Over the weekend, we visited Swallow Falls State Park in Garrett County Maryland. The park features a wonderful 1.5 mile trail that follows along the Youghiogheny River and Muddy Creek, which are two beautiful white water waterways. It is also one of the few old growth hemlock forests in the area.

Swallow Falls itself is actually not a huge waterfall. Seen above

, it’s a still beautiful, but the rock formation to the right is really the more impressive feature.

This rock formation reminds me of the sea stacks on the west coast of the U.S. Seen below

, it really does stand alone will years of geologic layers of earth and rock visible.

These layers are actually present throughout the park, where huge rocks are haphazardly stack upon one another in layers that resemble many stone walls (or cichlid walls for fish fans) that people put together.

From the top of the falls, there are good views of the river downstream.

The trial has beautiful vistas of forest and rock away from the river as well, featuring ferns and moss under the hemlock canopy. Like the sea stack, this reminds me of the Olympic National Forest in Washington, just with less moss and ferns due to vast differences in annual rainfall.

Finally, despite the name of the park featuring Swallow Falls, the largest waterfall in the park (and in Maryland) is on the same trail just upstream from where Muddy Creek and the Youghiogheny River meet. Muddy Falls is impressive, falling 53 feet to a deep lagoon, surrounded by the same massive rock walls.

I’d recommend this park highly. It’s not a severely technical or long trail, but there is a lot of beauty and exploration to be had in a small area. Muddy Creek is also handicap accessible via a wooden boardwalk and scenic overlook down on the falls.

I did a photoshoot of my 33g this weekend. Normally, I pull out my go-to 24-70mm lens for the majority of my shots, but unfortunately, this weekend that lens was in the shop, necessitating that I experiment with some other options. In doing so, I was amazed at how the exact same aquascape can look radically different based on the focal length of the lens used to shoot it.

33G Aquascape – Photographed with 11mm lens

Take the first shot above as an example. This was start with a super wide-angle lens at just 11mm. Of all of the shots, I love how dramatic it makes the hill look, with so much depth it’s amazing. However, if you submitted this to an aquascaping contest, you’d likely get points knocked off for too much distortion. Just look at the silicon line on the back left — it’s not even remotely a straight line like it should be.

33G Aquascape – Photographed with 13mm lens

Dialing it back a bit only 2mm to 13mm makes a lot of difference. You can see the distortion is not quite so profound

, albeit still present, and the warping of the hill itself is less so. Whether or not this is a good thing or not is up to you.

33G Aquascape – Photographed with 17mm lens

Now, jumping to 17mm the lines are much more natural but you still get a good amount of depth. Notice how there’s less and less reflection as the angle gets narrower. In the first shot, you get nearly the entire grouping of Rotala rotundifolia whereas as 17mm we only see the tops.

33G Aquascape – Photographed with 50mm lens

Finally, jumping all the way up to 50mm it almost looks like a totally different aquascape compared to the 11mm shot. There’s barely a foreground to speak of and the mound itself is compressed. The lack of depth is profound. This further demonstrates how important the photography aspect of aquascaping to ensure that you’re capturing the right version of the scape that you want to share with the world. I’d be very interested to hear what you’re personal favorite is of the photos above in the comment section.

Aquarium Design Innovations is out with a new iteration of their EcoQube line, the EcoQube C, a desktop ecosystem that uses basil to filter the water. And for a very short time, they’re offering early backers of their kickstarter compaign the EcoQube C for just $39 — that’s half of their normal $79 retail price!

The desktop aquarium is designed to be a complete ecosystem for your home or office. The basil filter removes waste from the fish, a UV lamp sterilizes the water, and a full-spectrum LED keeps all of the plants growing. Compared to a normal filtration cycle that uses bacteria to convert ammonia into nitrate, which can then cause algae growth, the EcoQube’s filter uses basil to remove the nitrate altogether.

ADI’s goal is simple:

“Aquaponics is a clear solution to address many issues of water and food shortages all over the world and we hope the EcoQube can help bring this incredible yet simple solution into our everyday lives and influence the way we perceive the larger issues in the world today. We know there are these horrific things happening but we’ve been so disconnected with our environment and the negative impacts we make with our everyday decisions.”

Kickstarter is all about backers – the more backers ADI gets on the first day

, the more it will help them reach their goal. So even if you don’t want an EcoQube of your own, but you support ADI and their mission, donating $1 will help them tremendously. So please go to their campaign and back them!

Learn more about the EcoQube C at www.aquaponicsfilter.com

Support ADI by backing their kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kevinzl/1902509544?token=c8c86f74

I posted a picture of my latest aquascape in the Aquavas aquarium recently. I want to walk through how the scape came together.

The hardscape consists of two large pieces of spiderwood and several locally collected rocks made up of quartz and slate. The substrate is from Mr.  Aqua and pool filter sand in front.

I used a selection of Aqvainnova plants that I got in Chicago at Aquatic Experience. These are beautiful plants, some still in tissue culture and others were already transitioned to nursery growth.

I used some beautiful Elatine hydropiper in the front areas under the spiderwood overhang. Otherwise

, several different Cryptocoryne species were planted.

I also used a super glue gel to attach Anubias barterii ‘nana’ directly to the wood.

After everything was planted, I filled it up, but did have to place some temporary rocks on top of the wood to keep it from floating up.

Later I tied some weeping moss to the wood to soften it a bit more.

Finally

, you can see what the scape looks like several weeks later. It’ll still be several more weeks before it’s grown in. I’m also not settled on keeping the Hygrophila corymbosa angustifolia long term.

Comments / thoughts welcome!

Last weekend, I attended the Aquatic Experience show in Chicago as a participant in the Aquascaping Live contest. My local aquatic plant club, GWAPA, sent two teams totaling seven people to participate in the 75G large tank competition. We were extremely fortunate to take the first and second place positions in the contest.

The first place went to a GWAPA team led by Jen Williams, a rising aquascaping talent in the hobby. She also won 1st place in the small tank contest. Jen and her team mates , Arlene Wagner, Nick Kinser, and Cristy Keister did an excellent job putting together a very nice rockscape. Jen pioneered a technique using the Great Stuff foam used for filling drafty doorframes to fuse the rocks in this scape together so that they could be transported in three distinct blocks. I’m happy and humbled by their scape.

My team won second place with the scape above. Aaron Talbot, Cavan Allen, and I worked together on this aquascape about 3 months prior to the contest. The rocks are a quartz-based rock that we sourced locally. I would have liked more small form Bolbitus so that the tall one wasn’t necessary, but overall we’re very happy with the scape.

Next , a team from Texas put together this beautiul aquascape using manzanita. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture following the completion of their scape, as they had several issues with plants and materials not arriving on time to the hotel, but the finished scape was about the same but with white sand on the right side. Had they not suffered this setback, I’m sure they would have assembled an even nicer result. What they put together was pretty nice!

Finally, a local Chicago team put together this last aquascape. They did a nice job and prominently used one of my favorite plants, Blyxa japonica. 

This was the first year the AGA conducted this competition in conjunction with the Aquatic Experience show. I hope that more teams will compete in next year’s contest so that we can continue to grow the aquascaping hobby in the U.S.

I came across this kick-starter project today, and thought it to be pretty interesting. I seen other aquarists run dedicated aquariums in their racks that were veggie filters, but I haven’t seen a filter designed to incorporate this idea inherently. The EcoQube setup include the tank, filter, LED, and seeds for the plant.

The medium itself stay hydrated from the filter water

, replenishing nutrients from the detritus of the tank. In this picture, they’re growing a basil plant, although, I wouldn’t recommend consuming any plants grown in this way, particularly if you’re using hobby-grade substrates and chemicals.

Take a look at their kickstarter video to get a sense of what their inspiration is for this project.

The guys behind this filter and setup are the folks from Aqua Design Innovations, who have been working with planted aquariums for some time. If you like the concept, consider donating to help to this product into production.

After looking at an overgrown mess for several weeks, I broke down and spent the day on Sunday rescaping my 50g aquarium. I emptied everything from the tank

, but the substrate, including dozens of bristlenosed plecos. I overturned one of the previous pieces of wood, and saw probably a hundred baby plecos scurrying everywhere. It probably took me an extra 30 minutes to pull all of those tiny 1/2″ fry from the tank.

I recently bought a large amount of Malaysian driftwood from a local store, and wanted to use some of those pieces in this aquascape. I was looking to recreate the base of a tree submerged in the water. I don’t know if the above hardscape is exactly that, but I did create three distinct lanes running from left to right; one on the left behind the centerpiece, the center lane, and another that goes behind the large piece on the right. In addition, knowing that I would put dozens of plecos back into this tank, I chose pieces of wood that have caves or crevices that I hope they’ll occupy. Some always insist on digging underneath the wood!

Next, I replanted the tank using most of the same plants that I had in previously. All throughout the tank is Ranalisma rostrata, with Hygrophila pinnatifida both used as stems and attached fern-like plants on the wood itself. I used some Staurogyne sp. to help add some more intrigue throughout the Ranalisma, along with Hygrophila sp. ‘Araguaia’. I still need to add some mosses to the wood

, particularly the center piece that has a visible sawed off area. I will post updated shots once the tank completely clears. Initial comments/critiques welcome!

Below is a picture I snapped today while working in on my tanks. It’s been three weeks since I posted a picture of this aquarium, and as you can see, the Lilaeopsis is growing in very nicely. I’m getting a few leaves with fuzz algae, largely in areas that aren’t getting a ton of flow. That’s definitely one of the problems with this tank size. I have to used nano-sized powerheads, so they don’t push a ton of water. If I upgrade to the next size, the powerhead disturbs both the substrate and the water surface.

So, I’m going to simply re-position the powerheads I have to try and fix the problem. I’ve also dimmed the LEDs just a tad to slow the growth a little bit. I have to say that I love that this is possible with many LED fixtures! Let me know if you like how it growing in. (Or if you don’t!)

Last weekend, my family and I spent some time at the beach on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. While we were there, we visited Assateague Island where we caught a group of wild ponies enjoying a beautiful evening on the beach. With the group was an older foal, which was kept nearby the adults.

The ponies leisurely walked down the shoreline, giving me plenty of time pull out my camera and snap a few photos. The beach at Assateague is much nicer than in Ocean City, MD, as it’s more natural, has fewer people, and the sand itself is easier on your feet.

After the ponies passed, a few of us spent time hopping waves and collecting seashells. As I mentioned above, the sand is very fine, so it feels wonderful underfoot. Where the waves break, however, there are a lot of shells and rocks, but that makes it ideal for finding some nice ones. Out past the surf, the fine sand continues for a long ways before dropping off.

You may notice that the ponies have a bulging belly that normal horses do not exhibit. We read that this is due to drinking salt water. Some literature that they handed us when we entered the park said that the horses adapted and can now sustain themselves largely on salty water.

The park limits the number of ponies that live on the island to only what the vegetation on the island can sustain. Nevertheless, in all of the years I’ve visited Assateague, we have never left without seeing at least one pony. Most times, you see several herds from your car just by driving the short loop that goes throughout the island. Have you been to Assateague? Comments welcome!

Last weekend I had the pleasure to spend the day at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Following Hurricane Irene, there were relatively few folks there, but the weather was fantastic. I wanted to share some of my pictures from the day’s excursion. One of my favorite exhibits at the zoo is the Amazonia exhibit. This exhibit features a huge aquarium with large Pacu, catfish, and my favorite, an Arapaima.

The exhibit also has a large rainforest area above the aquarium that has monkeys roaming, birds flying, and lots of plants from the Amazon region.

Outside, a young female orangutan was climbing around on the lines they have that allows them to get their exercise in full view of the visitors.

In a pool nearby, the american alligator floats still while enjoying the sun on a clear day in the park.

All the while, several lion cubs are chasing each other, wrestling around in the lion pit. At one point, these two cubs get a little too rowdy for papa, who was people watching up until that point.

The park itself is landscaped wonderfully, and for us aquatic plant enthusiasts, there are several wet areas to check out. The Nymphoides above were flowering while we were there.

Inside the small mammal house, an incredibly cute and popular meerkat stoically stood and peered at the crowd checking him out.

Likewise, in the ape house, this female ape was seated on a branch about 20 feet off of the ground, relaxing.

The lemur was bright eyed as always! And of course, the elephants were roaming around outside smile as the pleasant weather.

I was happy to see that the animals were all behaving normally after an earthquake and hurricane swept through the area in the same week. If you missed this story, many of the animals reacted to the impending earthquake prior any shaking. All in all, we had a wonderful time at the National Zoo, and recommend it to visitors to the area.

Several more pictures are available on my Flickr stream.