# Aquascape No. 4 - ADA 90P - Nature's Centerpiece - Pic Progression Page 4



## Bserve (Nov 4, 2012)

Yes!


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## Kai808 (Jul 19, 2011)

Can't wait to see the new scape! Hey, I was just wondering... Where do you get your inspiration for your scapes? I really liked that last one.


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

Nice cleaned up ADA 90P. Took 3 weeks to get everything out and get it cleaned up. Such a pain removing all that moss and critters.










I took advantage of the Petco $1 sale and got a 20 long and cheap metal stand to get everything out of the way for the new scape. There had to be about over 1000 RCS...now what to do with them? Was fun removing them from the 90P. I was baiting them into a net for awhile and after about 5 days of that I had enough. Grabbed the siphon hose and sucked the rest out in about an hour. My back is still sore from bending down to see into the tank looking for the shrimplets. Here is their temp home.










Cleaned the Aquasoil up and dryed it out so its easier to scape with.










Cleaned up the branchwood which was a real pain as it was coated in moss and algae. Ended up scrubbing it, baking it, scrubbing it, H2O2 bath for 2 days, scrubbing and finally rinsing. Dryed it out a little bit so now its sitting in water to stay waterlogged.










The 100 pounds of "seiryu" rock I bought sight unseen. Really pleased with what I received. Definitely an upgrade over the last rock I used which was a bit unsightly which actually inspired the Moss Canyon where I knew I was going to absolutely cover all that stone.


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## ETK (Jan 25, 2013)

Looking forward to the new scape! You have a knack for mixing wood and stone. I have not figured out how to make that look natural, but your moss canyon scape was flawless!

I am interested to see how you work with branchwood and seiryu.


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

Subscribed to this for sure! Can't wait to see where it goes!


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## sarahspins (Sep 24, 2012)

mot said:


> There had to be about over 1000 RCS...now what to do with them?


Send some to me?


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Great looking materials! Now to put them all together. :thumbsup:

That must be a really well made table too!


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## PeterN1986 (Jun 15, 2011)

That plant mass looks like one HUGE EPIC *green fireball* about to crash land into the bottom left corner of the tank!


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## Bercey (Jun 6, 2012)

Sub'd.

Very intrigued so far!


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## h4n (Jan 4, 2006)

yes cant wait to see the new scape also!


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## Bserve (Nov 4, 2012)

C'mon, I've been waiting for FOUR whole days! Lol, jk. R u selling the shrimp? If so, I'd like some; mine died in a freak accident involving a two-year-old and a jar of fish food.


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## junglefowl (Oct 30, 2012)

Really impressed with your previous scapes. Let see how the new scape turn out!!!


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

I finished the hardscape on Sunday as planned and have the carpeting plants in place yesterday. I used both the seiryu rock and the branchwood in the scape. Plants used so far are mini pellia, hc and staurogyne. Im not sure about other plants yet. I want to centerpiece rotala butterfly i just received but the shipping gods were rough on it. Not totally unexpected being summer but still a bummer. The majority of the bunch was brown mush. Separated the rotala out that had any leaves and cleaned it up, weighted it and added to the temp 20 gallon tank with strong light, co2 and ferts. In one day it already has perked up and turning from brown to reddish brown. So fingers crossed. Wih that done the dry start began yesterday and im hoping its ready to flood in about 3 weeks. Im undecided yet if ill post the pics now or wait until i have enough to show a progression series like last time.


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## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

I have no self control and lack patience so I vote for now haha!


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

lamiskool said:


> I have no self control and lack patience so I vote for now haha!


This is my vote as well!


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## Psiorian (Jun 23, 2013)

After reading the previous journal I'm interested in this one. We won't see your final creation of version 3 right? Have to wait for iaplc to be done?

I vote now for hard scape pics as well! I wanna see what you did with those rocks!


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

Im stilling working on this and haven't made a decision yet but here is a little compromise.


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## maximusprime (Mar 4, 2013)

This is gonna be good!

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

Okay, for a tease, that looks pretty sweet!


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## Bserve (Nov 4, 2012)

I was hoping for a FULL update.


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## jkpedrita (Jun 5, 2013)

I can't wait to see the new 'scape!


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## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

I have loved your last scapes so I can't wait for this.


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## Bserve (Nov 4, 2012)

It's time for an update


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## Green_Flash (Apr 15, 2012)

I am curious too.


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

Things were going great until a few days ago. I was a day or two from flooding. But my HC in two spots just died overnight. It went from growing thick and green to just brown mush. Now those spots are growing rapidly and have consumed about a 1/3 of the HC in just two days.

All the other plants in the tank seem great and are growing quickly. I've aired the tank out for today to see if that will halt the spread. But I'm pretty sure the humidity levels are pretty good just based on past experience.

I took some macro shots and looks like tiny threads throughout the brown areas. I'm not sure what this is or what to do next. Anyone have any ideas?


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

Bummer!! I think that's mold. That looks like EXACTLY what took my s. repens and a ton of my UG. It moved pretty fast (relatively speaking) and just outright killed stuff. It also took out my 2 healthiest downoi. If you check out my fallen tree thread, I mention how I finally killed it, but that was under water. I'm fairly certain it was the anti-fungal API treatment I used.


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

Thanks anotherhobby. Headed to petsmart just around the corner to pick some up. How did you dose it? I see its a powder so im thinking adding a bit of water, mix and apply via hand mister bottle.


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

Ok...fungus cure has been applied. Now the hard part to wait and watch.


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

I would have done what you did if I was still in DSM. Mix it with water and mist it. My tank was flooded, so I just dumped it in. I threw everything at it, but in the end mold is fungus, and I'm pretty sure it was the antil fungal that killed it. H2O2 and Excel had very little effect (and Excel will kill your HC in DSM anyway).


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## KenRC51 (Oct 13, 2011)

mot said:


> Things were going great until a few days ago. I was a day or two from flooding. But my HC in two spots just died overnight. It went from growing thick and green to just brown mush. Now those spots are growing rapidly and have consumed about a 1/3 of the HC in just two days.
> 
> All the other plants in the tank seem great and are growing quickly. I've aired the tank out for today to see if that will halt the spread. But I'm pretty sure the humidity levels are pretty good just based on past experience.
> 
> I took some macro shots and looks like tiny threads throughout the brown areas. I'm not sure what this is or what to do next. Anyone have any ideas?


I had those in my tank before. Those are spidermites. See the webs? Look very closely you can see the small spider. It's as small as a newly hatched shrimp.


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

I can see webs for sure but cant find any critters. So to treat any recommendations? Looks like water kills them so flood?


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## KenRC51 (Oct 13, 2011)

mot said:


> I can see webs for sure but cant find any critters. So to treat any recommendations? Looks like water kills them so flood?


When I had mine I had to stare at the web for about 10-15 mins before I saw movements. Look carefully and you'll see them.

H2O2 will kill them if you can get them. They hide under the leaf. When you spray or drip h2o2 it doesn't go under the leaf so it is really heard to kill them. The only way is to flood the tank. 

Maybe you can just flood the tank to above the plant level for a day or two then drain out water can continue DSM.


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

Thanks. Took your advice and just flooded. The small air bubbles have attached to the webs and they are quite visible now. So i feel pretty good that flooding was the right thing to do. Everything was well rooted already so ill move on and im sure the hc will fill in the dead spots. I also cut the new growth tips off the rotala butterfly and planted that as it was submersed growth already. I took my eheim 2217 off the temp tank and emptied the media, cleaned it up and have it on this tank now so i could get the CO2 cranked up.

Should be interesting at the very least.


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

The white mold and spider mite webs look pretty much the same. If it's spiders, the flooding will work. My mold kept spreading even after I flooded, so keep an eye on it just in case. It moves slower under water, but didn't die until I treated it.


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

Thanks I will keep a close eye on the results. I figured it would be best to hit it with the fungus cure and flood it as waiting even a little bit would result in a complete wipe out for sure as the spread was extremely rapid.


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## Bserve (Nov 4, 2012)

Well, now I know why there haven't been any updates until now


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

Bserve - No the HC issue isn't why, Im just holding on to do a progression series of photos. I plan on posting them in a few weeks once the plants are all in. Hope you aren't to disappointed as I do appreciate the support!

So it looks like the rapid spread of death through my HC has halted from flooding. The spider web filaments are gone. The dead HC is already showing algae growth on it and melting away. Will have to be careful to make sure the algae doesn't get a hold of the live plants.



















Here are the Rotala Butterfly that I was able to get to grow out in a few weeks of the stems that got baked in shipping.


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## Mau5 (Oct 17, 2012)

Hey Mot, I just wanted to say that after reading the thread for the third tank you made, I am even more than before excited to see the progression of this tank. The Night Sky tank really was a BEAUTIFUL scape.

As others have said before, you really do have that knack for scaping.


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## Bserve (Nov 4, 2012)

DSM over?


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## harsaphes (Oct 10, 2005)

Really looking forward to this. Sub'd.


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

Sorry for the lack of updates. The tank has been doing great. Between a vacation, remodeling the house and work i havent had the time. Just went back to my house yesterday after being gone for 4 days while the hardwoods were refinished. Came back to my tank and it was a picture from a horror show. Hundreds of the RCS all dead along the bottom. I figured about 500 in all and the fumes from the stain must have killed them.

After the shock passed i looked at the small cube tank of CRS i have in the same room. Other than algae outbreak it looked fine with CRS swimming around normally. I then noticed the big tank lights were out and it was midday. Sure enough the timers were way off. The contractor must have killed the power for an extended period of time on that circuit. So it mustve been the lack of power and water flow and not the stain fumes.

Interestingly none of the fish seemed effected and the plants as well were fine. So i siphoned out all the dead bodies. Replaced all the water and fixed the timers.

Went back today and everything seems normal. I even saw 5 RCS eating algae off one of the stones. Maybe they will repopulate? They werent the best color quality so maybe ill take the situation in stride and remove the remaining RCS and replace them with some fire reds.

By the way 500 rotting RCS smells quite bad.:frown:


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## lamiskool (Jul 1, 2011)

Sorry to hear about the unfortunate event...hopefully some good karma will also come along with the it


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## TaDoey (Jun 14, 2012)

Aww man that sucks so much. It reminds me of a time where someone accidently turned the heater on my tank up to 87 degrees. I didn't realize anything was wrong until the water started to look cloudy and it smelt bad. When I went to look at the tank I saw about 10 dead glowlight tetras, 2 dead peppered cories and a bunch of dead shrimp. One of the worst days of my planted tank life. The shrimp population has grown out once again, though at a lower quality, and I got some new cories. 

Sorry for turning this into a story.

Sent from my LG-MS770 using Tapatalk 4


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

Thanks all. Well looks like the shrimp are all pretty much dead at this point. Found a couple more dead bodies and don't see any alive. I have a pretty bad snail infestation, probably as a result of the situation.


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

Ok here we go the pictures promised.


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

Hope it was worth the wait. The first picture was taken on 7/8 and the last picture was on 9/13. So the tank is still very new and hasn't had a chance to fill in and mature.

The concept I wanted to really change it up from the last tank scape. I envisioned more of a coral reef where the fish dart in and out of the rocks. In this case the wood is like a coral head. I then planted red plants within the wooded area and green in the background to make it pop.

Im pretty pleased where its at at this point considering the set backs with the HC die out, rotala getting baked in shipping and now the shrimp stew.

Still have lots to do:

1. Add some fish...and consider repopulating the shrimp. Not sure what Im going to do and am open to any ideas.
2. Continue to grow out the red plants. Rotala is starting to acclimate and is looking much healthier.
3. Sit back and enjoy it.


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## carpalstunna (Mar 22, 2012)

super cool love the wood+rock combo


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## idleivey (Feb 12, 2009)

This is an inspiring layout, I love everything about it. What did you use for the backlight?


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

idleivey said:


> This is an inspiring layout, I love everything about it. What did you use for the backlight?


Thanks.

The backlight in the sunset photo is two 100 watt incandescent clip on lights you can get at home depot for a few bucks. They are clamped to the bottom of the stand pointing up. The main lights are marineland aquatic leds so they are much more daylight color. So when you combine the two you get the rich warm color in the back.

The other backlight is just swapping the bulbs out with 13w daylight compact fluorescent bulbs.

The wall is about 6 inches from the back of the tank and is taupe color.


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## du3ce (Jan 26, 2013)

dig the hardscape


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## DvanK (Feb 27, 2009)

Awesome tank! I totally like the backlight idea... I may have to do this myself.


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## AnotherHobby (Mar 5, 2012)

Looks great! I love how well you integrated the rocks and wood. Very cool! It makes me think of medusa with how it twists out of the top of the rocks. It'll probably be a lot easier to maintain than your moss canyon tank too.


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## Bserve (Nov 4, 2012)

Ah! It's about time, too.


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## Shawn123 (Jan 24, 2013)

Looks great! I like the driftwood coming from the rocks it almost has a flame effect.


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

AnotherHobby said:


> Looks great! I love how well you integrated the rocks and wood. Very cool! It makes me think of medusa with how it twists out of the top of the rocks. It'll probably be a lot easier to maintain than your moss canyon tank too.


 
Thanks. I actually think its a bit more work but not much because of the stem plants and HC lawn trimming. The new lights are keeping the HC really compact which is awesome.


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## tomfromstlouis (Apr 2, 2012)

I really like this tank. Awesome piece of wood, most excellent rocks, good lawn etc. If I had to make a critique point, I might point out that the two sides seem too separate, too unconnected to each other. 

Frankly I have this same issue on one of my tanks (which otherwise does not look half as good as yours), so I know how and why this happens. I am hoping in my case that planting can help blend the sides together. 

I will certainly be looking forward to this tank's progress! Awesome job.


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## mot (Sep 17, 2011)

Hey tom. Thanks for the feedback. I see what you mean and agree with you. I'm going to rework it some. Extend the wood to the right and reduce the rockwall just a bit.


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## ThatGuyWithTheFish (Apr 29, 2012)

Awesome. Needs just a little more time to fill in and it'll be perfect. What are those wonderful orange fish in there?


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## jcgilmore2 (Jul 10, 2013)

Great tanks man..

I like how this one differs from the others. Definitely unique. Once you get the butterfly going it will be a completely different scape... Colors and the ref/green contrast will be awesome. Can't wait to see it.


Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk


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