My 40 Today

[Ralphw62]

went with some driftwood and hills...much less rock work....need more nice ground cover
 

 

[bullit]

i recon a black background would make good difference.

 

[Ralphw62]

Well... spent the last two days making driftwood trees with some hotglue and moss... hope they grow out nice.... gonna leave it like this for  a bit.
I juat want to change that background as said beforeI guess Black would be cool....
Ick treatment seems done....I may go one more day....just for the heck of it
 
Been chasing a great blue heron away from my outdoor pond... I don't see any fish... I pray they are just hiding....if not I lost some nice koi....

 

[Gootz]

I'm loving the moss trees.  Where'd you pick up the trees from?

 

[Ralphw62]

Thy are tap roots from fallen oak trees,,,,very dense,,,sink right away...boil em up pressure wash bark off ready

 

[Gootz]

Thy are tap roots from fallen oak trees,,,,very dense,,,sink right away...boil em up pressure wash bark off ready

Hmmm, I'm pretty sure there aren't any around my area I could pick up.  I could check out some of the hiking trails for some fallen oaks, but none ring a bell.  Any chance you would ship me some if I paid for it?

 

[Ralphw62]

We had a storm last month and a lot of trees were pushed over from the wind. I keep a saw on the back floor of my truck.
here's what I look for.,,,(see pic below).. I'm always on the lookout for uprooted trees if you get lucky there will be a perfect one...or you can hot glue some branches on a good "trunk"....do you have any wooded areas near you? there has to be some fallen trees. investigate where the local public works takes them? you just need a little luck, just be careful you use hardwood and not pine. a lot of times the roots have no bark so all you need to do is boil them a couple hours and carefully scrub. but I find the pressure washer with NO SOAP works best after boiling, I wouldn't mind shipping some .. if I get out and find some good ones I'll let you know.. They don't have to be Oak, just not pine. go out and take a walk and you just may find what you need. I think you can use branches without any problem. try and find dead ones. peel back the back to expose the wood... if you can easily push your thumbnail into it throw it back, needs to be hard. I like the roots because they seem to sink right away. but I still glue them to a small flat stone to help with placement. the one tree I did is 6 pieces glued together... let me know if you find anything...and I'll be looking next time out. how tall and wide do you want your trees?
 

 

[Ralphw62]

I found some new roots and got them all clean yesterday... I think I like them better than what I have now... they seem more tree like to me...just a little smaller but much more wild looking, so I may be taking out what I did and putting in new trees..
will post pics
 
I may do a new write up as I do this step by step in the aquascaping forum..

 

[Gootz]

We had a storm last month and a lot of trees were pushed over from the wind. I keep a saw on the back floor of my truck.
here's what I look for.,,,(see pic below).. I'm always on the lookout for uprooted trees if you get lucky there will be a perfect one...or you can hot glue some branches on a good "trunk"....do you have any wooded areas near you? there has to be some fallen trees. investigate where the local public works takes them? you just need a little luck, just be careful you use hardwood and not pine. a lot of times the roots have no bark so all you need to do is boil them a couple hours and carefully scrub. but I find the pressure washer with NO SOAP works best after boiling, I wouldn't mind shipping some .. if I get out and find some good ones I'll let you know.. They don't have to be Oak, just not pine. go out and take a walk and you just may find what you need. I think you can use branches without any problem. try and find dead ones. peel back the back to expose the wood... if you can easily push your thumbnail into it throw it back, needs to be hard. I like the roots because they seem to sink right away. but I still glue them to a small flat stone to help with placement. the one tree I did is 6 pieces glued together... let me know if you find anything...and I'll be looking next time out. how tall and wide do you want your trees?
 

 
That sucks about the storm and the dead trees, but awesome about having access to the roots like this. 
 
I live in the city, but near the mountains where there are several hiking trails.  Not sure I can get out within the next couple weeks though (crazy schedule).  If you do come across some good specimins I'm looking for something around 12-15" in height and around 6-12" in width and 6-10" in depth.  My tanks only a 29G, so dimensions are 24L x 12W x 18H.
 
Let me know if you have any luck and thanks for keeping an eye out.  I'll let you know if I come across anything myself. Thanks in advance for your help.