I finally took a break from my on-going home improvement projects to rescape my GLA 33G rimless aquarium. Being inspired by Ghazanfar Ghori’s aquarium at the last GWAPA meeting, I wanted to setup an aquascape with a sand foreground, using some of the same type of rocks he used. I also wanted to utilize a pile of branches I had laying around.

As far as plants go, I wanted to use the Hygrophila pinnatifida that I got at the AGA auction last fall. I’ve been growing it out from tiny plants straight out of tissue culture, so it’s taken a little while to get enough for an aquascape. My goal was also to keep the aquascape fairly minimalist, using only 3-4 species of plants, any heavily relying on the hardscape.

After planting, the tank’s water was quite cloudy, but it’s looking pretty good this evening. To supplement the H. pinnatifida, I used lots of Trident Java Fern. I also placed a number of Fissidens covered rocks around, and planted some Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides, which I hope will cascade up and over the rocks to soften the cracks between them.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with how this aquascape has started out. I’d love to hear and comments/critiques you may have.

Frank over at ADG posted a great video of Takasi Amano aquascapes on their Facebook site. It’s easy to see why Amano is recognized worldwide as an aquascaping pioneer.

Ghazanfar Ghori hosted GWAPA’s January meeting last weekend, and I wanted to share a fantastic video that our recording secretary took of Ghazanfar’s 90-P aquarium and aquascape. The wood in this aquascape is a special wood from Southeast Asia that maintains its bark underwater without releasing too many tannins. He complements the detail in the wood with lots of Riccardia chamedryfolia (Mini Pelia) , Fissidens moss, Bolbitus, and Anubias barterii var. ‘nana’. The foreground is a very shallow layer of pool filter sand, with ADA Aquasoil in the background to provide nutrition to the plants. Check it out!

For more information about this tank, and the rest of the meeting, please see GWAPA’s website.

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted an update on here. I snapped a quick photo of the Mini-S how it appears right now. I’ve recently replaced the Taiwan moss with Flame moss. The Rotala macrandra variant have been trimmed and is growing back in. Everything else has been filling in a bit. It like how the sand has bits of Aquasoil on top of it, as it looks more natural to me than plain white sand. Comments/critiques welcome!

After getting some great feedback from the aquascaping community, I’ve replaced the rock in the back right of this scape. Many folks felt that the original rock didn’t balance out the large focal rock enough. I also added in a little bit of Eleocharis acicularis in the background to fine-tune things back there. Comments/critiques welcome!