# Dragon stone and spider wood scape



## BrysonZheng (Apr 15, 2018)

I've been working on this piece of hardscape and I just wanted some thoughts. It's all dragon stone glued together and I'm finalizing the placement of some branches so I'd like you guys to tell me your opinions and/or what I can do better! 































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## BrysonZheng (Apr 15, 2018)

Bump


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## Mafkees (Nov 14, 2018)

It's hard to comment unless you give us the perspective of this piece how it would look in your tank. Also what size tank?


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## BrysonZheng (Apr 15, 2018)

Mafkees said:


> It's hard to comment unless you give us the perspective of this piece how it would look in your tank. Also what size tank?




5 gallon would be the tank size, here's what I'm thinking. Excuse the planter lol










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## Mafkees (Nov 14, 2018)

I am European but 5 gal should be +/- 20 liters, right? Depending on the life stock you intend to introduce, please ensure there is enough swimming space left for it/them. 5 gal is already ridiculously crammed. 

I like the scape itself. You should however slope the substrate up towards the back to add increased sense of depth. Let's say 1 inch higher than in the front, use your gut a bit. As for the rock on the foreground, I feel you could swap it with the small rock on the far right or leave it blank. Intentional void is also good use of space 

Good luck!


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## BrysonZheng (Apr 15, 2018)

Mafkees said:


> I am European but 5 gal should be +/- 20 liters, right? Depending on the life stock you intend to introduce, please ensure there is enough swimming space left for it/them. 5 gal is already ridiculously crammed.
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> ...




Thank you for the suggestions! I'm thinking of maybe just shrimp in this tank, I don't know if I want any fish in here yet. I'm pretty well versed in fish care, definitely won't pick up an red tailed catfish! I'm on the bus home, I'll post a pic of the rock moved once I get home. The substrate slope is hard to see in the planter, but the really dark "cove" in the front is pretty low and the substrate in the back is piled pretty high. Thanks for the suggestions again! 


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## Mafkees (Nov 14, 2018)

Great to hear, surely the future inhabitants will have a good owner then. A few shrimp is what I would choose as well. Tetras for example, in my humble opinion, are too active for this scale. I choose to take this formula:
*Adult fish max. length* x *15* = *minimum tank length*.

As for the substrate sloping, as a general rule you should have the substrate at the front glass approx. 1 inch below the substrate at the rear glass, sloping up gently. Of course in a smaller tank you might want to adjust that a bit. The cove is a really cool touch and will add great sense of depth, especially if you continue to slope everywhere else. You might want to adjust your filter outlet so that it bounces off the glass in the corner and gets pushed into the cove, to avoid dead spots.

Keep on scapin' and I look forward to the end result.

p.s.
Will you use any plants by the way?


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## BrysonZheng (Apr 15, 2018)

Thank you! I'm planning on having an overpowered HOB on the left side of the tank and that should be enough! This'll be an iwagumi style tank with probably a mixed carpet along the lines of Monte Carlo, hair grass and hydrocotyle verticalla. Buce on the rocks as well! I just got home and moved the rock but I think it takes away from the cove. 


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## BrysonZheng (Apr 15, 2018)

If I did get fish, it'd probably be a bororas species, cpd, or Pygmy corydoras. Maybe a single stiphodon but I need to research those more!


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## Mafkees (Nov 14, 2018)

HOB sounds good in terms of flow, however you should consider the effects that surface agitation will have on CO2 levels present in the tank. With the plants you intend to use, CO2 supplementation and intense light levels will be necessary. 

The smaller bororas might do. 

Cpd, is that a lobster species? I believe these are generally notorious for displacing your plants and/or destroying them, and heavily hunting your other life stock. 

As for the corydoras, they are a heavily roaming species that thrive in large groups upwards of 10. I would therefore argue against them. 

I don't mean to be a bummer, I just want to share my opinion


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## BrysonZheng (Apr 15, 2018)

No worries! All the boraras are small, cpd stands for celestial pearl danio, you're thinking of cpo. You think the tank would be enough for ~6 pygmaeus? It'll be over filtered and have a good plant mass. With co2 levels, I'm just DIY co2 and I'm not so worried about co2 levels 


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## Mafkees (Nov 14, 2018)

As far as I'm concerned, with any fish in a tank environment (ergo: limited space, opposed to freely roaming in the wild) there are several factors to take into account.

With freely swimming fish, there is a three-dimensional space. *Length* x *width* x *height*. The fish could swim straight, diagonally, etc. and therefore utilize the limited room fully, provided there is not too much blocking that swimming space, like branches. Hence my earlier comment about the swimming space.

With bottom roaming fish, however, there is only two-dimensional space. *Length* x *width*. And with the amount of hardscape in this setup, I would go as far as to say that any corydoras is a no-go, since arguably upwards of 50% of the (already way too small) space, is even taken up by hardscape. By the way, this not taking into account that corydoras, especially the smaller species, should definitely be kept on a sand substrate given their foraging habit. 

I would instead suggest you stick to shrimp. These will also dwell your bottom but they are not limited to it.

Corydoras are a species that require a pretty specialized setup with lots of free space for them to dwell on. I will attach a picture of the scape that I will be putting in my tank soon, which is optimized for leaving as much space as possibly for my corydoras julii, while maximizing hide-outs under rocks etc. This is a tank with the dimensions 100cm x 40cm x 40cm, by the way.


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## BrysonZheng (Apr 15, 2018)

That's the thing, corydoras pygmaeus is an active schooler that doesn't stay on the bottom right? All the sites I've been researching say that it spends most of its time in mid water while it's hastatus or habrosus (I forget) stay near the bottom.


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## Mafkees (Nov 14, 2018)

I couldn't comment on that, however this implies they will share the free swimming space with your other choice of swimming life stock. This is something you should consider once the tank is set up and filled. Take a piece of wood/plastic (clean!!) roughly 3,5 centimeters long and position it around your tank. Then imagine 6. Does it look overly big? Then you know enough.


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## BrysonZheng (Apr 15, 2018)

Ooo I should clarify, I'd only be picking one of the species!


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## BrysonZheng (Apr 15, 2018)

I'll continue my research, will probably start a tank journal sometime!


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