Scape It

Have you used Scape It before? Trying to think for a good Orinoco single-species biotope aquascape with this website with a digital 92cm x 36cm x 42cm (Aqua One Horizon 130 sized) tank. You can drag and drop hardscape and plants and change the depth of the substrate. The Pogostemon erectus represents coontail, Lilaeopsis brasiliensis represents Helanthium tellenum 'micro' and Helanthium tenellum 'green' represents Sagittaria subulata. There is a limited choice of plants to pick for the aquascaping on Scape It, but lots of hardscape choices are on the website. They don't have coontail or Sagittaria subulata but they do have Helanthium tellenum.

All these plants (Helanthium, coontail, Sagittaria) may be found in the Orinoco and therefore the tank is planted. It might require a Co2 system and some fertilisation. Do I need to make some changes to the aquascape to make it more accurate? Do I need to be careful to gravel-vac the sand subtrate without damaging the plants?

I have done research into the Orinoco River and the fish that live there, and doing all my homework about moderately planted tanks. I'm going to put a big school mixed with existing and new cardinal tetras here and that's it, nothing else.

I've used Scape it before and am currently using it for a new 90L. Its great for getting a general idea started on what you have planned. It doesn't have every plant species/hardscape so what I do is just create the scape and have plants that look similar to the ones I want. Then in an editor afterward, I label the plants (for example that rock in front of the tiger lotus will be a large terracotta pot and the val on the left will be an African onion plant.)

MattW3344 said:

I've used Scape it before and am currently using it for a new 90L. Its great for getting a general idea started on what you have planned. It doesn't have every plant species/hardscape so what I do is just create the scape and have plants that look similar to the ones I want. Then in an editor afterward, I label the plants (for example that rock in front of the tiger lotus will be a large terracotta pot and the val on the left will be an African onion plant.)

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What will it look like in the end?

I'm planning on this being home to my current Sawbwa fry around 20+ with the 3 adults I have now. Bladder snails will be the first inhabitants then either a group of cherry shrimp or amanos. My tap water is soft which the Sawbwa resplendens don't like. However, My current 60L when tested is harder water. I think this is caused by the cobbles and pea-pebbles I've used for hardscape (I will be using the same in the 90l). Either way, the fish are happy as they've bred many times and males show full colours which is a good sign with this species. This is a semi-completed picture of what I have planned. Obviously, this is in no way a biotope compared to what you are thinking of

MattW3344 said:

I'm planning on this being home to my current Sawbwa fry around 20+ with the 3 adults I have now. Bladder snails will be the first inhabitants then either a group of cherry shrimp or amanos. My tap water is soft which the Sawbwa resplendens don't like. However, My current 60L when tested is harder water. I think this is caused by the cobbles and pea-pebbles I've used for hardscape (I will be using the same in the 90l). Either way, the fish are happy as they've bred many times and males show full colours which is a good sign with this species. This is a semi-completed picture of what I have planned. Obviously, this is in no way a biotope compared to what you are thinking of

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Yes, it's going good. Have you built an accurate biotope aquarium before?

elephantnose3334 said:

Yes, it's going good. Have you built an accurate biotope aquarium before?

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I have never attempted it before but would like to. Ideally a biotope for green fire tetra from the Paraguay river basin preferably in a shallow aquarium. My LFS has a large cube tank with a shoal of these by the front entrance. They've always fascinated me.

Just completed my vision of an Orinoco biotope aquascape. Forgot to add one more Helanthium tellenum 'green' (representing dwarf sag) in earlier. What do you think about it? The actual thing may be changed slightly due to driftwood found in LFS's and the size of plants.

elephantnose3334 said:

Just completed my vision of an Orinoco biotope aquascape. Forgot to add one more Helanthium tellenum 'green' (representing dwarf sag) in earlier. What do you think about it? The actual thing may be changed slightly due to driftwood found in LFS's and the size of plants.

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This looks pretty good! I would recommend adding more branches or other driftwood to add structure to the water column, as well as potentially botanicals on the substrate. The Orinoco and many other South American rivers are characterized by having a lot of submerged sticks and logs and dead plant matter. However, I know Scape It doesn't really have a lot of options for decor like that

You might also want to reduce the amount of dwarf sag you're using, depending on what part of the Orinoco you're trying to recreate. Most areas don't have lush carpets of grass. It seems to usually be sparse patches, with most of the bottom being covered by dead plant matter.

Edit: actually, Scape It has more options for wood than I thought!

Seisage said:

This looks pretty good! I would recommend adding more branches or other driftwood to add structure to the water column, as well as potentially botanicals on the substrate. The Orinoco and many other South American rivers are characterized by having a lot of submerged sticks and logs and dead plant matter. However, I know Scape It doesn't really have a lot of options for decor like that

You might also want to reduce the amount of dwarf sag you're using, depending on what part of the Orinoco you're trying to recreate. Most areas don't have lush carpets of grass. It seems to usually be sparse patches, with most of the bottom being covered by dead plant matter.

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Llanos are mostly densely planted areas of the Orinoco and are found in Colombia and Venezuela.

Just did some other scapes on two Petworx nano (30 x 30 x 45cm and 45 x 45 x 45cm)-sized tanks today. One heavily planted and the other less densely planted.