I was playing around with a GoPro this weekend, and took this short video from inside my 75G. I imagine this is what it would look like to swim in the tank.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOdZMWf1PwI

It’s been awhile since I’ve showed a picture of my 75G aquarium. I rescaped it back in April using the porous mossy rock (probably basalt) I’ve used for years. From the get-go, I kind of loved/hated the big rock for being too big, but you can’t deny it’s a presence in the scape. I decided to see if the presence would be softened a bit if the rock was partly obscured by Hygrophila pinnatifida.

As you see, after a few months, the H. pinnatifida has totally overgrown the big rock. In addition, the other plants have exploded, and have really taken over the aquarium. From a aquascaping perspective, most of the definition of the original scape has been lost.

That said, the plants are very healthy, and I’ve tended to throw in additional species of plants, more to farm them out. Going forward, if I want to rebalance the aquascape, I think I’ll have to remove the large rock altogether and rebuild the left side with smaller rocks. I’m disappointed that this Narrow Red Rubin Sword has grown in as kind of a mess. I was hoping for more vertically inclined leaves, but it’s just a cluster now. Regardless, with healthy plants and happy fish

, it’s still one my favorite tanks to sit and admire this summer. Comments welcome!

This week I rescaped my 75G angelfish aquarium. I wanted to open up the tank a little bit, while still preserving some of the classic anglefish biotypes by including sword plants as key focal points to the scape. I reused several plants from the previous scape, namely the Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia and Anubias barteri var. ‘nana petite’.

This is the first aquascape that I’ve done using Brightwell Aquatic’s FlorinVolcanit substrate. I completely emptied the aquarium of all of the previous substrate, leaving only the eggcrate to prevent rocks from directly contacting the glass bottom.

Then

, I placed the hardscape into the aquarium. I choose to use several pieces of manzanita laying over quartz/slate rock, to simulate a fallen branch in the river, wedge between a rocky riverbank. I wanted to simulate a stream bed where the dying tree branches gave life to other aquatic plants, namely the Kleiner Prinz Sword plants.

Lastly, I filled in the foreground with white pool filter sand. I did plant some Staurogyne sp. ‘Porto Velho’ in the sand that I hope will break it up a bit, but hope to keep most of the plain foreground intact, as it provides a nice contrast to the darker wood. Overall, I’m looking forward to seeing how this new aquascape progresses as the plants grow in. Comments welcome!

Here’s another video from my fish room, featuring my F1 Peruvian Angelfish and Apistogramma sp. ‘Breitbinden’.

My 75G aquarium continues to take care of itself with very little maintenance needed. I dose in the mornings, and do my regular water changes, but otherwise, I don’t really have any algae problems, the plants continue to grow, and the dense overgrown jungle look doesn’t tangle itself into a mess too quickly.

My school of seven Peruvian angelfish gracefully occupy the shadows cast by the tall Blyxa aubertii plants unless it’s feeding time when they beg like no other fish in my fishroom. I regularly pull Staurogyne repens and S. sp. ‘Porto Vehlo’ from the foreground without really noticing any plants gone missing.

While I got all seven angelfish with the same quarter size bodies, they have quadrupedaled (or more) in size save the one runt seen above. This fish feeds with the rest, and otherwise appears healthy, but hasn’t grown like the others.  Overall, this tank is a wonderful demonstration of what a mature aquascape can be, providing enjoyment without requiring much in return.