Modern Nature Aquarium

I decided to play with a very modern, minimalistic style of the Nature Aquarium. There is very little substrate used in this style, so the formation is made possible by placing the hardscape in interesting yet natural poses for each piece. I found this stone in the southern USA, and used it because of it's interesting erosion and jagged appearance, which I hoped would compliment the twisted manzanita and leaf structure of flora. These are photos taken immediately before and after planting.


The hardscape is kept very modest to allow the flora to fill in the scene, as well as provide the visual stimulI as the tank matures. All the species I used I hoped are unique enough in appearance to provide that needed portion of fasination I left out in the hardscape. Let me know your thoughts.

I sort of have this imagined course, or direction, I want to take this tank through. In my head, I imagine beginning it as this minimalistic/modern nature aquarium, and then maybe... Just maybe.. backtracking to a style more familiar with Taking Amanos heavily planted, carpeted, nature aquarium style. It's backwards, more difficult to do in reverse, but the tank is Co2 injected with strong lighting so I feel confident I could take these liberties and do it backwards - more for my own artistic amusement than any real logic.

 

Very very nice, great use of thirds! For some reason I can't view the linked attachments, do you have a list of plants used? I think as it matures, some slight variation in green will look great. This also looks like it would be easy and enjoyable for anyone looking for a low tech, simple scape.

I need to go rock hunting somewhere that isn't a stream with pebbles ahaha, you seem to have fantastic luck with finding hardscape material

 

Very very nice, great use of thirds! For some reason I can't view the linked attachments, do you have a list of plants used? I think as it matures, some slight variation in green will look great. This also looks like it would be easy and enjoyable for anyone looking for a low tech, simple scape.

I need to go rock hunting somewhere that isn't a stream with pebbles ahaha, you seem to have fantastic luck with finding hardscape material

Yeah, let me try reposting the photos. I can see it on my computer but my devices show them as locked attachments.

Plant list:

Bolbitis heudelotiI mini
Microsorum Pteropus var. Sunrise (Java Fern var. Sunrise & var. Needle)
Bucephalandra MinI Coin.
Fissidens Fontanous

I'll be additionally adding weeping Moss and other bucephalandta, as well as a bit of color in the near future. The above plants are very new, and I want to allow them to acclimate.

Lol! For all the "luck" I have rock hunting I've got 100lbs of stone that doesn't look anywhere close to as good as this stone does, most of which I've bloodied myself in some way trying to retrieve. Forget the streams and go find a mountain to climb. That's the best advice I can give anyone who wants to rock hunt. Haha!

 

Very very nice, great use of thirds! For some reason I can't view the linked attachments, do you have a list of plants used? I think as it matures, some slight variation in green will look great. This also looks like it would be easy and enjoyable for anyone looking for a low tech, simple scape.

I need to go rock hunting somewhere that isn't a stream with pebbles ahaha, you seem to have fantastic luck with finding hardscape material

Your location says North Carolina? I used to live in Roxboro, it's just north of Durham pretty close to the state line. Around there plenty of rocks could be found wherever there were tobacco fields. Over the last hundred or so years of being plowed the farmers would gather the rocks they dug up and there would be huge piles wherever the fields intersected. Nobody ever cared that I went out and picked thru their fieldstone.

 

Your location says North Carolina? I used to live in Roxboro, it's just north of Durham pretty close to the state line. Around there plenty of rocks could be found wherever there were tobacco fields. Over the last hundred or so years of being plowed the farmers would gather the rocks they dug up and there would be huge piles wherever the fields intersected. Nobody ever cared that I went out and picked thru their fieldstone.

I’m in the Triangle area. Thanks for the tip!

 

Your location says North Carolina? I used to live in Roxboro, it's just north of Durham pretty close to the state line. Around there plenty of rocks could be found wherever there were tobacco fields. Over the last hundred or so years of being plowed the farmers would gather the rocks they dug up and there would be huge piles wherever the fields intersected. Nobody ever cared that I went out and picked thru their fieldstone.

I’m in the Triangle area. Thanks for the tip!

Howdy neighbors! (Durham here)

 

Your location says North Carolina? I used to live in Roxboro, it's just north of Durham pretty close to the state line. Around there plenty of rocks could be found wherever there were tobacco fields. Over the last hundred or so years of being plowed the farmers would gather the rocks they dug up and there would be huge piles wherever the fields intersected. Nobody ever cared that I went out and picked thru their fieldstone.

I’m in the Triangle area. Thanks for the tip!

Howdy neighbors! (Durham here)

I’m in Cary

 

I’m in Cary

With all these NC (triangle area) fish keepers, you’d think there’d be more decent LFS.

 

Haha! See, in North Carolina you all are better geographically located to find awesome rocks than I am - from mountains to the ocean and everything between. The best looking rocks are up not down.

 

With all these NC (triangle area) fish keepers, you’d think there’d be more decent LFS.

Maybe one of use will open a shop one day The Fish Room stores are better than chains but still small, probably due to lower demand

Haha! See, in North Carolina you all are better geographically located to find awesome rocks than I am - from mountains to the ocean and everything between. The best looking rocks are up not down.

Hadn't seriously considered this... Maybe next time I'm in the mountains I'll do some serious hunting

 

I miss NC, though I was out on the coast (Havelock)

 

I miss NC, though I was out on the coast (Havelock)

I would miss being on the coast too.

Maybe one of use will open a shop one day The Fish Room stores are better than chains but still small, probably due to lower demand

The Fish Room is still about a half hour drive for me. There is a good store in Wake Forest. Aquarium Outfitters. It is a further drive, but they have a good selection of fish, and I feel like they’re healthier.

 

Howdy neighbors! (Durham here)

Head up 501 to Rougemont area, Flat River has plenty of rocks to choose from and there's tobacco fields too. Rocks galore!

 

I like the whole aquascape but can't imagine it developing in a way that makes it better i.e. its perfect as it is.

I would like to see fish around the centre and would avoid ones that stick to the glass or glass-surfing types. To me its all about the core.

 

I like the whole aquascape but can't imagine it developing in a way that makes it better i.e. its perfect as it is.

I would like to see fish around the centre and would avoid ones that stick to the glass or glass-surfing types. To me its all about the core.

Totally agree, but I promise it will get better. I planted fairly heavy because of how slow the growth of these plants tend to be. It is Co2 injected, however. Once the plants adapt and take control in the environment I think it will really become a very nice looking tank, especially if the Java Fern var. Sunrise brings a bit of color variety - first time using it.

I'd love to add 30-40 celestial Danio BUT the breeding quality in the local stores is poor as of recently. I may settle for White cloud mountain minnows and black neon tetras.

 

I'd only choose White Clouds if you can keep them cool all round. I find that elevated summer temperatures are not tolerated.

Otherwise they are exceptional fish. I am currently keeping the gold variety and find they are just as good as the original flavour.

Black Neons have seemed reliable to me but they are on a bigger scale.

 

I'd only choose White Clouds if you can keep them cool all round. I find that elevated summer temperatures are not tolerated.

Otherwise they are exceptional fish. I am currently keeping the gold variety and find they are just as good as the original flavour.

Black Neons have seemed reliable to me but they are on a bigger scale.

Definitely! The tank is situated in a basement, which remains cool - how cool in 80-90 F weather I'm not entirely sure. It shouldn't be too difficult to keep it around that 71-72 F temperature for White Clouds.

I'm not set in stone about any stocking, really. The tank is 32 gallons, so I have a pretty wide range of selection. I've just never been much for larger species. I do have black neon tetras in other tanks, so I may give them a trial run.

Maybe one of use will open a shop one day The Fish Room stores are better than chains but still small, probably due to lower demand


Hadn't seriously considered this... Maybe next time I'm in the mountains I'll do some serious hunting

Yeah. The harsher weather conditions in higher altitudes cause very unique fissures and erosion in mountain stone, features that are worn smooth at the base of mountains and on rivers since they have more contact with water erosion.

It's these weather conditions (freezing and thawing) that give Sieryu Stone their unique appearance. There are other factors such as composition of stone, but on a basic level, if you want stone that looks like a mountain then it needs to come from a mountain, and if you want smooth stone you'll find it in the river or near bodies of water. If you want stone that looks like it belongs in the middle of jagged and smooth, then look at areas where mudslides have occurred, or in forests... Fields...

A similiar way of thinking applies to driftwoods. You'll usually find softwoods in areas that are plentiful when it comes to plant life, and find more durable woods in places that the need to be durable was adapted because harsher conditions.

This is nowhere near 100% right all of the time, but it's just a few details I've noted along the way. It at gives you an idea of where to start looking.

Cherry barbs!

Walked into the fish store yesterday with zero intention to buy and fish... Saw these barbs, employee let me net the ones I wanted, so I left with 15 of them... These are definitely a species I've never put much consideration into owning. They're really growing on me, though!

And as a bit of an update - found a bit of filamentous diatoms growing from some of the original old growth, so I trimmed most anything that looked even slightly unhealthy as well as modified my dosing a bit.




I swear I tried for a good half hour to get these barbs to school. I finally give up, hop on fishlore, and guess what? They're all in one large school doing laps around the tank... as soon as I try to take photos they decide to break apart and chase bubbles individually and chaotically!

 

Because fish, that's why!!

 

I have a group of 13 and i’ve never seen them school together. They’re always doing their own thing, sometimes chasing each other lol

 

I swear I tried for a good half hour to get these barbs to school. I finally give up, hop on fishlore, and guess what? They're all in one large school doing laps around the tank... as soon as I try to take photos they decide to break apart and chase bubbles individually and chaotically!

How inconsiderate of them!

 

Only barbs I ever had were tiger barbs. They sometimes did their own thing but were in their school most of the time

 

very nice!

 

Because fish, that's why!!

Well... Um... Yeah, that about sums it all up very nicely. Short and sweet! Haha!

They were schooling beautifully again today, and guess what? Every photo I managed to take was a failure. I either blurred the fish, the layout, or the whole picture. Even the photos I managed that weren't headache-inducing blurred s were complete failures because in my excitement to capture them in perfect schools I left my 10 Gallon tanks lights on, which can be seen reflecting in the glass.

Let me give you all a brief introductory lesson in "Sil's class of School Fails".

 

I'm going to attempt training them to associate a yellow ping-pong ball I glued to a stick with some frozen brine shrimp over the next week or two in an attempt to get the photograph.

I started typing this as a joke, but I'm going to go find a good size stick right now.

 

Hey stranger! Good to see you still here!

First a question... any pics of the tank to the right peeking into one of the photos?

The scape... not sure I love the left most two tall branches, too similar/different??. Make sense? I know you usually have a ‘method to the madness’ once grown will be different of course, but just wanted to mention... otherwise lovely...

2nd question... any close ups of the sunrise? Haven’t heard of it before, similar to the durin besar?

 

First a question... any pics of the tank to the right peeking into one of the photos?

Yeah, of course! Lots of pictures right here-

Just Add Sand!

The scape... not sure I love the left most two tall branches, too similar/different??. Make sense? I know you usually have a ‘method to the madness’ once grown will be different of course, but just wanted to mention... otherwise lovely...

Somehow you always amaze me with the little oddities I place that you manage to zero in on and dissect. Haha!

So here's the method to that madness: The weird one out that's partially hidden isn't in the Aquascape as a piece of the hardscape. I ordered some weeping moss (among others) which shipped from Singapore. About six weeks or more later it dawned on me that I hadn't received these mosses... well... I HAD received them, but I tossed them on my bench, buried them in the envelope under some clutter and when I finally found it what I had left in the package was very light brown, mostly dried out baggies of what looked like very sad thyme and oregano. Instead of throwing it away I tied the sad remains of what once had been moss around a stick which I could remove easily if the moss was truly dead, except-

I didn't remove the stick because by some miracle a week in Co2, fertilize, and good lighting has returned green coloration to the should-be-dead moss, and it is growing again.

And this is why you're my fishlore bestest-friend, Jocelyn, 'cause you always pinpoint such oddities I forget to do something about and make sure I know that's not okay. Haha!

2nd question... any close ups of the sunrise? Haven’t heard of it before, similar to the durin besar?

Sunrise looks like trident and windeluv had a baby, but as soon as windeluv saw their child windeluv immediately asked for a DNA test because it really didn't look like him at all, and because windeluv knew that normal java Fern was always waving at trident in the current.

That any help at all? No?

Yeah, didn't think so... I'll get some shots tomorrow!

 

Awesome tank my dude.

 

... any close ups of the sunrise? Haven’t heard of it before, similar to the durin besar?

So here's the requested plant - what is sold as Java Fern 'Sunrise'. The description said it was a unique variant that has very light, subtle yellow/orange hues at the tips under good conditions. I haven't had it long enough for the specimen to display much more than some noteworthy existing leaf-growth, new leafs , and healthier/bushier overall mass, yet it does seem to have yellowish hints of color in some leafs. I will say the structure of the leaf is unique even among the large number of microsorum Pteropus variants - BUT I have seen a similiar variant. I just can't remember what it was called.

I really just made a "sure, why not?" decision when purchasing and immediately took a liking to it when I had it in my hands.

Awesome tank my dude.

Thanks! I'm really hoping for a 'simplistic, but interestingly neat' look as it grows into this first stage, and then once I get the photo I'm after I want to make it entirely intricate, as if a completely different design without actually reshaping or moving the original hardscape formation at all.

I've got some ideas, I hope - I mean ...

Soo... I have no idea what this is...

I have fissidens tied in various places and have noticed this growing in an area of Moss. It doesn't look familiar to me, and I really have no idea what it is.

Anybody have an idea? It's 2.5 inches tall right now and, as we can see, is loving that Co2.





It definitely appears to be a Moss of sorts, as there are no roots at all. It looks familiar, but only sort of. I've been watching it for a while now, and at first I merely wrote it off as fissidens f. and the conditions it was growing, but the longer it grows the less it looks like fissodens because... Well, you can see the fissidens in the photo and it doesn't really look much like it at all.

 

I've seen that before, where have I seen that before...

 

I've seen that before, where have I seen that before...

That's how I feel every time I look at it - haha! It's seriously on the tip of my tongue, but I just can't recall where I saw it or what it is.

This is a link of a picture I found in another aquascaping thread on fishlore.




It has the same species in the front right of the tank.

Soo... I have no idea what this is...

I have fissidens tied in various places and have noticed this growing in an area of Moss. It doesn't look familiar to me, and I really have no idea what it is.

Anybody have an idea? It's 2.5 inches tall right now and, as we can see, is loving that Co2.View attachment 525632View attachment 525634View attachment 525635View attachment 525636

It took some searching but the moss that just sort of sprouted in the photos is 100% fontinalis antipyretica A.K.A "willow moss". I recognized it immediately after seeing a photo of fontinalis antipyretica on some driftwood. I think if there had been a thicker patch of it growing versus a few pieces it would have been a lot easier to recognize. Haha!

Update

 

UpdateView attachment 574522View attachment 574523

Uh that's amazing.

 

Uh that's amazing.

It's trying to be something pretty.

Haha! Trying to balance the more demanding and colorful plants with the algae-prone undemanding plants has been challenging to say the least.

 

It's trying to be something pretty.

Haha! Trying to balance the more demanding and colorful plants with the algae-prone undemanding plants has been challenging to say the least.

Trying? I'd say it's well and truly succeeded.

I'm sure it is .

 

I trimmed my background plants into a happy little accident.

 

Soo... I have no idea what this is...

I have fissidens tied in various places and have noticed this growing in an area of Moss. It doesn't look familiar to me, and I really have no idea what it is.

Anybody have an idea? It's 2.5 inches tall right now and, as we can see, is loving that Co2.View attachment 525632View attachment 525634View attachment 525635View attachment 525636

Amazing looking tank!! Did you ever find out what that plant was? It appears to be guppy grass maybe? and like you said whatever it is it is pearling like a sonofagun and loving that co2!! WTG

 

Amazing looking tank!! Did you ever find out what that plant was? It appears to be guppy grass maybe? and like you said whatever it is it is pearling like a sonofagun and loving that co2!! WTG

I came upon a picture of it some time later. It was actually Willow Moss, which had found it's way in my tank as a stowaway in a plant purchase (maybe), if I recall. I think if there had been a sizeable chunk of the moss identification would have been easier because, growing as it did with just a few strands sprouting upward, it some times looked like Moss, other times like a small stem, but mostly just confused.

Photo is taken prior to tank maintenance. Anyone think it's time to trim?

 

Before tank maintenance & the day after.

 

Both look good .

 

Bucephalandra MinI Coin submersed flower growth.