October 2009 Aquascape of the Month ______________________________________________ Little Green Hill by Vladimir Rastovac INTRODUCTION [imgl="white"]http://www.aquascapingworld.com/gallery/images/1/1_aquarium_and_I.jpg[/imgl]My name is Vladimir Rastovac. I’m 26 years old and a graduate student of Fire Protection and Awareness School, which means I will soon be a fireman in town where I live, called Sremska Mitrovica (Serbia). I’m happily married man with my first child on the way. My first steps in aquarium began somewhere around 1997 when I was 15. Then, my father brought home a pair of gold fish in a somewhat bigger glass jar. Soon, I found myself creating my first aquarium with different and exciting plants and fishes. However, with me going to college, all my attention got diverted, but my passion for this hobby was waiting for the right moment. In 2007 I decided to start all over again. I bumped into a Serbian internet forum about aquariums and, soon enough I had a small aquarium with nothing but a few plants. With further personal research, I’ve discovered an amazing world of aquascaping. I met a lot of good “partners in-crime”, and since then and with some of them I founded a local website www.mojbiljniakvarijum.org where we exchange our personal experiences related to aquascaping. At the moment, I have two aquariums (100 l and 50 l), but I can’t wait to put my hands on a 400 l aquarium sitting, waiting to be aquascaped, but unfortunately, will have to wait for better times. AQUASCAPING TECHNIQUES [imgr="white"]http://www.aquascapingworld.com/gallery/images/1/2_Sketch.jpg[/imgr] Inspired By Nature, Capturing it in the Home My aquascape is called “Little Green Hill”. There are various reasons why I am fascinated by hills and mountains, deep water and extreme tectonic features. One of the most obvious is that I’m living in a part of country which is plain and flat with nothing but a horizon line. Hilly jungles are exactly what I’m missing and I created one in my home. To be honest, the first idea was more like a feeling, because the aquarium had, in a way, difficult dimensions and my expertise in aquascaping wasn’t that great. But I see now that I had good foundations to start with. The design starts from the right angle and fall towards aquarium’s left corner. Do-It-Yourself Aquascaping From the very beginning it looked like someone gave me a book “Do-It-Yourself” but forgot to give me the material. I used whatever materials were available to create something attractive. My friends and I collected plain rocks collected from the banks of River Sava, and vine branches, which I used from some older sets; all those were basics of what we see today. Alas, I wanted the vine braches to fully showcase their curly features through the rocky formation when I first designed it. Unfortunately as time went by the branches despaired under growing vegetation. [imgr="white"]http://www.aquascapingworld.com/gallery/images/1/1_Aquarium_old_3.jpg[/imgr] For substrate, or ground base I used plain earth my mother uses for flowers and quartz gravel-sand. Later on I used white quartz sand to decorate the whole set. I used regular meshed potato bags to attached Riccia fluitans to small little boulders. I think it turned out quite all right. In the beginning, I didn’t have red moor roots, so the layout had to go without it. Fortunately, a good friend gave me a beautiful decorative root to finally make the whole layout shine. The fact is that the root had a lot of secondary material I used to add a special touch to the whole aquascape. This piece was essential. To me, the root was like something you would pick up along the way, add it to the aquascape see how it looks, and finally understand that you could have never finished the composition without it. A Self-Guided Aquascape The layout is diagonal, and trimming techniques were out of the question, I’m afraid, since I’m just a beginner. Maintaining the plants requires a good trimming of Riccia fluitans and Hydrocontyle verticillata from time to time. The last one trimming was particularly heavy to put in its place, because it was growing rapidly from all sides. I moving Microsoruims stems here and there, and its sprouts were arranged between rocks to give it a natural look. GREATEST CHALLENGES [imgr="white"]http://www.aquascapingworld.com/gallery/images/1/1_riccia_fluitans.jpg[/imgr] The aquascape alone wasn’t that much of a problem. Somehow it grew by itself with me guiding it to what we see today. I didn’t have algae inside aquarium except small little algae spots on the glass wall. As soon as the little algae that I had went away, I knew I found stability in that small fragile world. FINAL THOUGHTS & ADVICE Be persistent, but relaxed. Aquascaping is greatest hobby that allows your creativity to shine through. There’s a great feeling from just looking at what you just accomplished and what have you learned through experience. It is a fulfilling art that shows your work and efforts, and returns you with a beautiful slice of heaven. Although I still consider myself a practiced beginner, experimenting with new plants and techniques is still challenge and fresh to me. There are no limits, no restrictions to create something new and beautiful. [imgr="white"]http://www.aquascapingworld.com/gallery/images/1/1_Aquarium_old_1small.jpg[/imgr] Click here to view Tank Specifications Click here to view Plant and Fauna List
I love it. Hydrocotyle and riccia = fantastic combination Im gonna copy that composition in my next tank.
excellent!!! i really love the plant choice and how you install it in the scape. great tank. congratulations. david
hey vladimir, awesome awesome! everything is so clean and healthy looking... how do you trim your Hydrocotyle verticillata? do you just cut off the tops? does this make new ones sprout? mine is growing too tall, not compact like yours?
