I mentioned last week how I’ve been tearing down a few of my smaller tanks in order to consolidate them into a single larger aquarium. Well, I’ve begun setting up a new 50G breeder tank. The nice thing about a 50G aquarium is that it is as tall as it is deep, giving it very nice dimensions for creating an aquascape. I still don’t have a light fixture for this tank yet, so up to now, all I’ve been able to setup is the hardscape.

Using a huge manzanita root ball on the left, my goal was to create the look of a log or tree that’s fallen into the water and has sat there for awhile. The limbs have settled in between rocks, and only the larger ones remain undecayed. That’s the premise so far. I’ve had a difficult time trying to decide what plants I’m going to use in this tank, and exactly where they’re going to go. I’ll likely use a bunch of smaller leaf’d plants, such as various rotalas, but I still haven’t figured out how they’re supposed to fit with this hardscape. I think my biggest stumbling block right now is more about where to position the negative space (unoccupied area), rather than cramming plants throughout the entire thing. I’d love to hear feedback on the hardscape itself, as well as, any ideas for planting.

Autumn is a wonderful time of year in Maryland. It may not be known for the spectacular leaf colors that New England is, but they are brilliant nevertheless. This weekend, my wife and I took a walk along the Little and Middle Patuxent Rivers with our two dogs to enjoy the season. I’ve talked about this area a number of times on the blog, but there’s something new and different every time we’re out in the forest.

Along the water’s edge, I was hopping some rocks with the dogs, and looked down to see an freshwater Asiatic clam in a part of the river that I’d looked for them before, but never found them. I didn’t see many fish out and about this time, however, but I suspect that’s due to the declining temperatures.

Of course, the main reason we were out was to see the leaves. There were stunning bright orange and red leaves lining the trees, and littering the forest floor. I’m pretty sure that this is the peak for the leaves this year in our area, as the trees all around exhibit a full spectrum of color.

We also took a different trail this time on our hike to an old quarry. It’s now in the process of being reclaimed by the forest, but you can see above how the hillside was mined for rock. There were a few leftover rusting pipes coming from the water, that I assume were used to transport water to the quarry. Overall, a nice relaxing hike before heading back to work on Monday.