"Shattered Tree" - 140 ltr Opti-white

[SuperColey1]

So I decided to rescape the 140ltr Opti-white. I am going to DSM it for a month with full lights and then it will run low tech with the middle row of lights turned off and no CO2.

Decided on a "Triangular" scape being an "island" in one corner leading down to a "grassland."

With that in mind and calling it "Shattered Tree" I may as well get on with building a shattered tree out of all the Manzanita I took from the last scape. I scrubbed it all clean after taking it out of the last scape. And with cobbles being used in my other little scape I used some more in this scape just to add something else and break up the "grassland."

So first up I'll create the shattered tree. I am drilling holes and then using stainless steel screws to join each piece together. No messing about there and no slippage that can happen with cable ties.

The ruler is there because this tank is 40cm deep so I am using it to gauge where the back and front of the "tree" will be.

 

[SuperColey1]

At night I sorted the tank out with substrate etc. Long post this one and lots of pictures step by step:

First off I cleaned the tank up and poured the last of some leonardite I had left over from aquascapes in the late noughties Then I added a layer of the old akadama that had been rinsed through a sieve to remove all the dust and silt that had developed from being in there for...........Wow, just checked my timeline. The last scape was filled with water on 14th October 2014 and only emptied yesterday!!! So this akadama has been "used" for nearly 32 months!!! It has held up really well and still in nice granular form after cleaning.

Then on top there is about an inch of fresh dry akadama straight out of the bag.

Substrate is scaped and then the "shattered tree" positioned. An adjustment here and there until I am happy:

No spotter's badge for seeing it is now the next day. That reflection is a bit of a giveaway. Nice day out but I'll be here for a good few hours out of the sun because there's a lot to get on with.

I wanted some contrast especially on the left hand side and it was at this point that I grabbed the cobbles. Positioned them to hopefully look as natural as possible and then started to lay micranthemum 'monte carlo' on the bare substrate. This was the carpet in my last scape.

All the monte carlo is now "planted" and another larger cobble (more like a paddlestone) added on the left. Then I looked for inspiration on where to put my anubias. I eventually decided to put them higher up the water column and deeper into the tank rather than near the bottom and towards the front as I normally do.

Next I added Bolbitis Heudelotii to the tree section with Cryptocoryne Balansae behind the tree (you can't see that) as well as scattering Wendtii Green and Wendtii "Tropica" around.

A more zoomed in version looking from above at the "island" at the moment:

Finally for the planting step by step I have now added cryptocoryne wendtii brown and Cryptocoryne Parva to the scape. I have also added a few scraps of Staurogyne Repens in the centre of the cobbles on the left. This may come out at a later date if it looks silly.

And some Narrow Fern has been added to the top of the tree. Not too much because over time it goes mad and blocks the light out below

And feeling left out Glenvale Louis decided to get in on the act. One of the rare occasions that lazy greyhounds get up and I managed to capture it

Although he didn't get up for long and he didn't have far to come to the tank. I moved the tank about a year ago from where his bed now is, so I don't have to keep listening to a friendly growl when I need him to move

And that is what I call planting heavily from the outset!!!

Plants used that I already had in other tanks or from the previous scape:
Micranthemum 'monte carlo' - approx 10-15 pots worth.
Anubias Barteri v Nana - approx 4 pots worth.
Bolbitis Heudelotii - approx 3 pots worth.
Cryptocoryne Balansae - approx 3 pots worth.
Cryptocoryne Wendtii 'Tropica" - approx 3 pots worth.
Cryptocoryne Wendtii "Green" - approx 2 pots worth.
Cryptocoryne Wendtii "Brown" - approx 3 pots worth.
Cryptocoryne Parva - approx 2 pots worth.
Staurogyne Parva - approx half a pot.

Plants used that I bought for this scape:
Cryptocryne Crispulata - 1-2-3 grow x 2 pots.
Cryptocoryne Wendtii Green - 2 pots.
Cryptocoryne Wendtii Brown - 2 pots.
Cryptocoryne Parva - 2 pots.

So with all the first list free "so to speak" I spent about £30 on new plants however I will recoup more than that from excess plants from the previous scape.

1 month of DSM and 1st July I should be ready to fill her up

 

[Ch4rlie]

This is going to turn out nice.

Especially with the crypts you have chosen, in particular the Balansae, i am a fan of these. Grows lovely long leaves in s fairly short sace of time.

In fact I have all the same cyrpts in my tanks
They all grow lovely and a root tab every now and again seems to help them stay nice and lush due to the simple fact they can be heavy root feeders.

I like the fact you are going for a lower tech scape this time, but am a little concerned if your lights are high and intense, then the plant may need a little extra ferts weekly dosage to keep up with the photosynthesis due to the lights?

But all is good and the costs of £30 for the new plants is practically nothing, thats actually not bad at all for a full tank's worth of plants.

I look forward to watching how this will fill out in a month or two

 

[DrRob]

Nice hardscape and planting. Looking forward to seeing it grow out.

Also nice to see that lighting rig still in action, have you changed anything on that at all over time or is it still in its original configuration?

 

[SuperColey1]

This is going to turn out nice.

Especially with the crypts you have chosen, in particular the Balansae, i am a fan of these. Grows lovely long leaves in s fairly short sace of time.

In fact I have all the same cyrpts in my tanks
They all grow lovely and a root tab every now and again seems to help them stay nice and lush due to the simple fact they can be heavy root feeders.

I like the fact you are going for a lower tech scape this time, but am a little concerned if your lights are high and intense, then the plant may need a little extra ferts weekly dosage to keep up with the photosynthesis due to the lights?

But all is good and the costs of £30 for the new plants is practically nothing, thats actually not bad at all for a full tank's worth of plants.

I look forward to watching how this will fill out in a month or two

I will dose it a bit anyway. About 1/7th of what I would dose if it was hi tec with Co2. About 12ml per week rather than 12ml per day with CO2 (although I will probably add it 2ml ish per day)

The light can be 1 row (18W), 2 rows (36W) or 3 rows (54W) So during the DSM i am using the whole 54W and am looking at using 36W once I get the water in

Nice hardscape and planting. Looking forward to seeing it grow out.

Also nice to see that lighting rig still in action, have you changed anything on that at all over time or is it still in its original configuration?

The actual LEDs stuck to the heatsinks are the same however since I built it the following changes have been made, not because anything was wrong but because I decided to change them:

Timeline: Luminaire was built in 2012 but not actually used until October 2014

Sometime between 2012 and 2014 (not sure when) the wiring was changed. It was originally wired from front to back with the left 2, the centre 2 and the right 2 being the 3 series of 6. I was obsessed with the idea of sunrise and sunset simulation at the time. lol.

I decided to re-wire it from left to right instead. That gave me a front, centre and back set of series so a bit more like having 3 tubes over the tank. More useful for me to increase or decrease the light.

And then sometime at the end of 2015 I changed from the black lense holders being fitted into the acrylic to making the holes bigger than the lense holders so that the heatsink/led series is not actuallu directly attached to the acrylic anymore. I also changed the lense holders to some clear ones that I found which look better through the side than the original black ones. The visual effect makes it look like a sheet of light from some angles:

 

[Aquatony]

wow, that's all I can say!!!
Where the fish!~

 

[SuperColey1]

wow, that's all I can say!!!
Where the fish!~

No fish at the moment. They are in my 30ltr while I sort this out and undecided if they will go back in here or into a different tank.

 

[elassoma_sailor]

Looks stunning!

 

[SuperColey1]

Shattered tree 1 week into DSM.


Not much change. The monte carlo will change into emersed form before it starts to grow and fill out.

I added some Anubias petite on the branch in the centre to hide the screws which were slightly visible.

 

[SuperColey1]

Not much to post because it is a DSM. I did add another cobble on the right of the scape where I was umming and ahhing if the plants would disguise the "join" between monte carlo and Crypts. A couple of weeks of looking at that part constantly ended up making the decision for me. If I am seeing that as a possible future "problem" all the time then something needs to be done.

I have done the obligatory 0-1-2-3 week advance shots of the DSM. They don;t really show much difference but as an explanation. The first week the submersed monte carlo started to yellow a bit and die back. The Second week emersed form started to grow and by the end of the 3rd week it has started to come really green and thicken up. I expect the gaps will fill up in the next week and I may it give it an extra week if it hasn't.

Another little problem that was expected is that the plants from the old scape in submersed form have struggled a bit and melted in this emersed stage. The new plants that arrived in emersed form have of course flourished. There will probably be a reverse when I flood it of some of the emersed plants then melting to come back in submersed form.

 

[SuperColey1]

Wow, 27th June 17 was my last post on this and I didn't even show it filled. This is still going so I'll try and update from pictures I have on the HD.

These pictures are from 17th July 2017:

 

[SuperColey1]

Seems I didn't take many more pictures of the tank as it was then. I moved house last year in September and the tank lay in an emersed state for months untouched and going a bit manky. At the beginning of March I tidied it up a bit and re spread some Monte Carlo along the front with Dwarf Hairgrass mid to background and ran it for another 3 weeks emersed so these pictures are from 3rd March this year. Not pretty but that is the state it was in at the time.

Glenvale Louis the greyhound was put down after a battle with bone cancer shortly before these pictures were taken.

The LED light has been taken from the brackets at this point and laid directly on top of the lid so it is closer:

 

[SuperColey1]

And then the last photos I took are from 17th April 2019. There are no full tank shots here as I was photographing my first new arrivals into the tank. 6 Zebra Otos (Otocinclus Cocama.)

I will update further as the scape progresses and grows back in. There was a vast amount of pruning to tidy it up before it was flooded. I think it had been running for a month before I got round to adding the Otos

Finally you will have to forgive me the quality of pictures taken this year as I dropped my newer camera last year and thus these are taken with a Fujifilm FinePix A700 which is from 2006 :

 

[Eridinus]

Lovely

 

[SuperColey1]

Just a few pictures to show where we are with this at the moment. The pictures might make it look a little "cleaner" and possibly "fuller" than it actually is. The phones weaknesses really showed up in these. Struggles with white balance especially when pointing at a great source, makes some picture look very dark (2nd one in particular.)

These were taken about 10 minutes ago so are not the full lights. I am running 36W from 2pm to 3pm (front and back row.) Then 54W from 3pm to 7pm (all 3 rows.) Then back to 36W from 7pm to 10pm.

The Drop checkers are bright blue at the moment because I have just refilled them. I did have the traditional style one low down which struggled to get to green at the back left and the hang on one bordering yellow over the front right but I was suffering drunken shrimp which the new Cardinal Tetras were picking off in mid water madness. Was on 3bps.

So I've refilled them and moved them. Limited as to what I can do with the hang on one so it is now behind the inlet/outlet on the front left and the traditional one is on the right. turned down to 2bps and will see what happens tomorrow. Using an Up inline atomiser. I will be trusting the shrimp/fish rather than the DCs. The traditional one was right next to the shrimp feeding tray which collects the bubbles into one underneath it so it shouldn't be staying blue. The beauty of atomisers is that you can see the micrbubbles (with some 4x reading glasses anyway) and plenty are low down running along the bottom.

This is the tank setup at the moment. Next to my laptop and my beer........and me if I weren't taking photos at this point. This picture is the closest to the actual brightness of the tank. A teeny bit darker than reality but very close when only 2 strips of LEDS on:

This is the full tank shot. This camera can't deal with the light here and has darkened the tank up:

And from an angle to try and look arty: