Sarah's Cube Mountainscape Journal (pic warning)

Finally was able to start setting up my scape. As seen in prior threads I have been planning this setup for over a year! Today was the day I was finally able to set it up (wasn't able to previously due to space constraints).

Tank is an 18inch cube, rimless/braceless/supportless.

Tank in place, layer of styrofoam added for tank safety


Raw, unwashed propagating sand


Blood and Bone + Dolomite powders


Layer of pure iron stone

Capped with thin layer of dirt


Dirt.. so beautiful :3


Built set of tiers out of eggcrate (ty rayray for eggcrate)



Sand on sides for aesthetics


The work area (made such a mess)


Adding dirt to tiers


Used all my MTS substrate.. Was SO worth the effort. Added water to the dry soil to get it to paste consistency

Add rocks and adjusted to match predetermined composition




Who would know all those drilling life drawing classes would help me copy the scape exactly

Cap with damp washed propagating sand




Happy with the slope




Added skewers to help hold it together till the immersed growth fills in


So essentially now all I have to do is hang the light above the tank, which I couldn't do yesterday or today as we didn't have the right things to screw into the roof.

I have several large takeaway containers full of HC growing outside (love propagating the stuff), so one container will be added at a time. I plan to chop the HC with a knife (into many small pieces), place it in the foreground and let it take root itself, I really couldn't be bothered planting each piece individually, and it has always worked for me outside. Growth will be immersed till I am pleased the HC has carpeted thoroughly and I order the other plants.

Thanks for checking out the progress

Following progress.

i can dig it :=D>

Thanks everyone

im curious to see where this is going. following

Chucked a light on to view better, aiming to have actual light hung by tomorrow and carpet planted on weekend.

subscribed! nice DIY slope I must say, gonna be a very interesting project! definitely keeping an' eye..

Suspended the light and lowered the substrate just slightly to improve depth. Thanks for all the kind comments


Old substrate height on left, new on right.

looking good my friend looking good! hey uh what do the wooden skewers do?

I just had them in there to hold the substrate in place incase I was too rough with moving the rocks around. I'm taking all possible precautions to hold that slope there, seeing as it is diy.

Pre-planting tank

Finally a chance to use my tools!

Washing the HC, grow it all outdoors myself so there was more than plenty!

Used about 2 times this amount all up



Rubbed fissidens into the rocks, cannot see in pics I don’t think.






Gladwrap time

very cool! great job! btw how do u ''grow the hc out doors''?
this plant is really expensive over here. seems like u got a really thick carpet off the plastic bottle how did u do it?

please do share this HC trick of yours. as i agree with CJ.

I have about half a dozen of those bottles outside, plus many containers more!

I noticed how ridiculously expensive HC was here, and thought there was no way I could afford to plant a dense carpet without growing it myself. Essentially I just grab a sealable plastic container (juice bottle, takeaway container, whatever is lying around), fill with a layer of dirt (garden soil, planting soil, whatever is around) and plant with a sprinkling of HC. While it does take a fair while to grow a decent carpet (a number of months), by making new containers continuously I have a large and growing supply of HC. I keep the containers in an upsidedown fish tank on my seedling table to keep the surrounding air humid and warm. No extra care is needed apart from trimming to encourage growth, and the plants receive dappled sunlight. Mind you I do have a fair bit of success as where I live we have beautiful warm temperatures, I don't know how someone would fare growing it in the cold.

thx for d info!! now i'll keep my hc trimings and grow them out as well
btw ive also started my tank's hc via DSM

Glad to be of help! I think it is always best to never throw away HC trimmings, you can always make more and then use, trade or sell them later.

What size tank is to the left of your cube?

I have to commend you on your HC efforts! take notes folks, this is a very resourceful way to plant HC. Well done!

It is a 36" x 18" x 12"
Aiming to do a more traditional iwagumi in there after this project is well established .