The 33G Aquascape continues to do well. Since my June update, I’ve added some Bucephalandra motleyana from Aquaflora , which I think add a nice alternative to the usually Anubias barterii var. nana that have been used for years in these kinds of scapes. The weeping moss is doing a nice job consuming the wood/rocks just enough to cover up the gaps.

I’ve reduced the amount of Riccia fluitans as it can kind of go crazy. I’m going back and forth between leaving a more erratic grouping of Rotala rotundifola like in the picture above , versus trimming it in a more manicured way. I kind of like the chaotic look. Your comments are invited!

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!

I snapped another quick photo of my 33G aquarium this week, and wanted to share. As you can see, the Rotala rotundifolia is growing in, as are all of the other plants. The Riccia is staying put, although I’m not 100% sold on its placement. Ignore the moss ball in the upper-left — I’m just stashing a mound of weeping moss there temporarily. Comments welcome!

This weekend I started to rescape my 33g aquarium. This is my Green Leaf Aquarium tank that’s exactly half of a standard 75g tank. So far, I’ve only completed the hardscape, that you can see below.

I use my camera phone to take pictures of the hardscape as I go. This allows me to very easily see if I like the positioning of the rocks/wood

, and make adjustments on the fly. The GIF below shows a demonstration of how things changed as I moved along. Before I even started, I did a prototype on the floor in front of the tank to try and work out what kind of hardscape layout I would aim for.

You can see that I used a mixture of rosewood and ohko stone, sometimes referred to as dragonstone. I was inspired by many of the cliffs and elements on the U.S. West Coast at the Olympic and Mount Rainier National Parks near Seattle, Washington. There, many trees grow out of amazing rock faces, and I was hoping to capture some element of that in this scape.

I’m also doing a dry start for this aquascape, which is something I do not usually do. I wanted to try George Farmer’s suggestion of blending moss with Greek yogurt and painting on the millions of tiny fronds that result.

I got my wife’s permission to use the Vitamix to blend the moss, and the result was this soupy mixture below. I literally used a paintbrush to apply the moss to the wood. You can see the result of that in the close-up above.

Now, the tank is sealed off with plastic wrap, and I’ll mist it each day for the next few weeks. With luck, the moss will begin to attach to the wood, and I’ll be able to continue with the full planting and filling of the tank. Comments welcome!