Aquascape of the Month July 2012: "The Only Way"

July 2012 Aquascape of the Month

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The Only Way

by Mikolaj Weterle

INTRODUCTION

My name is Mikołaj Weterle. I live in Bydgoszcz, in Poland. I’m 30 years old and I’m biologist. Few years ago I decide to make an aquarium in my home. I had enough place so I wanted something big (about 600L). I almost bought that huge tank (it was set with only 160W of light). I don’t know what happend that day, but I got back home without it (thanks God J). I turned on my computer and decided to watch some pictures of aquariums on internet. And than I found photos of nature style. I opened my mouth and I couldn’t close it for a long time.



I said “I want that kind of aquarium”. I found a lot of information and I knew it gonna take a long time before I’m gonna learn it. So I start immediately. I spent 8 months for reading, studying different aquascapes and analyzing techiniques. After that was a time to start practice. I bought my first aquarium. This time I knew what I’m looking for. It was 325L [130x50x50], with correct light for plants (216W), CO2, strong filtration and substrate ADA Amazonia. From there, I began to practice my first aquascaping design.

After year I bought another tank, this time it was nano – 30L. And last year one more – cube 31L. Since the beginning I made 8 layouts (two of them started moth ago) so I’m a beginner. My inspiration are layouts of Cliff Hui, his style is most perfect to me. I love those detalis and comlicated views.


AQUASCAPING STYLE AND METHOD FOR "THE ONLY WAY"

There wasn’t any special view or a particular picture which inspired this layout. When I started preparation for “The Only Way” I wasn’t exactly sure of the finish effect. I had some wood, and stones and just wanted to fill an empty tank. I tried to make something simple, with only a few species of plants. But when I started to design and plant each aquatic plant, I could not stop myself from creating more complicated visions and designs. I decided to add more elements such as the white sand, more rocks and small segments of driftwood, carefully arranged into the aquascape.


HARDSCAPE ARRANGEMENT

I used Red Moor Wood and small basalt stones. First I put the combinations of the big parts of wood. After that I added some small stones around white sand and than more substrate. At the end the rest of stones and small wood. The back side is higher than front side about 12-15cm (the tank high is 25cm).


AQUATIC PLANT MAINTENANCE

In this layout, I used a lot of slow growing plants, so I did not have to trim them or prune them often. I actually prefer the wild effect in my aquariums, so I let the plants grow and develop as they naturally do. However, I did prune and trim the Hemianthus callitrichoides every so often to ensure that this low growing plant did not overtake the stone and other aquatic plants in the layout.


GREATEST CHALLENGE

After five months the layout looked wild enough to me. I held that effect in the layout with only small minor changes over about four months. That was the biggest challenge for me. Controlling the need to adjust and change the aquascape.

I should mention, in the second month, I did have a problem with black algae. The black beard algae grew all over the wood and stones. But fortunately I won this battle over the course of three weeks by improving the water conditions. After that time, I had no further problems with algae ever since.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There is an interesting element to the final photos you see here in this article. My aquascape is located on a windowsill. The blinds are closed all the time, but for the photo session I opened them to allow the light in from the sunny day. This provided a great backlight for the aquascape as it contrasted well with the fish and aquarium plants.

This was my first complicated layout and it has taken my aquascaping skills to a new level.






Other Aquascapes by Mikolaj Weterle

Larger images thumbnails



-John N.

Really nice, truly deserved!!


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Luis
@ghostsword

One of my favourite scapes I've seen on here recently, no gimmicks, no over the topness, a humble, well balanced and extremely well observed slice of nature.