Nigel's Forest Scape 128l

Tank is flooded and on vid . Can you spot the red cherries? Just a few in there got some green thread algae growing on moss already. Probably because my co2 atomizer is doing weird and not functioning good. Some hairy / slimy mold on the spiderwood but that will go away on it's own. In a few days I will be adding more red cherries and clithon sp (snails). Video would be better with some fish in it but will upload more in future.

 

Wow! This looks awesome. Great job! Following.

 

Vvn!!!!!

 

I love this tank and look forward to continuing to watch this build evolve.

 

I love this tank and look forward to continuing to watch this build evolve.

Vvn!!!!!

Wow! This looks awesome. Great job! Following.

Thanks means a lot for me guys

 

And now a picture of the tank. Got some feedback to add some stems in the back. What do you think?

 

I love the harsh beauty of this tank not sure how much planting you are doing but I love it how it is.

Perhaps a single plant growing in it, will give it that new life after disaster look

 

I don't think you should add anything for a while. Let the mosses and buce grow up several weeks and get a good idea what it'll be doing in full growth. I think that anything big plant wise is going to detract from the final look.

 

I love the harsh beauty of this tank not sure how much planting you are doing but I love it how it is.

Perhaps a single plant growing in it, will give it that new life after disaster look

Thank you

All rocks are covered with mosses and some buces and h. tripartita in there. Pretty low plant mass which makes it hard to fight algae.

 

I know Silister Trench has an aquascape like this one. I wonder if he has any feedback. It looks great! I think a bit more moss on some of the trees would look good.

 

I know Silister Trench has an aquascape like this one. I wonder if he has any feedback. It looks great! I think a bit more moss on some of the trees would look good.

Thanks

I have tried to put some moss on the trees with yoghurt method but it pretty much died off somehow. There is still a little on it but you can barely see it. It needs to grow in. Only thing I can do to add more moss is lower the water level and glue some moss on it. But I don't wanna ruin it so maybe I just leave the trees like this. In my next forest scape I will be using fishing line to add some moss on the trees before I place them in the tank

 

Thanks

I have tried to put some moss on the trees with yoghurt method but it pretty much died off somehow. There is still a little on it but you can barely see it. It needs to grow in. Only thing I can do to add more moss is lower the water level and glue some moss on it. But I don't wanna ruin it so maybe I just leave the trees like this. In my next forest scape I will be using fishing line to add some moss on the trees before I place them in the tank

Disappointing that your yogurt method hasn't worked [yet?]. I wasn't too sure reading that, but so long as there's even a little bit stuck there, you never know. I always see pretty extensive die back when first placing moss - sometimes even moving from one tank to another - and have found in states of immersed growth it always dies 100% if it is not partially submersed, or at least enough of it that it can wick water to the emersed growth.

As far as adding more moss the ways to attach it are only limited by your own creativity. Only recently have I started to "attach" mosses in more illusionary ways.

For example: instead of glueing moss or tying it to a large rock towards the back of one tank I instead looked through my rocks and found a very flat, but roughly textured stone that fit on the rock face I wanted covered, then used a color of threading that closely matched the rocks and tied the moss to the flatter rock & and superglued the thread in place on the portion that was least visible. Over time the moss will grow out and hide the flat rock, as if it were never there except... if I decide to move it or switch out the larger stone I can still do so without having to transfer the moss. I apply the same method when it comes to woods by using pieces wrapped in moss and inserted into a spot on the wood.

Looks like you figured that background out!

 

Currently thinking about how to add my green neon tetra's from another tank. Will I do the safe route and add 6 at a time so the ammonia spike will be minimal. Or do I add them all at once 20 fish. I heard if you add them separate there is a chance they will school less together... Though adding 20 at once I am not sure if my filter is gonna handle that with maybe dead shrimps and snails as a result..

 

Is the tank cycled? (Too lazy too look back into substrate used for ammonia)
Likely 20tetras at once will cause a bump, but it should be manageable...
or you could do 10 and 10 vs six?????

 

Is the tank cycled? (Too lazy too look back into substrate used for ammonia)
Likely 20tetras at once will cause a bump, but it should be manageable...
or you could do 10 and 10 vs six?????

Tank was in dry start so substrate Should be full of BB. Filter is kept a live with fish during dry start so also full of BB. But… in the mean time only shrimp and snails in it so I guess some BB died off. Not a fan of throwing in ammonia tbh… So far I don't measure ammonia/nitrite.

Substrate has been used before so most of ammonia is gone I think.

 

Gotcha... not sure if you had still been having ammonia spikes from the substrate to maintain.... for sure then I would keep under ten, six (your first instinct) would probably be better...
Or...
If you have other cycled media add it to filter when adding 20, should get you right back to where you have to be pretty quickly...
hate to ruin larger school in a great scape for two groups

 

Mosses and buces growing slowly. Unfortunately some buces are melting hopefully they will grow back.

Not the best pic but gives an idea

 

Mosses and buces growing slowly. Unfortunately some buces are melting hopefully they will grow back.

Not the best pic but gives an idea

View attachment 357577

Beautiful! Love the moss. Typically buce melts for me too, after about a month of being added.

 

Nigel I'm trying to decide between ember tetras and green neons for my tank. Do your green neons school and how expensive were they? Thanks!!

What kind of moss is that? Did you glue it on?

 

Nigel I'm trying to decide between ember tetras and green neons for my tank. Do your green neons school and how expensive were they? Thanks!!

What kind of moss is that? Did you glue it on?

You can't go wrong both are beautiful fish! I only had green neons personal and they school Very Well when you introduce them, but over time they will also go alone. So far I have been Reading that the green neons are pretty good schoolers compared to others. Obvious not better than rummy noses but they grow large. What size tank? Embers and green neons are pretty much the same size. So the choice is really hard. I am thinking about ember tetras for my Ada 45p in future.

The moss is fissidens fontanus mostly with some fissidens fox. Applied by yoghurt method with 1 month dry start.

 

20 gallon long. I know... Right now its a debate between the ember tetras and green neons. My main things are the neons I think will provide bright blue color and some bright red and school well, but the embers will be a very pretty red and really complement each other. I'm not sure how well the embers will school.

 

Tank looks beautiful!

 

20 gallon long. I know... Right now its a debate between the ember tetras and green neons. My main things are the neons I think will provide bright blue color and some bright red and school well, but the embers will be a very pretty red and really complement each other. I'm not sure how well the embers will school.

Just go for the one you like the most (looks). They both won't school always if there is no danger. Or do you have bigger fish in there ? As far as I know I think green neons will school a little better. The green neons are like €1,10 each Here?

Here a link about yoghurt method
BolbI Aquarium: Attaching moss to the hardscape - Yogurt method

 

Day 60

Added 2 "trees" in the back. Not sure about the tree added on the left in the back. The tree added in the middle looks good IMO. Tried to tie some weeping moss from my other scape on some branches. Hard job in tank! Hate to use glue (would be much easier but still). Fish still a little bit blurry due low shutter speed. But when I change it picture gets dark. There are 13 green neon tetra in tank now. I keep 5 of them in another temporary tank to keep bacteria alive for my next scape (that is now in DSM). After that they will be added to the scape.


forest scape 128l day 60 p3

 

Wow, I think it looks amazing! The green neons look gorgeous and I love finding the shrimp when I zoom in closer. Awesome job!

 

Wow, I think it looks amazing! The green neons look gorgeous and I love finding the shrimp when I zoom in closer. Awesome job!

Thank you Very much.

I am also Very happy with the green neons! The RCS and a few snails are cleaning the tank very Well. First I was scared to go without amano shrimp (because they can pull of mosses that are applied by yoghurt method). But this is a proof that it can be done w/o the amano's.

 

Wow it really came out fantastic nigel95 ,I love the rooting and plants the green neons were a beautiful choice .

 

Beautiful! Such a lovely set-up.

 

Wow it really came out fantastic nigel95 ,I love the rooting and plants the green neons were a beautiful choice .

Beautiful! Such a lovely set-up.

Thank you guys means a lot.

 

Great additions!

 

Added some details (roots) on a few trees.

Not sure what I like more I think with roots but it's close...

What do you think?

With roots

forest scape day 65 128l

No roots

forest scape 128l day 60 p4

 

Wow, it looks amazing both ways! It's very hard to say which looks better. If I really had to choose, I might say I (slightly) prefer it without the vines/roots on the trees. It looks just the tiniest bit too busy to me. My eyes go from one vine, to the next, to the next. Without the vines, I feel like it's easier to appreciate the entire scape. Would you possibly try having the vines on just a few trees to see what that looks like?

 

Absolutely gorgeous!!! I like it with the root's!!!

 

I think its too many. Can you make it so the vines are closer to the trees - more wrapped around it tightly? I like it a lot on the big tree on the right and the tree behind it, also the big tree in the front left, but the little ones just look randomly placed, like they're just hanging. Try to fit them closer to the trees if you can or only leave them on those three trees. Looks good though!

 

I think its too many. Can you make it so the vines are closer to the trees - more wrapped around it tightly? I like it a lot on the big tree on the right and the tree behind it, also the big tree in the front left, but the little ones just look randomly placed, like they're just hanging. Try to fit them closer to the trees if you can or only leave them on those three trees. Looks good though!

Yeah I like the vines really much but I need to remove just a few. You were right one was just hanging, I was looking if it was cool that way. Gotta work on it!

 

Moss on the lava rocks has grown a lot. Also added some moss on the trees with glue. Not really happy with the result. Wish I used fishing line while setting up the tank. Now very hard / impossible to do with trees standing up. But still I think the glued moss is better than no moss. Enjoy the video!

Day 75

 

Everything is growing in so wonderfully, it's just a beautiful tank. The tetra are like little ghosts in the forest. I really like the new moss additions on the trees too some had seemed to need a bit of something before and I think you nailed it. As always absolutely gorgeous and may very well be my favorite scape and build I've seen.

 

Everything is growing in so wonderfully, it's just a beautiful tank. The tetra are like little ghosts in the forest. I really like the new moss additions on the trees too some had seemed to need a bit of something before and I think you nailed it. As always absolutely gorgeous and may very well be my favorite scape and build I've seen.

Thank you man. I am so happy I tried a forest scape. I like it much more than my old iwagumi. There are more points of interest in the scape compared to the Iwagumi. First I thought it was to hard to make. I still have much to learn but I made a start with this one. Already bought some new spiderwood pieces for a next forest scape . Although I am going to try to keep this scape longer than I had my 128l Iwagumi. The problem is I try to plan a scape "perfect" but as soon it is made I see things that I can improve. This makes me want to rescape all the time. I really love the green neon tetras to, their colors are great in this green forest.

 

I'm actually inspired enough by your scape to start experimenting a bit myself and am growing out a couple different mosses to at some point rescape a shrimp tank I just basically threw together here in a few months. Nothing as amazing or as wonderful as yours, far from it lol but the idea stemmed from what you have. it'll go together in bits and pieces and hopefully eventually I'll have a nice little brook feeling with mosses and driftwood.

 

It's beautiful Nigel! I hope I can do something similar someday. Thank you so much for sharing.

Do you find it difficult to clean? I would love to hear about the maintenance routine.