# From this to this - Aquascape progression - Scape 4 added



## mot

I saw this as a category on UKAPS and thought it would be a nice add here to show how an aquascape progresses from start to finish. This is my nano AGA entry this year.

Tank volume is <27liters
18"x11"x7.5"

June 27, 2015
Initial hardscape from concept. I wanted a dramatic mountainscape with sharp peaks. I arranged the rocks in a crisscross pattern to develop the peaks and valleys.









June 29, 2015
I cut in the paths and planted the tank with very low growing carpet plants. Predominantly UG and HC. The UG can be trimmed to give a nice downward cascading effect. The small HC leaves will break up the UG and provide better scale and perspective.









July 28, 2015

Plants have grown in quickly and are ready for first big cut back. Rework the paths to improve the perspective and flow of the mountainscape. Reduced the soil level in front left dramtically to open up the front for future detail work. This was done by using a tube small enough to insert to the bottom and siphon the aquasoil from beneath allowing removal without disturbing the roots or aquascape. Started to add detail to the background rock work.

Notice the rocks are discolored from algae.









August 11, 2015
Added the far left path to balance the mountainscape. Plants are recovered from aggressive trimming and new growth is thick and spreading more horizontally.

Rocks were spot cleaned with a toothbrush and excel one time. The light was raised 6" to reduce the strength which has reduced algae growth on rocks. Additional details added especially in foreground.









September 4, 2015
Tank has matured fully at this point. Final touches are made with the hardscape. I broke up a reddish ohko stone and added the smalller fragments in the background increasing the perspective and feel of light versus darker areas.

Final manicuring of the plants and sand path was made. The addition of very small details was completed like adding ohko stone dust to improve the natural feeling of the rocks into the paths.

Took the final photo using a dslr camera, wide angle lens and off camera flash which enhances the color, details and adds a dynamic feel with the light coming through the top of the rippled water mimicking rays of sunlight.


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## LinaS

wow... really impressive )) i like your tank... very beautiful
more pictures? and what kind of stones they are?


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## mot

LinaS said:


> wow... really impressive )) i like your tank... very beautiful
> more pictures? and what kind of stones they are?


Thanks. yea as i have time ill post more of my aquascapes here.


They are Ohko stone aka dragonstone.


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## Kramflowz

Such an amazing scape. Blown away man, props!


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## mot

Kramflowz said:


> Such an amazing scape. Blown away man, props!


Thanks. Wish the judges had been too. Added progression commentary to inspire folks and share insight on some of the technique and thought process I used in its making.


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## Juzen

Very inspiring tank. What kind of plants are in the tank?


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## mot

Juzen said:


> Very inspiring tank. What kind of plants are in the tank?


*Hemianthus callitrichoides*


*Utricularia graminifolia*


*Riccia fluitans*


*Eleocharis acicularis 'Mini' in the very back left*


*Vesicularia ferriei 'Weeping'*


*Taxiphyllum 'Flame'*


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## battmanh

You are an amazing artist with such a great vision. Thank you for the inspiration!


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## klibs

Pro


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## mot

Here is another aquascape progression series. This is an ADA 45p

Tank volume is 34 liters
18"x10.6 "x12"

6/15/2014
I had purchased a couple of these bonsai trees thinking they were real. Although disappointed and feeling a bit foolish I decided to try one out anyway. I decided to use slate chips for the hardscape to support the tree. They are easy to work with to get great shape and texture. The plants were already grown out from a previous scape and I just reused them. The plants are dwarf hair grass, downoi and hc. 










7/26/2014
I attached mini pellia by pressing it into the branches of the tree. No glue or thread was needed as mini pellia is pretty stiff. I also added sand on top of the slate to lighten things up as the scape was looking quite dark. Also added flame moss to the back right. Had fissidens in the back left pop up as a hitchhiker.











8/16/2014
This scape was pretty low maintenance. The mini pellia required no trimming at all. The downoi was outgrowing the area and had to be trimmed back aggressively.











9/16/2014
To finish the scape I added hygrophillia pinnatifida in the back to add some textural difference and interest. The biggest improvement was to tip the tree to give it a much more natural feel as the branches now overhang and reach for the path.










Some things I would do differently in this scape:
1. Removed the downoi and replace it with the HC/dwarf hair grass to match the right side.
2. Have the sand path continue around and disappear on the horizon to add perspective.
3. Clean up the left side so that the tree was more distinct.
4. Sand was messy and needed to be cleaned up. Smaller slate chips/dust need to be used to naturalize the look.

Some things I really liked:
1. The tree looks great to me. The mini pellia leaves were just as I had envisioned.
2. The black slate chips had nice color and scale.
3. The overall feel felt natural to me
4. The final photo turned out well imo. Nice reflections in the side glass. The water ripples and reflection at the surface look gentle and give the feeling of motion.


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## bereninga

Wow! This is simply amazing.


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## patfat

0_0 Holy crap!!! You do some amazing work!! I wish I had the skills to be able to the things you have accomplished in these tanks!


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## BettaBabe

These are absolutely gorgeous!


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## roostertech

What is that intake strainer you are using? I'm pondering about getting one but heard that they rust a lot.


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## mot

roostertech said:


> What is that intake strainer you are using? I'm pondering about getting one but heard that they rust a lot.


It is a stainless steel mesh that i bought from a forum member. Check there and you probably can find one.


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## Kramflowz

As awesome as the first! Love seeing these progressions, its really an inspiring thread to look at.


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## Animanganime

Those are some amazing work, especially the first one, thanks for sharing man


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## AlanLe

*From this to this - Aquascape progression - Scape 2 added*

You should also remove the hygro in the back. It makes the whole scence not proportional . 


-Alan


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## marcomm

OMG they are both stunning! I would love finding those Ohko stones some where around here, are they granite like?


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## DavidZ

Amazing job!


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## anfield

Both stunning scapes. If I could change anything, in the first one, the criss cross appearance throws me off a bit. In the second one, feel like the tree could be trimmed further to give more separation from the scape. 

On the other hand what do I know, I'm only just making my second scape and it will look nowhere near as good as these. Only work with low tech. Can never get moss to look this healthy. Does well but always has some algae in it.


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## dhsanti

mot said:


> Here is another aquascape progression series. This is an ADA 45p
> 
> Tank volume is 34 liters
> 18"x10.6 "x12"
> 
> 6/15/2014
> I had purchased a couple of these bonsai trees thinking they were real. Although disappointed and feeling a bit foolish I decided to try one out anyway. I decided to use slate chips for the hardscape to support the tree. They are easy to work with to get great shape and texture. The plants were already grown out from a previous scape and I just reused them. The plants are dwarf hair grass, downoi and hc.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 7/26/2014
> I attached mini pellia by pressing it into the branches of the tree. No glue or thread was needed as mini pellia is pretty stiff. I also added sand on top of the slate to lighten things up as the scape was looking quite dark. Also added flame moss to the back right. Had fissidens in the back left pop up as a hitchhiker.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 8/16/2014
> This scape was pretty low maintenance. The mini pellia required no trimming at all. The downoi was outgrowing the area and had to be trimmed back aggressively.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 9/16/2014
> To finish the scape I added hygrophillia pinnatifida in the back to add some textural difference and interest. The biggest improvement was to tip the tree to give it a much more natural feel as the branches now overhang and reach for the path.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Some things I would do differently in this scape:
> 1. Removed the downoi and replace it with the HC/dwarf hair grass to match the right side.
> 2. Have the sand path continue around and disappear on the horizon to add perspective.
> 3. Clean up the left side so that the tree was more distinct.
> 4. Sand was messy and needed to be cleaned up. Smaller slate chips/dust need to be used to naturalize the look.
> 
> Some things I really liked:
> 1. The tree looks great to me. The mini pellia leaves were just as I had envisioned.
> 2. The black slate chips had nice color and scale.
> 3. The overall feel felt natural to me
> 4. The final photo turned out well imo. Nice reflections in the side glass. The water ripples and reflection at the surface look gentle and give the feeling of motion.


How long did it take the mini pellia to grow full like that

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk


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## doylecolmdoyle

mot said:


> I had purchased a couple of these bonsai trees thinking they were real. Although disappointed and feeling a bit foolish I decided to try one out anyway.


When you say the bonsai was not real what do you mean? are they made from a cement product or re-constructed wood of some sorts? I have seen these online and was going to purchase.


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## mot

Dhsanti - The pictures are dated so you can see how long it took to grow in.

Doylecolmdoyle - it is fake. Made from bits of driftwood, sawdust and glue. Mine did not survive beyond this scape. It fell apart and ended up in the trash. At least I finished the moss tree scape and captured it in a photo.

Bump:


anfield said:


> Both stunning scapes. If I could change anything, in the first one, the criss cross appearance throws me off a bit. In the second one, feel like the tree could be trimmed further to give more separation from the scape.
> 
> On the other hand what do I know, I'm only just making my second scape and it will look nowhere near as good as these. Only work with low tech. Can never get moss to look this healthy. Does well but always has some algae in it.


Thanks. The first scape was meant to be bold and aggressive. The inspiration came from World of Warcraft in one of the zones called Blades Edge Mountains hence the scape name of Blades Edge.


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## anfield

Thats good information about the bonsai trees. Was thinking of buying one myself


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## saty

Mot, I did not even know this was yours, i had this on my work laptop as wallpaper for a while now. I just saw this post 

Nice design man!!!!:grin2:


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## houseofcards

Beautifully executed, congrats!


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## mot

Here is another aquascape progression series. This is an ADA 90p

Tank volume is 180 liters
36"x18"x18"

3/23/2014
This was the initial setup photo I took. I wish I had some during the process. It went together very quickly from my vision. The basic shape is triangular. The moss rocks were already prepared from the previous scape. Which made planting this one very easy and gave it a very fast start.









3/23/2014
The grey rocks really were lost with the grey wall behind the tank. So I started working on a background right away. You can see in this picture that I taped up a large sheet of light blue paper. The problem was it looked like blue paper. So I started experimenting with plastic on the back of the tank. On the left is the bare paper. The middle is doubled up plastic and the right is a single sheet of plastic.









3/24/2015
I went to the local hardware store and found frosted window film without adhesive. Applied it and the final background was what I was hoping for to provide contrast to the rocks.









3/27/2014
Moss is growing in quickly. Started working the rocks along the back to increase the feel of depth. Also the reflection in the side glass is very prominent. For example the back right rock looks fine straight on but looks poorly in the reflection.









4/6/2014
Moss is starting to grow together and seams between the moss rocks are coming together. Rocks along the back are now just about finished. Reflections look good and starting to become part of the scape. Planted the bare foreground as the sand area is too large and a distraction.









5/6/2014
All plants have grown in and the rocks have all been tweaked. This was the final photo submitted to the IAPLC 2014 contest. This aquascape came together very fast especially considering it is mostly moss. the photo used a combination of flash above and below. You can see the background is softened greatly using this technique so it is subtle instead of glaring blue. Also there are hundreds of RCS in this tank. I fed them about an hour before the photo shoot by placing a piece of food behind the tallest rock so that they were hidden. I also took out the otocinclus and placed them in another tank temporarily.










Some things I would do differently in this scape:
1. Replaced the rock on the front/left with the two vertical white stripes. It is not a good fit and had struggled with that rock from the beginning.
2. Trimmed the flame moss a bit more so that it was a bit shorter in the front.
3. Lowered the water level in the tank to about an inch above the tallest rock so that it was visible in the photo.
4. I drove this tank really hard to finish it in time for the contest. While everything grew very quickly I did have a lot of maintenance on the rocks. They turned green very quickly and required scrubbing and excel spot dosing to keep clean so that the details were not hidden. I should have raised the light a bit and backed things off as I finished about 4 weeks early.

Some things I really liked:
1. I really liked the feel of the tank. It was a nice blend of iwagumi and mountainscape.
2. Moss is just my favorite to work with in my scapes!
4. The final photo turned out pretty well and I was very pleased with the background and the reflections in the side glass.


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## TropicalAquarist

*From this to this - Aquascape progression - Scape 3 added*

Your tanks are amazing! I can really see the talent you have! Wow!

What kind of fish are in the last one?


How you get your fish to school the way they do is also puzzling to me


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## mot

TropicalAquarist said:


> Your tanks are amazing! I can really see the talent you have! Wow!
> 
> What kind of fish are in the last one?
> 
> 
> How you get your fish to school the way they do is also puzzling to me


Thanks for the kind words. The fish are ember tetras and threadfin rainbows.

Schooling them is quite simple as I have a remote trigger for the camera. So I can stand near the tank and wave a hand on on side of the tank which gets them all swimming the other way. Then just step back and as they turn around and come back to the other side I snap the photo.

Now getting them at the right position in the tank and spaced out nicely is much harder and just takes many and I mean many shots.


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## mot

Here is another aquascape progression series. This is an ADA 90p

Tank volume is 180 liters
36"x18"x18"

1/23/2015
The initial setup. This is a day or two after first setup. This scape was started after pulling a previous aquascape so the aquasoil was reused and wet to start. The main shape of this aquascape is convex.









2/12/2015
Starting to grow in. Slight changes have been made to the wood.









2/24/2015
Plants are really starting to fill in. Added some more Anubias nana petite. Again working with the wood changing position and adding some. Aquascape is not progressing to the original concept. At this point starting to rethink how to redo this without breaking down.









3/2/2015
Major changes made. Built up the substrate. Raised the rocks. Moved the path to the left 1/3 focal point. Built up the wood and decided to position it all pointing to the upper left. Created a small sand area in the front. 









3/22/2015
Added some taller growing plants, cypress helferi and cryptocoryne balansae. Also redid the path adding a fork to the middle.









3/29/2015
Growth continues. Removed the Rotala which was not doing well at all. Added more driftwood in back left corner. Weighted with a rock until waterlogged.









4/14/2015
Moved around some of the plants to improve the feel of the tank.









4/28/2015
Plants are starting to mature and fill in. Aquascape is looking better at this point to my eye.









5/16/2015
Fish were added and plants continue to grow well.









5/24/2015
Final photo day.









Some things I would do differently in this scape:
1. Kept to the original vision.
2. Blyxa in the bottom right corner should have been thinned greatly or removed. It would look better with just staurogyne repens.
3. The hardscape was mostly lost and overgrown by plants

Some things I really liked:
1. To me at the end this was a very colorful garden. The leaf textures, colors and contrast were very bold.
2. Watching the fish dart in and out of the heavily planted areas was really enjoyable.
3. I tried something different. A lot of new plants to me as well as a different aquascaping style.


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## Jeroen

To me this would be the nicest creation on here yet.
Although I really like all of your creations here, I hope to someday come close to what you do. 

You might be onto something about it being a little overgrown in the end..
Maybe should've taken your final picture a little sooner but it doesn't harm the overall beauty and does give it more mystery imo

A very inspirational thread thank you!


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## anfield

Last one is the best but its always tricky trying to balance out hardscape vs plants like you said. Like the depth you created in the original scape. What kind of rock was used there?


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## Chibils

Mot -

How do you create these aquascapes? Do you visualize it in your head, all the shapes and colors and materials? Or do you get all your materials out on the table and start placing until it clicks?

Also I'd love to know where you got those slate chips!

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk


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## mot

anfield said:


> Last one is the best but its always tricky trying to balance out hardscape vs plants like you said. Like the depth you created in the original scape. What kind of rock was used there?


The stone was sold as seiryu but its not the real stuff. It is most likely ying or yin stone.

Bump:


Chibils said:


> Mot -
> 
> How do you create these aquascapes? Do you visualize it in your head, all the shapes and colors and materials? Or do you get all your materials out on the table and start placing until it clicks?
> 
> Also I'd love to know where you got those slate chips!
> 
> Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk


Both actually. I have a general vision and then let the materials dictate from there.


The slate chips came from the nearby park. Shhhh. Dont tell anyone. There was a small area where they dumped a bunch as groundcover over the mud. Im pretty sure you can get them easily enough from a home improvement store or stone yard.


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