30 ltr Mopani low tech

First of all I would just like to say that I decided to ditch my website a few months ago and unfortunately that means that is why all my pictures in my past threads are not showing anymore. However I shall be uploading them the forum way from now on to avoid that happening again.

On with the journal. I was at a loose end with my small 30 ltr opti-white and was originally going to DSM a monte-carlo scape however I have decided to also rescape my main tank so I will be doing the DSM in that one once I get round to it.

So I looked in my cupboard for some hardscape and decided upon a couple of spare pieces of Mopani. Mopani doesn't get used a lot in scapes so I thought "why not!"

With Mopani decided on I looked through the net for inspiration and how others have used Mopani. At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, yet again a George Farmer aquascape caught my attention. While he hasn't used Mopani (He says he has used Sumatra) the scape that caught my eye was the PFK "Celebrity tank makeover" that he did for Jonny Smith off Fifth Gear.
http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/features/articles/Celebrity tank makeover

That took me to the cobble aspect and I just happen to have cobbles in my hardscape box so out came some of them.

It also took me to floating plants to block some of the light and to only use "low light" plants so I bought some Salvinia Natans to float on the top. Forgot about bank holiday weekend so I'll be waiting for them.

Mine isn't a very technical scape and there has been no preparation for it like George's. I decided to do it Friday night and searched for inspiration the same night. Saturday morning played around with positioning and Saturday afternoon started gluing plants to hardscape.

Technical Specs:
Aquarium - 40 x 30 x 30cm Opti white
Light - AquaEL Smart Leddy 6W LED (I don't know if it is the plant or sunny one but I will have bought the 6500K I would think because I prefer lights around the 5500 to 6500K range)
Filter - Eheim 2211 with glass filter pipes.

Plants: Microsorum Pteropus "narrow", bolbitis heudelotii, Anubias Barteri, Anubias "petite", Cryptocoryne Parva, Cryptocoryne Wendtti Green, Cryptocoryne Wendtii Brown, Savlinia Natans.

Just to explain the hardscape a little. I selected this anubias barteri specifically because it keeps on sending flowers out. There is an old one there at the moment and another one unfortunately broke off while I was gluing. I am hoping it will continue sending flowers out and I have also positioned it on top of the highest piece of Mopani to see if it will grow emersed over time.

All the other anubias in there are Anubias petite. These pictures just show the planting before water is in:

Loving the scape buddy, Good stuff. Needs moar water though

Nice!

OK. Some pictures with water in the tank and equipment added. No livestock in these pictures yet.

I am going to separate my Blue Jelly "cull stock" out into this tank (I don't cull shrimp) so any shrimp with red patches, speckles, freckles, head, tail will go in here and only the fully blue shrimp will remain in my Blue Jelly tank.

I need to sort out my backlight with this low substrate. lol.

You should try a black background

That would make the backlighting ineffective.

eaglesaquarium came up with obvious answer there.

I did think actually about removing the frosted film from the back and going black.........but then I decided not to again.

I rarely use black backgrounds these days. I like the fresh appearance of light or lighted backgrounds.

I might use this tank for inspiration when I get around to using my hoard of mopani! The bolbitis looks great, very flowy. c:

Lovely aquacaping!

An update on the low tech Mopani scape.

I have added all my blue jelly cull stock into this tank. I don't cull shrimp. The fish from my larger tank have also gone into this scape so that is approx 15 Boraras and 2 Otos.

There is now Amazon Frogbit floating on the top. I tried Salvinia Natans but it was too small and got blown around too easily. I have reduced flow from The Eheim 2211 by half closing the tap connector valve on the return pipe.

I have also added a few different coloured Crypt Wendtii in the rear.

(Apologies for the low res pictures. I was resizing some other pictures to use in a collage and forgot to change the size for these pictures by which time I had already deleted the originals from the SD card. doh.)