I haven’t posted in a long time, largely because I’ve been incredibly busy preparing for Aquafest 2009 in Laurel, MD. As president of GWAPA, one of the three clubs hosting the convention, there was plenty to do, but after a blur of a weekend, I think the convention was a success. Thanks to all of the sponsors, attendees, and volunteers who helped us pull it off! The main event that I was responsible for was the aquascaping challenge between Jason Baliban, our speaker, and Jeff Ucciardo, GWAPA’s vice president.

We spent the hour prior to the event sorting a mass of materials into two equal piles so that Jeff and Jason would start on a completely level playing field. Above is some of the manzanita wood that we got from Manzanita.com to use in the scapes. Jason got off to a quick start, putting in the white pool filter sand, developing a hardscape, and topping it off with some Aquasoil.

Jeff took a little bit of time to plan his scape, but was right behind Jason once he got his hardscape placed. Jason chose to extend the white sand all the way from front to back, while Jeff kept the sand confined to the foreground. Both competitors divided the tank into two mounds, one larger than the other.

In the end, both Jason and Jeff finished before the hour was up, which is quite impressive given the amount of time I usually spend working on an aquascape. Below is Jason’s finished scape from the side. The judges liked the rockwork in his scape, as well as the use of manzanita to provide flow to the layout.

However, the judges thought he could have filled in the scape with more plants than he did, but recognized that it should fill in nicely once it grows in. The tanks themselves are very nice, being a first look at Aquarium Design Group’s own line of rimless aquariums. They are 24″x16″x16″ and Catalina Aquarium donated a pair of HO-T5 lights to go with them.

Jeff’s finished aquascape is below, and as you can see, he did a very nice job filling in the scape with plants from the get-go. The judges took off points for his hardscape saying that it got lost in the plants.

They also wondered why he didn’t extend the white sand front to back between the two mounds. Ultimately, we ended up being able to exhibit two very nice scapes, especially considering that they were completed in an hours’ time frame. The judges gave a slight nod to Jason’s scape, but explained to the audience what they liked and disliked about each.

Also, during the whole hour, I gave a mini presentation about Aquascaping in general. We wanted to avoid folks from getting bored while the planting was going on, so I fielded a number of questions keeping the competitors from having to. Our A/V team also did a great job projecting the two tanks live onto two large screens so that everyone could see what was going on. Overall, the event was a success!

I finally got past my resistance and tore down the “Fallen Tree” aquascape in my 50G. I really wanted an aquascape where I can use some nice stem plants, but the manzanita hardscape seen below really just needs a simple low-to-the-ground type design on the right side. The stem plants I had in there looked okay, but didn’t really work with the hardscape.

So, Wednesday evening I tore out all of the plants and hardscape, and made myself a new rockscape using the new rocks I collected from my friend’s backyard. In his neighborhood, construction of the homes sometimes involves dynamite to dig out for the foundation, which conveniently leaves mounds of quartz-based rocks all over the place. I thought a rock-dominated aquascape would allow me to use the stem plants more effectively because the rocks would hide the bottoms, allowing nicely trimmed tops to pop out from behind them.

Above, you can see what I came up with. The foreground is still all Eleocharis sp. ‘Japan’, with a midground almost 100% comprised of Blyxa japonica. Blyxa aubertii is in the back-left with Limnophila repens var. ‘Mini’, Rotala sp. ‘Araguaia’, Ludwigia senegalensis, Pogostemon erectum, and Rotala mexicana var. ‘Araguaia’ making up the background. Comments welcome!

Back in July, I converted my quarantine tank into something of an aquascaped quarantine tank. Then, after rescaping my 75G, I had lots of extra Bolbitis, which I incorporated into this scape. This tank is really just a holding ground for plants and fish, with no CO2, minimal dosing, and a crappy light. Nevertheless, there’s no reason why it can’t look somewhat presentable.

20L - 9/12/2009, click for larger

Above is what it’s looking like currently (despite the poor picture). The Sagittaria subulata is slowly creeping to the right to fill in that side, and the crypts on the left side are gradually filling that in. The Bolbitis easily filled up the space in the back right, and behind the rock on the left. Overall, it’s coming along. There’s definitely an appeal to this low-tech tank because they grow so slowly that you only need to trim a couple times a year. Comments welcome!

This past weekend I was asked by a fellow GWAPA member to come over and help them take pictures of their 210G aquarium for the upcoming AGA Aquascaping Contest deadline on September 15th. I hadn’t actually seen Michael’s aquarium before, but I had heard some pretty amazing things about it. For starters, it’s a 210G custom-built aquarium using starfire glass, and fully plumbed into his home’s water-supply.

He has a constant drip trickling into the system, providing roughly a 10% water change every single day. This probably wouldn’t otherwise be required, but he really wants to keep his beautiful school of discus in pristine health. The plumbing is directly in the middle of tank, but he has aquascaped his tank, which is viewable by three sides, in such a way that all equipment is completely hidden.

The discus are phenomenal, being excellent stock from Discus Hans here in Baltimore. They did a pretty good job queuing up in a line while we were shooting the rest of the aquarium. If you’re wondering where the front-on aquarium shots are, I don’t want to post those until after the AGA contest is over.

It really is wonderful to be part of an aquarium club where you can learn so much stuff from the ways other folks have setup their tanks. Some day, I would love to have a large aquarium like this as the wall in-between two rooms, but that won’t happen anytime soon. It was a great opportunity to go over and see how Michael setup his magnificent aquarium. Thanks Michael!

This weekend, myself and another GWAPA member helped a third GWAPA member, Paul, rescape his 90G aquarium. Paul has been in the club for awhile, but wanted to make an earnest foray into the high-tech world of aquascaping. He has a nice T5 fixture on order, CO2 rigged up, and replaced his old gravel mixture with several bags of Eco-Complete.

It took us longer than you would think to place eight rocks in the aquarium. We added a rock, stood back and looked, gave directions to the person closest to the tank to move a rock a little to the right or left, and ultimately ended up with the rockscape you see above. You can see a little bit of crayon on the front of the glass because we drew a very minor sketch on the tank beforehand. The crayon wipes right off.

After setting our rockscape, we added another two bags of Eco-Complete to mound up on both sides. Then, we added in a few manzanita branches that Paul wanted to use in the scape. After doing this, we were ready to start scaping. We wanted to to keep a relatively simple plant arrangement for the time-being, so we used a number of lower-maintenance plants, with a couple stems thrown in.

We used Sagittaria subulata and a short Lilaeopsis species in the foreground, with Lobelia cardinalis and Crytocoryne wendtii in the midground, and on the right side background. There’s Echinodorus sp. ‘Vesuvius’ and Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata ‘Cuba’ in the left background. Overall, I think we were all pretty happy with the scape. Obviously, it needs to do a lot of growing in, but it should fill out nicely. It’s definitely a lot of fun to aquascape with other people!

Today I did water-changes on my aquariums, and while looking at the 54G tank, I decided to actually try trimming back the hairgrass a little bit. I had talked about trimming it down for awhile, but various folks said they liked the long-wavy-look, so I put it off. I ended up deciding to just try it once and see how it goes.

Above you can see the trimmed tank immediately after the water-change. Below is the tank, immediately prior to the trim and water change. Which do you like better? To me, I think the trimmed look brings out the hardscape a little bit more. I know that the rest of the plants are a bit of a mess right now. That’s my next problem to solve!

The good thing is that the plants are actually starting to grow quite well, and assuming I keep my dosing regimen and water-changes on schedule, I haven’t had near the issues with algae that I have had previously on this tank. The Potamogetons in this tank are doing wonderfully.

I did have a beautiful stand of Lindernia dubia in here, but I trimmed it very hard to send to a friend. I may have trimmed it too hard. Fortunately, I have more stashed away in my emersed setup. Overall, this tank is starting to come into its own. Please let me know if you like the haircut or not. Comments welcome!

It’s been a few weeks since I replanted the 50G, and as you can see the plants have been growing quite well. The tank is definitely due for a trim right now, especially the Ludwigia brevipes on the left, and the Limnophila repens var. ‘Mini’ in the back left. I do have two notable additions to this aquascape. In the back-left, I added a number of Blyxa aubertii plants which were previously in my 75G aquarium.

Also, I was fortunate to get in on a fantastic group buy that GWAPA conducted to add 15 crystal red shrimp, and 15 crystal black shrimp to this aquarium. Below is a picture of one of the red ones, which I believe is a “tiger-tooth” because the one red band looks like two teeth coming down. I don’t know very much about grading the shrimp, and really don’t care, as I just think they’re quite striking inhabitants in a planted aquarium regardless of the grade.

So, hopefully, these shrimp will start a little breeding population in my 50G! Elsewhere in the aquarium, the hairgrass is starting to spread in the corners where I transplanted a few plants, and I’m generally pleased with the direction that it’s headed. I’m waiting on the stems on the right side to grow out a bit more and multiply, so that I can really focus on trimming them into new compact bushes of plants. Comments/critiques welcome!

Last week, I finally got around to clearing out the jungle that had formed in my 75G, and completely rescaped it. Previously, the aquascape was dominated by a ton of Narrow Leaf Java Fern, but this scape doesn’t contain any fern, except for some Trident Java Fern topping off the two mounds of driftwood.

75G: 2 Days After Setup

I had a couple of goals in mind for this new scape. For one, with my farm tank overflowing with plants, I wanted to use a few more stem plants in this scape than I did in the previous one. Hence, ferns are out, and stems are in. Additionally, since I’ve had some plecos breeding in the hollowed out driftwood, I wanted to continue to use the same African bogwood as I had in here previously, but I also wanted some more open space for a foreground. Those were the goals.

75G: Hardscape Finished

Toying around with a couple of different layouts, I ultimately settled on the two mound approach, with one larger mound on the left, complemented by a smaller mound on the right, with open space in between. Yes, I know it’s been done a million times. So, I stacked up a bunch of pieces of the bogwood, trying to making them look like they fell on top of, or in the nook and crannies between, a base of rock.

75G: Foundation Plants Planted

After finishing the hardscape, I planted what I feel are foundation plants. These are the plants that are actually kind of part of hardscape itself. Plants like Cryptocoryne, Anubias, Java Fern, etc. After getting those in place, you can really start to see what other areas need to be filled in. I added an inch or two of water, and finished planting the foreground and stem plants. The foreground is Glossostigma elatinoides, and in the back I have Hygrophila sp. ‘Guinea,’ Ludwigia repens x arcuata, Ludwigia arcuata, Elatine americana, Clinopodium brownei, Hottonia palustris, Limnophila aromatica, and Limnophila sp. ‘Wavy’. Of course, you can’t see most of them now.

75G: Other Plants Planted, Filling Up Tank

After filling up the tank, this is what I had. I removed a ton of Malaysian Trumpet Snails so they wouldn’t uproot the foreground, and hundreds of cherry shrimp came out of the substrate to begin exploring their new home. It’s very difficult to catch all of the shrimp when doing a rescape, but fortunately, most survived the ordeal.

75G: Right After Scaping

So now, it’s just a matter of letting it grow in a little bit. I already see a few things I’ll probably end up tweaking. I probably ought to pull out some of the background plants between the two mounds to keep them more seperate, and have the Glosso extend all the way to the back. Additionally, the Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia behind the right mound should probably be moved to the right a little bit. I may adjust some of the hardscape on the left side, but at this point, I kind of want to see how it evolves on its’ own, and go from there. Comments and critiques welcome!

Earlier in the week, one of our fellow GWAPA members, Dave Williams, invited a few people over to rescape his large 180G aquarium. With a tank this large, a little bit of help to plant can save a huge amount of time. By the time we arrived, Dave had done all of the prep work required, so we could start directly with the hardscape. He already had a vision in his head about the final aquascape, which was to bundle branches of wood together to form “trees,” and hopefully provide enough perspective with plants to have the effect of standing in the forest, with a mountain off in the background.

So, we got started by placing the trees in the tank, and then using several pieces of porous mossy rock to build up our mountain. After we did this, we realized that the mountain looked a little bit out of place, being the only rock in the tank.

So, we added a complementary mountain to the left of it. After several opinions were tossed around, we all decided that we didn’t like the separate mountain ranges, and would rather put a smaller peak in part of a larger mountain range. We were also trying to envision which pieces of the background would end up visible once the tank was planted. Ultimately, we ended up with what you see below.

Now, it was time to begin planting the tank. We added just enough water to allow for the plants to stick, and went to town. In the mountain itself, we wedged Cryptocoryne parva into any crack we could. The foreground consisted of hairgrass and a dwarf Lilaeopsis species. Anubias, Cryptocoryne crispatula var. ‘Balansae’, Cryptocoryne walkeri, Pogostemon helferi, among others made it into the tank.

Now it was time to fill the tank with water. As you can imagine, it takes quite awhile to fill a tank with 180 gallons of water slowly enough not to disturb the plants. Dave sent a picture of how the tank looks with the water in it.

As you can tell, plenty of growing needs to happen to really fill in a tank this size, but I’m very interested to see how this aquascape shapes up once it reaches maturity. I also recommend scaping with other people. It’s great to hear instant feedback on your original hardscape and plant selection ideas, so that you can make any minor adjustments before you finish.