60f ***splintered***: A New Jetti Journal

Tired of my 60f, lo-tech blue pearl/OEBT tank, it is being transformed into a blue pearl only, hi-tech. Just finished the hardscape today, finishing it with the planting of the e.hydropiper.

Flora:

Mini bolbitis
Mini Xmas
Mini pellia
Dwarf Hairgrass
Mini Glosso - aka elatine Hydropiper - Most of the foreground, also added to the high slope on the right.
Anubias Nana Petite
An as yet to be named crypt

Substrate:

GLA shrimp sand over Akadama Double Red.

Hardscape:

Branch wood, Yamaya, and black lava (to create the back slope and rise)

I will be purchasing my second paintball rig from GLA today, but will dry-start this for a week just to get moss stick.

The crypt may grow to the surface but not out. The elatine will stay about as compact as it is right now. Best of all, no trimming like glosso or HC.

Thanks! Honestly, I was going to do "just another iwagumi" at first, but then I realized it wouldn't really take that much more effort to go this route. I have a good idea what it will turn out like once it's all filled in I think. I am especially hoping that the e.hydro gets great coverage in the upper right rear.

Thanks. I have been growing and selling the hydropiper for awhile now, both submersed and emersed. It is definitely a hit or miss plant, so its success in this tank isn't a guarantee.

Surprisingly, the best submersed success I have had has been in a non co2 tank where it has been unstoppable and always spreading.

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Very green! What are your plans for fauna?

I need to be conscious of my invert population because I take in 200 a month or so in sales on most months. They have been pretty prolific. I would love some killis, but I can't cover because of the above-water driftwood. I will probably go dwarf cory.

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Habrosus or Pygmaeus are fine. My favorite is still Hastatus, but I've never been able to keep them alive for longer than a few months. I am sure there must be some secret I'm missing.

really nice....i am inspired again. thanks for sharing

Thanks mr_Ed. I just found out that GLA may be out of my paintball CO2 so perhaps this dry start will last a bit longer than I had intended. I am mostly worried about my colony of shrimp that are now housed in a plastic bucket and will have to wait until this new tank is completely cycled before they can return back home.

I should add that I really love this new Up-Aqua (GLA) shrimp sand. The consistency is really terrific, and it is not suppose to break down in the same way that traditional substrates will. No idea how it will actually grow plants, however, and the e.hydropiper tends to like nutrients. Wait and learn.

That is sage advice. Shrimps will be a nuisance on slopes, and then any kind of cory will just destroy a slope all together and laugh, just to spite your best laid plans. To combat that, the slope on the right was infilled with a heap of black lava rock. So, it's about 90% lava rock covered by 10% shrimp sand. That's a little trick I learned awhile back while scaping with corys in mind.

The lava rocks go right to the top of the scape, literally peaking out of the sand at points. They'd have to be awfully ingenious inverts to crumble this slope. This worked quite well the last time I employed it.

Appreciate the feedback! It is a nightmare when that happens I know. I bet most have us have been through it.