Hey guys, who ever is reading this I'm officially making a journal. This is mostly about my new project with a full blown ADA set up. But I'll still post up things about my 37g planted 10g planted and soon to get rid of 2.5g tank.
I pretty much ordered everything today. I have 7.2g ADA tank, aquasoil with power sand S, and seiryu stones. I all ready have my canister filter and CO2 system. Only thing I need to order is my lights and plants. I feel kind of stupid for ordering seiryu stones for $50 + shipping, but I found a hardscape I really really wanted. I just hope everything works out fine.
I'll post up pictures of the new hardscape and my tanks. Just be warn I don't put in the effort for my 10g and 2.5g tanks. In the pictures you can see how much work I put in my 37g compare to my other tanks.
I also like to note that I'm completely redoing this 10g. For 2.5g I'm about to rehome the betta and ditch the tank to make space for the new tank. My wife is telling me I had to get rid of at least 1 more tank for my new project.
Ooh, looks like it'll be an awesome project! May I ask what kind of moss (if that's moss) is on that driftwood? It looks similar to the chunk floating in the last pic.
It's java moss on the driftwood. The one floating is riccia in my 2.5g tank. I'm actually using that riccia in my new project, as a small carpet between the stones.
I would love to see how this progresses, maybe showing some steps of what you're gonna do. It's a shame you are redoing the 37g though unless you mean you are getting a new 37g?
Just redid the 10g yesterday and my rocks came in the mail today. I used some driftwood I found and I had to boil it for 2 hours and 30 min to make it aquarium safe. Re aquascaping my 10g took me about 8 hours lol. I think it was well worth it. I used a lot of the clippings I had for plants and I was very limited on a lot of stuff. I also added a extra work light reflector and added some CO2 in to this tank. My 10g looks bare at the moment, but in time I'll see it fill in. I trash a lot of the plants I had in my 10g before and just wanted to start from the bottom again. I burn and trash at least 5 gallon bucket full of water wisteria.
As for my new project I'm still waiting on the tank and substrate, but it arrives on Tuesday. I still didn't order my LED light from BuildMyLED.com, I just didn't get around to it. I know I spent around $600 bucks so far and I know it's crazy, but I love my hobby lol. My rocks look beautiful and texture is very nice. The set up I'm aiming for is like a Iwagumi layout/nature hybrid set up. I'd like to take both styles and make it my own. After all aquascapes is like painting a picture.
Just ordered my lighting system. It's a Dutch Planted XB series light from BuildMyLED.com. Now I'm looking at glass outflow and inflow for my Eheim canister filter. I have to say it's pretty expensive for some glass. GreenLeafAquariums.com want like $40 bucks a piece for the 13mm size, which is ridiculous. ADA glass is even more expensive and super ridiculous. I did find some off brand glass on ebay for $40 bucks for both inflow and out. Here's the link for them http://m.ebay.com/itm/271211327046?nav=WATCHING_ACTIVE&skus=Host:13mm for 12/16mm&varId=570160392844.
Well I can't wait, tank and substrate comes in Tuesday and LED comes in probably 2 weeks. I got everything ground shipped lol. As for plants, I know I want red plants in back/mid ground with green carpets up front. I will order from the The Green Machine (UK) for plants. Plants I want so far is Aponogeton crispus 'Red', Alternanthera 'Rosanervig', Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini', Hemianthus callitrichoides 'Cuba', Glossostigma elatinoides, and Eleocharis sp. 'mini' all the way up front to give me that green lawn effect. The carpet plants are subject to change after finishing my rock layout but, I'm very sure I'll still get them. I shouldn't have a problem with any plant chooses, since I'm running high light, CO2, dry ferts, with some really good flow to distribute CO2 gasses every where in my tank. If anyone actually follows this thread. I'll post up pictures of step by step instructions on aquascaping a tank. By all means I'm no professional aquascaper but, I hope one day I could join the best.
Tank and substrate came in today!! I'm stupid excited right now. I have to say, I know now why ADA tanks are expensive. Every thing looks well made and classy. As for ADA substrate, I'm pretty much just experimenting with it. I think I need 1 more bag of substrate. I might just pick up 9 liters of substrate just in case. The Tourmaline BC also came in. It's just a powder form of Iron and other metals to help with my red plants for a extra boost. Here's a few pictures of the new tank.
I think once you go that rimless, bevelled, low iron glass, with minimal silicone look, every other tank seems like crap in comparison. Probably the most expensive things in my fish room are my tanks because I couldn't go back to the typical fish store ones.
Thanks LittleBettaFish and kjg, I'm taking this project slow and putting a lot of thought into this. Right now I'm talking to my brother about a custom made stand. I don't know if I want a stain wood or just gloss black. I definitely want rails coming out the stand to hang my lights and drilled holes for my canister filter hoses. ADA stands are nice, but it's over price. Plus I can say I helped build a stand and ecosystem lol.
I saw some beautiful custom built ADA style stands here that were made of various woods and then stained. I personally liked them over the typical black/grey/white gloss look as they were much more unique. Not sure if you can see the image, but this one was stunning.
I do agree the ADA stands are overpriced. I usually only buy their aqua soil as in Australia in particular you can get products that are of comparable quality for much, much cheaper.
Where did you get these rocks? I am in love with them and how they are shaped. If I didn't redo my 20 gal already, I would of loved to put some of those in my tank. Do they come in colors like the Zebra rocks?
It's seiryu stone and only has one color grey. They have a lot of different stones on the market for aquascapes. Here's a link for some, but I got my seiryu stone on ebay.
No it's a rimless tank. I'm building a custom stand for it though. Check out this link for ADA tanks ----> http://www.adana-usa.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=76_25.
Thinking about getting a 65gal ADA tank without telling the wife. But I'll surprise her with it in February lol.
Good eye Bamboo, James made a beautiful nano tank of that rock. You can see the video here Red Rock Nano Aquascape by James Findley: http://youtu.be/Uv0x42x-r7Y. I do agree the green plants complement the red stones perfectly. Looking at all sorts of aquascape videos and pictures gives me a lot of inspiration.
My theme in my tank is red, white, black large rocks, with a sandy white "beach" and blue, aqua, white waters. The water area have all the plants and driftwood while the sandy area has the smaller plants in pots. I think it's a neat theme and those Sado stones might look good in my tank one day.
Update on my new project. So I found out you can use window film on a aquarium. I'm using the frost look window film which looks awesome so far. I also found out about back lighting on aquascapes. I tested 2 lights, LED and CFL bulb/desk lamp. So far the CFL is winning by a mile for looks. I tryed the LED stripes, they look amazing, but not as a back light. If I'm going the CFL route I might try party lights, like orange to make a sunset or whatever looks natural.
Yeah, I'm getting really impatient. I'm returning the LED stripes, so I can buy some glassware inflow and outflows for my filter instead. Still waiting on my LED lights from BuildMyLED.com. They told me it takes 7 to 8 days to build my lighting system plus shipping, so it looks like it would be a while before I get it. I should be getting my glass CO2 diffuser, bubble counter, and glass check value very soon. In a about a week or 2 I'll be drawing plans and buying material for my custom stand. Plants is the last thing on the list. So I'll be looking at mid September when I start planting the tank. This a slow and thought out project. I really don't wanna make 1 mistake to be honest.
I HATE the waiting part...it seems like it always takes foooorever! Like gahh!!>:[...but at the end you'll have a beautiful tank!! I can't wait to how see it looks all put together I bet I'm gonna be jealous:-[ haha...goodluck!
You shouldn't be jelly. I'm representing the betta forums in the the International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest or IAPLC in 2015. Reason why I'm doing this. A lot of professional aquascapers enter in. A no body like me just wants to place in the top 100 out of 5,000 that enter. To bad I can't put a betta in my layout, because the judges want schooling fish.
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