, because it is quite attractive.

I'm looking forward to more pictures when things are more overgrown Are you considering a background?

 

[Nospherith]

The sand in the front left of the tank is "the beach". I got the sand from a local black-sand beach. I was terracing anyway, and since the divide was there I figured I'd throw in some black ocean sand to help raise GH and add another dynamic to the scape. It didn't turn out half bad so I decided the beach could stay.

After the pictures were taken I noticed that a backround is practically essential for good photos. Especially in the one where you can see a power cord behind the guppie and the red ludwigia. I've been thinking about a black backround, just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Thank you for your comments!

 

[sinistral]

The sand in the front left of the tank is "the beach". I got the sand from a local black-sand beach. I was terracing anyway, and since the divide was there I figured I'd throw in some black ocean sand to help raise GH and add another dynamic to the scape. It didn't turn out half bad so I decided the beach could stay.

Very interesting effect! I didn't notice the terracing until you pointed it out (from the angle of the photos it isn't immediately evident, but then again there's nothing wrong with subtlety). Did you collect the rocks yourself?

I agree with you about a black background. The photos turned out quite well-- I imagine it might emphasize the green/red contrast with a uniform background (as well as concealing equipment ).

I like the rock placement from the first picture (from several months ago). Is the arrangement still the same and it's just that they aren't visible now, or have you rearranged them?

 

[Nospherith]

I like the rock placement from the first picture (from several months ago). Is the arrangement still the same and it's just that they aren't visible now, or have you rearranged them?

Unfortunately, the rocks got tinged an electric blue... That color wasn't really compatible with the pallete I was going for so they had to go. It happened when one of the 11 cardinals I added had the ich and it spread like wildfire to the rest of em. I treated with malachite green but every last one of em died. So all I got was $20 wasted, and blue tinged rocks and sealant. I think I'll wait a while before I get more cardinals. However, since i removed the rocks it's added more room for the microsword so I guess there's a bright side to everything.

 

[George Farmer]

Looks very nice. Interesting use of red plants, some may say too much but the effect is good. I would add a dark background - the contrast will bring out the colours furthur. It should look even better when your plants fill out and hide the equipment. I wish you luck and well done.

 

[leroy]

wow! that is so cool! i wish i had plants looking like that.

 

[Nospherith]

Looks very nice. Interesting use of red plants, some may say too much but the effect is good. I would add a dark background - the contrast will bring out the colours furthur. It should look even better when your plants fill out and hide the equipment. I wish you luck and well done.

There is alot of red isn't there? I would like to get more green around but I'm not sure what plant I should get to add more green or where I should place such a plant.

I was thinking maybe I could re-plant the rotala (bushy plant on the right) and move it forward in to the midground behind the cryptocorynes (short leafy plant in the right foreground) to fill up the gap there. Then take some vallis runners and plant those behind, where the rotala is now... Basically just have the green vallis be my backround to balance the red out.

Thing is, I can't get the vallis to stay green! Does anyone know if this is normal for vallis to do this, possibly under high light? It seems all my plants, even the crypts, just want to go to some shade of red... It might be the high iron content in my water or Eco-Complete that turns the plants reddish; I'm constantly removing thread algae nowadays.

Thanks everyone for your comments.