Aquascaping a 150g.

[kaaikop]

Cheers to all! Okay I am almost ready to get started here, by the end
of this week, I should have everything on hand to start my first large
planted tank. I would love to hear your comments, suggestions, since
this is my first experience. And by doing my research on equipping this
tank, I realized that I did not choose an "easy" size aquarium to scape.
The tank is 72 x 18D x27H

I finally found some pieces of driftwood at a reasonable price (pic. below).
I think the pieces are a little big, but with a lot of plants, I think it should
not look too bad. The plants on the picture are "drawn" with a mouse, and I have a very bad "drawing hand" to begin with, so excuse the Picasso thing...
So far I have selected plants which are appealling to me, they do not
necessarily "work together". This is where I need your help, I am not sure if this is going to work since I have never done it. I have left the corners of the tank deliberately "empty", because I do not know which plants I should use... the idea is to have both back corners of the tanks fully planted, in order to hide the filter inlets/outlets. I would like to leave an "open space" between the right corner and the driftwood arrangement.
("U" type of arrangement)
If this helps, I am leaning more towards the "Amano" style rather than the "Dutch" type of setup. The fish population is going to be a large school of Cardinals, a school of Emperor tetras, and some shrimps if I can find them here.

Light is 444W, pressurized CO2 with pH meter.
Looking forward to your comments!

 

[Jchillin]

Very creative...aquascaping via computer generated images. The problem with this method is it's not going to be accurate.

What you should do is build a little at a time and watch the progress. Aquascaping isn't an exact science, you may make a mistake that looks wonderful!

 

[BrianNY]

Well I like the way you planned this. I would mix in some red plants.

Invest in a good set of long forceps. It's a lot of labor planting glosso, and the depth of your tank will have you up to your arm pits. Keep us posted. Kudos coming your way.

 

[kaaikop]

Well the "drawing" was just to help me "visualize" the whole thing. I am
certain it will not actually look like that, hopefully better, LOL! then again...
Any Idea what "quantities" of Glosso I would need to order...?
I would definately like to have some red touch in there, would the Rotala work,
would it become tall enough to be used as a background? and then, I
would like to mix this with other tall plants having different type of foliage,
perhaps giant vals.

Darn, I think now I need a good aquatic plant atlas or something like that... 8)

 

[aquazen]

One way to plan out your plant placement is by mapping out a top view floor plan. It gives you a good idea of where everything will be and what percentage of the tank floor they will cover.

 

[fish_4_all]

I have left the corners of the tank deliberately "empty", because I do not know which plants I should use... the idea is to have both back corners of the tanks fully planted, in order to hide the filter inlets/outlets.

I am definately no expert but I have a couple ideas for you to think about. I found either on here or somewhere on the net a very nice backdrop that was plastic canvas with christmas and java moss tied to it. It was curved to fit the corner of the tank and hid everything. This might even work as a natural particle filter once it fills the plastic canvas. The other was a plastic green mesh that is used for bushes and to keep rabbits out. The mesh was arranged the same as the plastic canvas but the plants were java lace fern, anacharis and something else that had "vines" that were all interlaced in the mesh.

I will try find the site if I can and post it here.

Hope that at least gives you some ideas

 

[fish_4_all]

http://www.killies.com/Mosswall.htm

This link shows you how to make the moss wall.

 

[travis simonson]

Man that is a huge tank Believe me, our tanks have the same footprint and it won't be hard to get that much Glosso to grow. The hard part will be keeping it trimmed once it does start to grow. Rotala macrandra will easily grow to be a good background plant but you'll probably want something in front of it as the lower leaves tend to lose their brilliant red coloration over time. There are so many good red plants out there. If you feel like experimenting I just got some of the most brilliant pink-red Nesaea sp. 'Red' from Lowcoaster on Aquabid.com that I'm thinking I might use it to replace my R. macrandra, although I hear it is a tough one to propagate. Pogostemon stellata 'Broad-Leaf' also has a great red-pink coloration if that's what you're looking for and, IMHO, is much more forgiving than regular P. stellata. Let me know if you'd like a few stems, I've got plenty

It's nice to be able to sit down and decide how you'd like your tank to look but until you've got the plants in there and growing you'll never know exactly how it's going to turn out (unless you're Takashi Amano ). I wouldn't worry too much about what you want to do with the corners until you see how the plants you've picked look when you get them all in there. I've had my tank for about nine months now and I still can't figure out where to plant things

 

[kaaikop]

Thanks all, this is great advice indeed! I think you are right, it's
probably impossible to predict how it will all turn out, and God knows, I am no
Takashi, LOL So will get started and take it from there.

Well finally I have everything on hand (other than the cylinder for CO2), so
proceeded with installing everything (wow this is exciting!!!!). Laid down my
200 lbs. of eco-complete (I think I will need to get one of those plastic ''toy rake''
for kids) I start to regret taking that tank so deep, it's going to be a lot of fun to
trim the carpetting plants!
Travis, now you scare me... I thought Glosso, under high lighting, would ''creep''
instead of growing high... so will need some sort of ''long reach'' scissors LOL
Somebody was suggesting to me to get the Glosso in the form of ''pads''...?
apparently much easier to plant, and you get more coverage for the buck.
Anybody has ever used them?

 

[black udder]

man, that moss wall makes me want to buy another tank.

of course, that would be the kiss of death (at least that's what the wife is saying) 8O

 

[travis simonson]

You would be lucky to find Glosso 'pads'. Chances are you'll get it in bunches and have to clip the plantlets and use tweezers to get them started. If you need some starters just let me know. I think I throw away more Glosso every week from trimming it than you would normally get in a $30 order. It almost makes me feel guilty

 

[kaaikop]

Thanks for the offer! Unfortunately, that would be a little difficult (across the
border...) our customs make it a little complex, as far as plants & fish are
concerned... I'm sure lots of folks on here would be glad to get your
"overstock"!

 

[travis simonson]

Sorry, didn't notice you were a Canuck Best of luck in your plant search

 

[TankGirl]

What I did to hide my filter outflow was to "build" up a sortof wall starting with driftwood that has java moss growing from it, then planting stems of wisteria, hygro and "creeping Charley" (anyone knowing the scientific name for this one please let me know! ) behind the driftwood so they grow up above the driftwood and java fern, and the fern gets shaded.

This took a bit of time to fill in, like anything else, so keep that in mind - there will be a period of time where the objects you are trying to camouflage will be visible. Before too long you'll be like Travis and the rest of us, pulling gobs of pruned plants out every week.

 

[BASSNMAN]

I bought a book called the Hobbyist Guide To The Natural Aquarium bu DR. Chris Andrews, published by Tetra. It has front and top view drawings of the plants and rocks and a photo of the actual tank. There are examples of different bio type tanks with fish. It was a great help to me in laying out my 50 gal. I much prefer a tank with rocks, wood and plants with lots of space for the fish rather than the dutch type that are planted solid. I trim some plants often and rearrange every couple of months as plants grow out or I get new ones. Try some wisteria, it will grow tall, but can be kept trimmed to any height. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[dr_girlfriend]

if you do a moss wall, let us know and give pics!!! I was planning on doing this in my 10 gallon. I'd love to hear someone elses experience on doing this.
I know how you feel on aquascaping a large tank. I'm going to be setting up a 90 gallon, and I'm kind of stumped. I was thinking of doing a few retaining walls to get some height and depth in some parts of the tank.
Another good book is "Aquarium Designs: Inspired by Nature" published by Barrons. It has alot of great ideas and biotopes.

 

[kaaikop]

Hmmm... decisions, decisions, decisions...
Now that I'm ready, I look at my tank (filled with water & substrate) and
simply cannot believe I will be able to make something nice out of it...
It just looks so "empty" LOL

I think before I start planting, I will get some rocks, and make a sort of
a little "hill" in the r/h corner, fill it with substrate and plant some
Pogostemon stellata, they look fantastic! (see Travis' tank...).
I wish I had saved one bag of eco-complete for this, rather than dump it
all in the tank all at once. Will remember for "next" tank, LOL

 

[kaaikop]

Found some CO2, and decided to get started right away! To heck with
the Amano thing, I realized that it would be impossible to achieve on the
first attempt, and that takes time too.... So went to the LFS and got
whatever plants I could find to get started, and take it from there.
Did not find any foreground plants, will look into that the next few days.
I think I simply couldn't wait any longer, LOL Planning is very
nice, but needed some real action here!!

So we have some anubias nana (at the base of the logs), in the L/H
corner some alternanthera & wisteria, in the R/H corner some
limnophila and another uncertain plant (the LFS called it hygrophila, which
is the same as wisteria, as far as I know...). And between the two logs
is one very small red lotus nympheae.
So, we'll see how that goes... what grows better, taller, etc. Will add /
move plants as we go, but before, gotta get that glosso!

 

[TankGirl]

Hygrophila polysperma is what is usually sold as "hygro" and H. difformis is sold as wisteria, and has a completely different look. They are both easy, fast-growing stem plants that will fill in nicely for you. Most LFS do not care to invest in higher lighting and CO2 injection, so it is often impossible to get carpet plants and other more challenging ones at the LFS, and they have to be mail-ordered.

I think your tank looks very nice, and I can see that it should fill in beautifully and be a lovely display.

 

[Feynman]

Interesting discussion. I would like to interject this question amongst all the aquascaping talk.... Does everyone use those long scissor/tweezer like things to work in their aquarium? I've seen them for sale on online sites but I wasn't sure how useful they were. Would I get as much satisfaction with this aquascaping purchase as I received from buying my python?

(Well, nothing can be as good as kicking out the bucket for a python. I can't believe there are people who don't use a python or similar device to change their water)