Nigel's Forest Scape 128l

Got bored of my IwagumI and wanted to do something with spiderwood. Decided to make my own forest.

Final video

Recent pictures

forest 8

forest detail 128l nigel aquascaping


Specs planted tank aquarium
Tank
80x40x40 cm / 31x15x15" opticwhite 8mm
34 gallon / 128 litre

Lighting
Chihiros rgb 60

Hardscape
Lava rock
Spiderwood

Substrate
ADA Aqua Soil

Shrimp
50+ Red cherry shrimp

Fish
20 green neon tetra

Snails
10 Clithon sp.

Plants
hydrocotyle tripartita
cryptocoryne parva
fissidens fontanus
fissidens mini
solenostoma tetragonum
Bucephalandra (soon before flooding)

Co2
Pressurized CO2 with a diffusor
Co2 checker edge (20 ppm)

Heater
Hydor eth 200 temperature 25 celcius

Filter
Eheim experience 350 (2426) with stainless steel lily pipes

Background
Frosted glass spray

Day 1 Hardscape & DSM

Yoghurt method moss dsm

Day 36

Day 75

Day 95
More details

day 95 forest aquascape by nigel aquascaping


Tank 80x40x40 cm - 34g / 128L




Yoghurt method experiment
Got some fissidens fontanus from someone. Trying out the yoghurt blender method to attach mosses on my lava rocks.



Waterlogging all pieces hopefully they will not dry completely out during my dry start to attach mosses to hardscape.



To be more safe to avoid floating spiderwood I zip tied spiderwood pieces to a piece of slate. These will be buried in the substrate. So far it seems promising as pieces sink immediately in a bucket.




Plants
- Fissidens fontanus and mini
- Solenostoma Tetragonum
- Cryptocoryne parva
- Hydrocotyle tripartita
- bucephalandra minI catherina & kedagang mini

 

Awesome Job!!! I can't wait 2 c the finished result!!!

 

Wow, that's as good as fresh water gets, amazing idea.

 

Haha hey Nigel! I'm following your build on that other aquascaping forum. I saw the pics and was like hey, I've seen those before lol. Ya looks great though! The way you made the spiderwood look naturally wedged in their like it would in the wild is amazing.

 

Looks amazing so far! Spiderwood is tough to sink, good idea attaching to the slate!

 

Very awesome!

 

Rough sketch of the planting. Critique please

WM = weeping moss
CP = cryptocoryne parva
FF / RC = fissidens fontanus / riccardia chamedry folia

Some anubias petite and bucephalandra minI needle leaf random in the scape. Should I put them in crevices or glue them?

The 'path' isn't really planted because if I do all the roots will become hidden by plants.

Maybe I will put some trees more diagonal to prevent the scape from being to static,

Planning to raise the substrate more at the back as I have enough soil from my IwagumI to create more depth. Something like 4 cm front, left back 13 cm, center 8 cm and right back 10 cm.

 

I kind of feel that planting like that will kind of divide the scape. Mabye try raising the soil more at the back, that way you can plant something that kind of brings the two divides together.

 

I kind of feel that planting like that will kind of divide the scape. Mabye try raising the soil more at the back, that way you can plant something that kind of brings the two divides together.

Good point I don't want to divide the scape. I could plant something at the back glass but idk if that would be enough to bring the two parts together. Good thing is I can always add more plants if needed.

 

Following! Love the hardscape

 

Following too! I love these scapes and hope to do one someday. Instead of a background, Silister Trench put frosted window cling on his, with a light behind it I believe??? It is a really beautiful effect, making it look as though the forest fades into fog.

 

I don't think dividing the scape isn't exactly bad. Maybe you can use that path with no plants and play with the plants on the sidesw to give the tank a sense of extra depth.

 

Following too! I love these scapes and hope to do one someday. Instead of a background, Silister Trench put frosted window cling on his, with a light behind it I believe??? It is a really beautiful effect, making it look as though the forest fades into fog.

It was Frosted Window Film and the tank sat within 6-8 inches of a plain white wall to reflect a 7k cabinet lighting set and an old submersible light that I could change the color on. There was also small twigs of varying sizes I painted black and mounted against the glass in position with the forest to add a varying layer of depth that continued outside the tank, looking like smaller trees lost in the distance or in a slight fog, but these for the most part were unable to be seen as the background grew up.

Just sayin'

Haha!

 

Rough sketch of the planting. Critique please

WM = weeping moss
CP = cryptocoryne parva
FF / RC = fissidens fontanus / riccardia chamedry folia

Some anubias petite and bucephalandra minI needle leaf random in the scape. Should I put them in crevices or glue them?

The 'path' isn't really planted because if I do all the roots will become hidden by plants.

Maybe I will put some trees more diagonal to prevent the scape from being to static,

Planning to raise the substrate more at the back as I have enough soil from my IwagumI to create more depth. Something like 4 cm front, left back 13 cm, center 8 cm and right back 10 cm.

I'd use mosses in the path, and maybe a few different. If you plant heavily enough on the outer sides you should still be able to plant mosses to cover portions of the roots or on stones on the border of the path. I think if you planted lightly in areas of interest you could still achieve a look of dense planting in the center while also drawing attention to it as a layer of depth.

Right in the center the second root closest to the glass that spans from the closest tree to the right side looks somewhat unnatural where it sits now. I know it's a rough 'scape, but just thought I'd point that out. It's either too big or spans a distance that's too great for my eyes.

Seriously looking awesome! Where'd you find all that wood? Sorry if that questions been asked already!ead:

 

It was Frosted Window Film and the tank sat within 6-8 inches of a plain white wall to reflect a 7k cabinet lighting set and an old submersible light that I could change the color on. There was also small twigs of varying sizes I painted black and mounted against the glass in position with the forest to add a varying layer of depth that continued outside the tank, looking like smaller trees lost in the distance or in a slight fog, but these for the most part were unable to be seen as the background grew up.

Just sayin'

Haha!

Pretty awesome eye candy is what it was. Great inspiration.

 

Following too! I love these scapes and hope to do one someday. Instead of a background, Silister Trench put frosted window cling on his, with a light behind it I believe??? It is a really beautiful effect, making it look as though the forest fades into fog.

That sounds cool. I am keeping my frosted glass spray as it is already on my tank (currently iwagumi). Hopefully I get that fog look to

 

I'd use mosses in the path, and maybe a few different. If you plant heavily enough on the outer sides you should still be able to plant mosses to cover portions of the roots or on stones on the border of the path. I think if you planted lightly in areas of interest you could still achieve a look of dense planting in the center while also drawing attention to it as a layer of depth.

Right in the center the second root closest to the glass that spans from the closest tree to the right side looks somewhat unnatural where it sits now. I know it's a rough 'scape, but just thought I'd point that out. It's either too big or spans a distance that's too great for my eyes.

Seriously looking awesome! Where'd you find all that wood? Sorry if that questions been asked already!ead:

Thanks for your feedback. Finding more low growing Moss is difficult with the shops I have access to (also online). Oh boy I visited like 10 LFS and did a lot of cutting out of bigger pieces to get this hardscape. Roots will be totally different on the real scape. As you said it is just a rough scape.

 

Ordered a chihiros rgb. Hopefully I will like the 8000k cold view.

New plant list due low par with just 1 light unit (~36 par.)
So I skipped the riccardia chamedryfolia as it requires at least 50 par.

Decided to add a little bit of
hydrocotyle tripartita. Riccardia chamedryfolia will be replaced with solenostoma tetragonum.

Plant list
hydrocotyle tripartita
Crypt parva
Weeping moss
solenostoma tetragonum
Fissidens minI and fontanus
Bucephalandra kedagang mini.

 

I prefer the chihiros single color to the rgb/five color. Plants seems to pearl more with the single, plus the lighting is much better for viewing.... its very very blue from the rgb, not just 8000k cold blue, but blue...

Love my fissidens, weeping, and hydrocotyle! Great plant list!

 

I prefer the chihiros single color to the rgb/five color. Plants seems to pearl more with the single, plus the lighting is much better for viewing.... its very very blue from the rgb, not just 8000k cold blue, but blue...

Love my fissidens, weeping, and hydrocotyle! Great plant list!

Oh Well I hope I like it it's already ordered.

This is why I didn't choose for the a series.

A series light



"Normal spectrum light"

 

Nigel95 this scape is seriously coming together! I love your plant selection too. Been watching this build and seems like forever! Starting to be excited like I get for my own builds lol

I'd love to know how the yogurt method works with the fissidens, I just got a couple small patches in phenomenal shape to test out in a build of mine. If they are successful in my tank I've been adding more with a method less blocky than patches, would be interested in your success there! And I've been looking all over for weeping moss if you find some (or already have it) I'd be interested in your source, everywhere I go online has been out for weeks at least.

Good luck for sure and keep us updated!

 

Nigel95 this scape is seriously coming together! I love your plant selection too. Been watching this build and seems like forever! Starting to be excited like I get for my own builds lol

I'd love to know how the yogurt method works with the fissidens, I just got a couple small patches in phenomenal shape to test out in a build of mine. If they are successful in my tank I've been adding more with a method less blocky than patches, would be interested in your success there! And I've been looking all over for weeping moss if you find some (or already have it) I'd be interested in your source, everywhere I go online has been out for weeks at least.

Good luck for sure and keep us updated!

Haha funny to hear your excited about it! I really want to start scaping but currently on holiday. So far my mom is spraying the fissidens now since I am away. It's still green.

A few things that are important:
1) the fissidens grows really slow especially emersed.
2) some say it's really temp sensitive. Try to keep it lower than 25 celcius degrees or it may turn brown.

The extra moss that I buy will be dry started for around 3 weeks. Then I will flood the tank and keep the filter output low the first weeks to avoid floating mosses. Will keep you guys updated . Fingers crossed that the expensive moss will stay in place.

Yoghurt method link
BolbI Aquarium: Attaching moss to the hardscape - Yogurt method

I buy the weeping moss from a retailer (azaqua). The weeping moss comes from Tropica.

 

2) some say it's really temp sensitive. Try to keep it lower than 25 celcius degrees or it may turn brown.

This is hadn't read. I shall tip my heater down a touch currently set to 77 F (25 C) . Thanks for the heads up. I hunted quite a while to find it in a testing budget I don't want a simple mistake to get me.

 

Hardscape so far in tank. Still need to glue the roots together.



Tested some lava rocks in water that has been in dsm for four weeks and the amano shrimps are pulling everything off. So I guess I can't have amano shrimp at the start in the tank. What would be a good algae eaters that will not blow the delicate moss off? Maybe RCS? Not sure if they will keep algae under control.

 

Amano are terrible lol they tear up new carpet and chainsawed right through my Riccia so it all floated up. Boogers. RCS do alright for algae, but don't expect any help on green spot algae if you get it... Amano are much better gardeners but definitely hard on the little delicate parts. Maybe run with RCS a while and two or three months in you might be able to drop some Amanos... They will catch up any short comings in no time anyway

 

The tank is set up! Now I have to wait like 4-6 weeks so the mosses will attach to the hardscape. Can't wait to fill it already!

Impression of the hardscape enjoy

 

Mold problems on spiderwood. Even with some air opening and daily 10 mins airing. Tips are welcome.

 

Directed bleach solution? Might soak a rag in a heavy bleach solution and wipe rather than spray.

 

Finallly it arrived! Trying out the chihiros rgb 60. Unfortunately I had to pay tax and some fees to the post company. With the Aquatlantis easy led the plants in my iwagumI looked yellow and unhealthy. A simple desk lamp showed much better colors. Hard to say how the chihiros is because of no water in the tank. Heard it Can look pretty blue but we will see.

The lamp is pretty high to avoid fire as the chihiros Can heat up a lot and I don't want it to close to the trash bag. I use a trash bag for dsm as wrap foil is impossible to use with all the spiderwood that sticks out of the tank. When flooded the lamp will be as low as possible to get the maximum par out of this lamp. The par in this scape will be still pretty low around 36-50 depending of the location in the scape on substrate.

 

Buces

Kedagang mini





MinI catherina

 

Pretty buces

 

I really like that minI catharina one! Very nice!

 

I can't wait to see how the rgb series works... the 5 color series a I don't love (extremely blue)
Can't wait to see the new planting picture!

 

I can't wait to see how the rgb series works... the 5 color series a I don't love (extremely blue)
Can't wait to see the new planting picture!

Once the fish are in I will make a picture + video

 

Lol after a month of dry start there is still a shrimp in there and it's a life!

 

Lol after a month of dry start there is still a shrimp in there and it's a life!

Where was it? In the soil?

 

Where was it? In the soil?

He/she is swimming around now. Tank is flooded.

 

Wow haha. It must have been in a small submerged spot. It probably ate pretty well actually

 

That's crazy!!!

 

Lol after a month of dry start there is still a shrimp in there and it's a life!

Holy smokes! That's one tough little shrimp!