The Precipice

[lljdma06]

I want to cover the top of that in Java fern, but I may have too much light for that. I moved a really nice piece off the old wood, so we'll see what happens. I'm envisioning a forest on the left, looking out over a meadow. Lots of crypts, something small that flowers perhaps. I would love to have some rocks on the right... tall and slender, or round like boulders covered in moss. I tend to bail on scapes before I start, so I need to start researching now or it will never happen.

Research now and don't bail. This sounds interesting to me.

 

[Jen]

My lfs is renovating (still!) so the plant selection was a little dismal. I was able to pick up a few things that look to have some promise if their claim to get more of the same holds true. Some Diandra for under the wood, and some Rotala Wallichi for the back corner. I have my eye out for some star grass to fill up the corner as the bushy forest, the rotala in front and something smaller and darker green in the very front of that area for more contrast that will edge around the wood and meet up with the Diandra (it should look like Ontario in the fall with the colours if I can work it right.)

As for my meadow, I can't figure out exactly what it will be yet. There's glosso, HC and hydrocotyle verticillata that I have used in the past. I would like something that looked more like grass, and maybe got some flowers on it, but I don't want to have to trim hairgrass every week, or pull out and thin out all the time. I don't get much in the way of selection of forground plants from my store, so I may have to branch out to others in this chain in surrounding cities - there arent many choices for me here.

I did grab some more val, more for it's quick growing than anything else right now with the tank being so bare, but I may be able to work it in later.

 

[lljdma06]

It really does sound like a lovely plan. I think hairgrass will capture the meadow feel more than the other species. You can also mix foreground species. I've seen HC and hairgrass mixed to a very nice effect.

 

[Jen]

My concern is that hair grass is just too long. My tank is only 16' deep with the sand, and only 9' between the sand and the wood. If I just grass that grows to 3 or 4 inches long I won't have the seperation that I want between meadow and cliff in order to make the wood the focal point.

 

[lljdma06]

You can trim grass like a lawn. There are shorter varieties.

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Looking good, talk about time for an update LOL.. Echinodorus Tenellus is pretty grassy looking

 

[Jen]

Added the new plants to the tank, and moved a few more around to start sculpting the scape. I don't like the val, so hopefully I will find a more suitable plant, and the lucky boyfriend will inherit some new plants!

 

[lljdma06]

Yay! You didn't bail on the scape! Looks very good. Will look even better filled in.

 

[Jen]

I'm almost tempted to leave my crypts as the foreground plant. Party because they are already there, partly because I love them and don't want to get rid of them. They are my favourite plant. I'll have to see what kinds of plants this other store has when I get to it today. If they have hair grass I will buy a bit and see what it looks like.

In other news... I just realized that my filter wasn't really working today. The motor was running, but there was no suction. I have been noticing that the flow from it seemed a little slow lately, but put that off as having fewer plants to be disturbed by it. I was able to clean it out and get it working, but with the crazy current I had now, I'm grateful that the motor didn't burn out... it's been a few weeks were I don't think it was working much past 50%.

I also moved my power head down in the tank to help with nutrient circulation as I hear that's a big thing lately. With the little reading I've done, it makes sense, so maybe this will help my plants out!

 

[Jen]

Here's the latest.

3 pots of hair grass, some more diandra, moving crypts around. once the grass starts to spread I will move the remaining crypts from the right side over to the left to fill out the front section.

I'm still figuring out how to get my pictures turn out just right. :\

I can really see this coming together!

 

[Ps3Steveo]

The grass will take a long time but I can see this looking awesome once grown in.

 

[Jen]

As usual, I got half way there and expected the tank to just magically look right, then gave up when it started looking wrong. I wanted the Diandra to bush, but never trimmed it, the hairgrass never took off, so I just left to spot bare hoping the crypts would fill it in on it's own. I know better than to do this.

So, I'm trying to save it. I picked up a different variety of Val a few months back that is growing wonderfully in the tank, and took off like a weed. I've cleared out the smaller variety and am focusing on the jumbo version now. I bought a ton more diandra to start a bushy area again. I'm going to keep up a schedule for trimming and keeping it in shape. I added more crypts to the front, because lets be honest here, they are my favourite plant, and and lush carpet of them would make me very happy.

Most of the back glass is visible, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that, since that was the plan for the scape in the first place, but it looks really bare right now. Maybe if I can get the diandra to bush like I want to, I'll have it take up more of the left side so it won't be as bare. We'll see.

Pictures tomorrow when all the bits have settled and the water clears up!

 

[Jen]

I am very happy to have my val curling over in the current again; that's always been one of my favourite effects.
Not long ago, my Kribs attempted to spawn (I saw eggs, but in the morning they were gone) and it seems that the male is clearing out a cave again; here's hoping!

I've got some algae to sort out. I don't want to reduce my light much more, but I'll give that a go, and I need to pick up some more ferts. I've only had Excel for a while now, and even that I've been bad dosing. It looks like red brush algae on plants, and green spot algae (?) on the back wall


A new start

Pretty Krib

The clostest I have gotten to a picture of myharlequins schooling.

Garra Party! (With a loach crashing)

 

[lljdma06]

Hi Jen, nice seeing you again. I've been lurking over in the salty side more, but I'm glad to see you've still got this tank going.

I love the val curling over. Made me so happy when my val did that. One of the best plant effects ever. So jealous of your pretty female krib too. She is fat and sassy.

 

[Jen]

I found the good plant guy at my bf's fish store, and he spent a good 45 minutes with me working out the plan for the tank. He was very happy that I had a picture of what I had started (hooray for smart phones!) and made some suggestions. I didn't take them all, and am going to see how it works for me.

It all started when I found a crypt I've never seen before - Crypt Pontederiifolia. It's tall, stalky and shouldn't get too much taller than it is now, 10-12 inches or so. The leaves should always face upwards to the light, and will have a nice pink underside when first developing. I thought it would make a nice stand of 'trees' on the other side of my meadow and was planning on just them in a small grouping, but then decided that they would look nice popping out over a boulder, so I spend even more time finding the perfect rock.

A bunch more crypt wendtii, some sessefloria to see if it will cover up the back wall a bit as it grows, and some Limnophila aromatica so see if the red will stay and add a slash of colour. I didn't realize how much wendtii I got; the bunches were much bigger than I was anticipating, so I'll have to move it around a bit more, or pass some off to bf's house. Once the undulata starts filling in at the front a bit more, my meadow will start taking place.

I'm also trying to get my java fern to start growing on the wood again, now that I was the jungle val is curling over the top and shading the area more.

I'm getting my jungle look back, without it being a jungle

Whole Tank

'Boulder' on Right

Rock on Left