30g cube w/Dragon Stone and CO2

[titansfever83]

Kinda want to document this journey here since it's my first high tech tank.

Plan to cover all bagged rocks with Aquasolum and a few ledges between pieces of dragon stone.... also i will only be using a carpeting plant(exact species not decided yet). The foreground will be sand that is very similar to the lighter colors of the dragon stone.

Background is frosted with plans to use LED blacklighting(mainly for pictures).

This is my first high tech setup so keep that in mind. CO2 setup just arrived along with 80lbs of dragon stone so I have plenty of pieces to play with. Also, the tank is a 30gal cube I've had for years so it's beat/battered with plenty of scratches, lol. Not looking to win a competition but to hone my scaping skills and learn the ins and outs of co2.

 

[jjohnwm]

Not exactly natural in appearance; it kind of resembles one of the generic "alien planet" sets from the original low-budget Star Trek series from the 1960's.

I like it! This is going to have a very dramatic look.

 

[FJB]

Looks interesting. Not my cup of tea but I can appreciate the amount of thinking and doing involved.
What kinds of plants, fish, inverts are you planning?

 

[titansfever83]

Not exactly natural in appearance; it kind of resembles one of the generic "alien planet" sets from the original low-budget Star Trek series from the 1960's.

I like it! This is going to have a very dramatic look.

Definitely not going for natural so much but wanting to make the viewers eyes wonder around and them picture themselves walking on the "carpet" to the cave or up top where I'll have a small carpet area(just left of center above cave)

 

[titansfever83]

Looks interesting. Not my cup of tea but I can appreciate the amount of thinking and doing involved.
What kinds of plants, fish, inverts are you planning?

These pictures are of rescape #2, lol. First was horrible, this one is not perfect. Probably be a #3 & 4 before water goes in. I almost went with Seiyru but last minute changed to Dragon stone for the vertical look.

As far as inhabitants... that's not decided yet. I'm taking my time on the scape. I have some cleanup crew inverts I can put in the tank after it's cycled temporarily until I decide on the final critters for it.

 

[jjohnwm]

This detailed and convoluted scape looks like it's made for dwarf shrimp; I can picture an entire colony of them clambering over that rockwork. Some nano fish, nothing big. I'm looking forward to seeing the end result.

 

[titansfever83]

Hardscape #3... gonna role with this one for now. Decided to go dry start so it will be a few weeks before I update again. Plants arrive in 2 days.

But I'm mainly posting now to ask of a decent high tech light for a 20" tall aquarium(approximately 15" to lowest planned carpet plant.

I like the numbers on Current USA Serene lights but their controller is a huge turn off. Doesn't hold settings after an outage and also the dimming option is 100/50/0%. Next up, I'm currently looking at TwinStar lights....

Any pros/cons/suggestions? TIA

 

[Disturbed.)]

Looks great. I want to try something like this eventually. I've been researching for what seems like an eternity but can't afford a co2 rig right now. We haven't pulled the trigger on a new light yet but have decided on the Lominie F120 80w for its bang for buck value. I can tell you that the best info on high tech you will find on the net will be from Barrreport. But I wouldnt expect anyone to reply to beginner questions.
What carpet did you order? Most carpets require co2 so our options were extremely limited and went with crypt parva mini and it took a year to fill in