The Forgotten Valley - 60l

[aaronnorth]

here it is:

[aaronnorth]

pictures

I have spread the microsorum pteropus 'narrow out onto a large piece of driftwood i had, i didnt realise how big it had got! It was huge. i feel much happier with it now, the transition from background to midground is much better. When the vallis nana starts to grow up the back in the left corner i think it will look great.

[aaronnorth]

Another update:



Again i havent cleaned the tank for 3 weeks, and this time i started to get a small amount of algae, and i also noticed that i have got a lot of organic matter under my HC - probably the cause of Algae




The HC has needed a good trim for a few weeks now. It is the most growth i have had from all my plants for some reason, so today i literally hacked away at the hemanthius micranthemoides, making quite a mess of it but i couldnt really help it.




I also planted some more stems to the right, which i will be graduallly sloping down towards the side. I also started to trim my HC but the underneath had already strated to turn yellow, so i decided to rip the whole carpet up. I also thinned out my P.Helferi. This will be creating a ammonia spike, so i did a 80% w/c and i will do more 50% w/c for the next couple od days to make sure i dont get any algae. I will also replace the HC tommorrow (it is sitting in a bucket at the moment)

[dg2606]

A shame you had to take out the HC. really liked how it looked. What are your plans for a foreground?

What is the plant that is between and in front of your rock?

[Jur4ik]

as he said - he will replant hc, that is sitting in a bucket.

hmm i would trimm your stems stronger and for the future - trimm your hc early anough or if there are some yellow leaves - didnt care about them - on this places wil new leaves cover the old ones i did a couple of days before the same with my glosso and there are everywhere new runners so i allready cant see the yellow leaves on the bottom.

to prevent such amounts of organic materia under your hc - you can create waves with your hand - they schould move the arganic waste under the hc and you will get rid of them after a good water change.

[aaronnorth]

Thanks for the tips Jur4ik,

I will replanting the HC later this evening, and also giving the HM another big trim, next time i will definatley be keeping on top of the HC, i was looking at some older pics of when it had just carpeted and it was a thin carpe, that was when it was looking best si will plan to keep it that way.

dg2026 - Thanks for the compliment, the plant inbetween the rocks is Pogostemon Helferi.
I am actually thinking about removing the rocks, and replacing them with some plants, maybe staurogyne sp or some crypts?
Any thoughts? The stones are a weak point on this tank due to their positioning

[dg2606]

I would remove just the big rock furthest to the right. And possibly place the smaller ones diagonally on the right side. Just my $.02 :-).

[Al G. Begone]

I agree with dg2606, good idea.
Would look good with some of that HC around two rock diagonally positioned on the right.

[aaronnorth]

I have had some other comments on another forum about a similar opinion. Switch the centre and left rock around.
I have had other comments too, but i wont post them all. I shall be doing a bit of rearraning over the next few days,

Any other comments appreciated.

[Carolina]

I love your scape. If I can't the algae under control I am going to do something similar. Where did you get the rocks? I think I have seen those outside.

I envision Crypt v balance or something long and flowing in the left corner.

I have lots of java fern v needle. I have found that adding potassium sulfate pushes them to grow. I find they are very hardy. They are the only original plants I have, which have lived through my clorax dip.

[aaronnorth]

I love your scape. If I can't the algae under control I am going to do something similar. Where did you get the rocks? I think I have seen those outside.

Thanks, they are limestone from my back garden, i am thinking about switching them a for a few pieces of borneowild driftwood BorneoWild Driftwood : Aqua Essentials

I envision Crypt v balance or something long and flowing in the left corner.

Well there is some vallis nana in the back corner but the damn thing wont grow after 2 months and i dont know why

[aaronnorth]

The first picture was taken on my old camera, the second is on my new one, which you can see is loads better, i have also learned why photoraphers bang a load of lighting over their tank, it took me ages to find the correct setting lol.

Depth of filed is also much better, not as 2D as before :P

I have also ordered some Borneowild driftwood (5 XS pieces) which i will position them coming out from the back left corner (the rocks are going), and also some Cryptocoryne wendtti 'green' to plant around the base of the wood, the vallis nana has grown some new shoots :mrgreen: but they are staying at the front until they grw a bit larger, they will then go back to their original position in the back left corner. So hopefully i will have a nice triangular scape

Thanks.

[aaronnorth]

New stand and some borneowild driftwood added with crytpocoryne wendtii

[wjagw]

Very nice tank ..... love those healthy green plants.
Cheers
Jag

[aaronnorth]

thankyou wjagw.




still some work to do.

[Jur4ik]

looks cool again
any idea for the right side? somehow it looks a bit empty or do need the open area to feed your shrimps?

[aaronnorth]

I am in 2 minds about the HM/ right side, i think it needs to go the full length of the tank otherwise it divides it in two, however if i do grow it the full length i can see now that i will have problems in covering the bottom half of the stems where they tend to get a bit leggy/ messy. I have thought about adding more crypts but then i feel it will upset the balance of the tank, and if i do this i will have to grow a full carpet of HC.

As you can see one thing leads to another I have some thinking to do.

[Supercoley1]

Does look good again Aaron, dare I say starting to look nice, green and slightly jungly

Your photography skills are coming on stong too. Wish I was adept in that area

AC

[Larsen]

Looks amazing... this tank has really come a long way... very nice.

[aaronnorth]

Andy i love being able to walk up to the tank - or any object - and take a picture 100x better than previously, without too much effort/ messing around, it really is a joy to use the camera. As i was making a slight change i had moved the driftwood with the fern on (which is massive to what i previously thought) and it looked really "jungly" so that has confirmed my 240l scape - jungle

Thankyou for the comments Larson




try to excuse the water marks!

I have always been a fan of jugle scapes, in particular island jungle scapes. I may order some Blyxa Japonica from TGM for the back centre, they finally have some tropica in!!

Thanks.