Update on planted tank

[DRteugelsi]

Still a work in progress. Bonsai driftwood and ohko stones are coming in the mail tomorrow so I will have a updated pic tomorrow the moss in the right will be going on the bonsais

Flora:
Java moss
Baby tears (regular)
Amazon sword
Red flame sword
Combomba
Bacopa
Ludwigia repens "rubin's"
Marimo moss ball
Dwarf hair grass (working on carpeting)

Fauna:
4 assorted cities
5 scissor tails
4 assorted danios
11 neon tetras
1 peacock gudgeon
1 Bolivian ram
10 (give or take) ghost shrimp

 

[Adhlc]

Looks like you're off to a good start!

Have you thought of adding any wood to your scape? I've been buying spider wood off eBay lately as decent wood is really hard to come by around here.

 

[DRteugelsi]

Looks like you're off to a good start!

Have you thought of adding any wood to your scape? I've been buying spider wood off eBay lately as decent wood is really hard to come by around here.

Yep, there was a huge piece in there but it was too big and decided to put it in the 60 gallon

So I decided to order 2 smaller pieces from bonsaiDriftwood.com and some dragon stones. Those should be in today so I will have another update once those go in and the moss is on them.

 

[Adhlc]

Awesome! I look forward to seeing the new scape!

 

[DRteugelsi]

Oh by the way substrate is a mix between eco complete and one of their brands of natural sand can remember exactly what it was called

 

[DRteugelsi]

I just got the bonsai trees and stone in the tank finally. I'll have pics tomorrow I may need to do another water change. Between the clay and mixing up the sand the water is a mess

This is why I definitely regret not being patient and just waiting before I put everything together. It was definitely more challenging to scape a fully planted tank that had fish in.

All in all the fish seem happy with it and I don't think it turned out bad. I mean I'm no professional aquascaper by any means but it's definitely doesn't look bad at all. I just think it would have turned out better if I had a clean slate to work with. Pics will be up tomorrow morning if the water has cleared a bit if not it will be after another water change

 

[KabobSoldier]

Lookin forward to seeing the new pics. What size is this tank?

Also, are you planning on attaching any moss to the bonsai driftwood?

 

[DRteugelsi]

Lookin forward to seeing the new pics. What size is this tank?

Also, are you planning on attaching any moss to the bonsai driftwood?

The tank is a 29 gallon probably will be upgrading this set up to a 55 in a few months.

Anyway here are the long awaited for pics...

 

[Fat Homer]

^ Looking more and more professionally aquascaped as it comes along...

My only advise for you now would be, when you setup your new tank, take the moss tree out, and instead of clumping the moss together on the tree like you have now. Wrap the moss strands in one direction around the branches individually and then tie them down, coz if you take your time to do that, your moss tree could turn out looking really amazing....

Coz honestly, when you see a lot of moss trees in professionally aquascaped tanks, i can tell you they spend HOURS tying the moss down to those individual branches so that when it grows out, they all grow in a uniform direction, looking pretty amazing while replicating how a real tree would look....

I would also maybe advise choosing a different type of moss to use as well, maybe something a long the lines of a flame moss or something...

 

[DRteugelsi]

^ Looking more and more professionally aquascaped as it comes along...

My only advise for you now would be, when you setup your new tank, take the moss tree out, and instead of clumping the moss together on the tree like you have now. Wrap the moss strands in one direction around the branches individually and then tie them down, coz if you take your time to do that, your moss tree could turn out looking really amazing....

Coz honestly, when you see a lot of moss trees in professionally aquascaped tanks, i can tell you they spend HOURS tying the moss down to those individual branches so that when it grows out, they all grow in a uniform direction, looking pretty amazing while replicating how a real tree would look....

I would also maybe advise choosing a different type of moss to use as well, maybe something a long the lines of a flame moss or something...

Thanks a lot I really appreciate the input I was so disappointed when I first put it together because things weren't working the way I wanted. Probably because I tried to do it in an already established tank and it was extremely hard to work with between the water getting murky because me moving everything around and I had to replant some things

So, when I set up the new tank I'm going to do everything the right way but that won't be for a few months unfortunately. I just want to let the fish settle in for a little while.

But there will be more updates to come because I just got the co2 set up for this tank today. And the dwarf hairgrass has been coming to life pretty well so hopefully I can get some better growth once the co2 is going for a week or two.