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Well the time has finally arrived for me to begin my first true Aquascape, so this is my Maiden Voyage into the world of Aquascaping if you will. Similar to @Sb1415's "The Beginner scaper journal" I am beginning with more of a vision than a concrete plan and I would love any input, suggestions, and constructive criticisms that you all have to offer. Here is what I'm working with to begin this:

Tank:
40 Gallon Breeder (dimensions: 36" L x 18" W x 17" D)
Lighting:
Netlea AT5S Gen 3 (90cm)
Filtration:
Oase Biomaster 2 600 Canister
Will be using intake & outflow that came w/ the Biomaster for the time being, possibly upgrading to glass or stainless in the future.
Co2:
Green Leaf Aquarium Pro-DS-1 Dual Stage Regulator
GLA Inline Atomic Inline Diffuser
5lb Bottle
Fertilization:
Mixing my own GLA Macros & Micros w/ Plantex CSM+B
Dosing Via Chihiros Dosing Pump w/ Magnetic Stirring base
Substrate:
2 Hr Aquarist APT Feast, Crushed lava rock (for height), accent gravel & decorative sand (seeking suggestions).
Hardscape:
Driftwood: Manzanita
Rock: Gneiss which I collected locally.
Plants:
Currently Being farmed which may or may not end up being used (Any suggestions on pairing, placement, or other considerations would be helpful):
Blyxa Japonica
Hygrophila Pinnatifada
Staurogyne Repens
Pogostemon Helferi
Echinodorus Aflame
Anubias Dragon Claw & various anubias variants
Riccadia Chamedryfolia
Rotala Rotundifolia Vietnam H'ra
Alternanthera reineckii var roseafolia
lobelia cardinalis
Gratiola Viscidula
Buces
Hygrophila Araguaia
Crypt Parva
Cyrpt Lucens
Lagenandra Meeboldii Green

Plants I'm Still Considering: Pogostemon Deccanensis, Limnophila Aromatica, Eriocaulon Breviscapum (if i can source it), Micranthemum 'monte carlo' (grown epiphytically).
Other considerations: Back ground.... either plain black or using frosted white window film and repurposing my Fluval Aquasky light to add a sunset effect to the background.

Water:
Will be using RO water remineralized with 2Hr Aquarist Sky Plus

Goals:
My goal here is not a contest winning tank, but a nature style aquascape that will not require an inordinate amount of maintenance. If I can maintain this with basic weekly maintenance that would be ideal. I would also love to keep this tank set up long term if possible, if I could push to 5+ years before needing to rescape that would be my ideal, but I understand sometimes things just don't work out that way. Plan currently is to finalize my hardscape set up... unsure how long this is going to take but I'm not in a rush.... when I get the hardscape to the point the tank would look great with only my hardscape, then I will move forward with a dark start. All of my driftwood is new, so I will continue the dark start until the white fuzzy mold that will inevitably form on the driftwood finally begins to subside before I begin planting.

In need of suggestions:
The tank will normally viewed at sort of a 3/4 angle from our couch, this would be my primary viewing angle. If you were to view from above I've attached some rudimentary Drawings for illustrative purposes.

I'd love to hear some ideas on how I should maybe think about laying this out. I would like to have a sand foreground (unsure about any defined "sand path" as I'm not really attempting a diorama style scape. These are sort of my options as I understand them, if there are others I'd love to hear about them. Currently leaning toward either a triangle or concave lay out, maybe with a smaller island off to one side. A single centralized Island would probably be my last choice for the simple reason they tend to feel less like a snapshot of nature and more contrived. The green arrows represent the direction of upward slope. If you have any input on how any of these layout may affect flow/ co2 distribution please advise. Would love to hear any input or thoughts on how you all might approach a layout with the above viewing angles.


My rock is dark grey/ to blackish in color, with white striations. This in an example, the white is quartz not lime or calcium. I've tested the rock with HCI and it is non reactive. Currently have some sitting in one of the farm tanks and it has not had any effect on the water parameters.

In terms of decorative sand I've been considering a darker sand to match the rock, maybe BDBS, but also considering maybe just a more natural looking sand. The area where these rocks are found don't have dark dirt around them, just regular looking dirt, this is where I would use the accent gravel to sort of create a transition between the rock work and the sand if I went with a more natural color sand. What are your thoughts?

I will begin posting photos as soon as I have my hardscape arrangement finalized. Thanks for reading and I'm looking forward to sharing this journey with all of you.

Hello all, my name is Mike and I just found this site by accident. I think @gjcarew told me @GreggZ had moved here but some how I failed to remember; so I'm glad I found this site today. I am a fan, as you can tell, of GreggZ. He taught me just about everything I know (through his journal on that other site) and I was also banned over a 0dKH discussion . So you know, I kind of feel close to the guy. Joking aside, I was able to go from this.
To this within a short period of time just by reading his journal.
And as time passed I was able to get this nice scape that made my wife happy.


Then I had the pleasure to meet @gjcarew over on a different site and I reached out to him with questions and such; through those conversations he motivated me to make an attempt at the 2022 AGA Dutch competition. Unfortunately, I messed the tank up right when I was about to take my photos and I couldn't recover the tank in time. Here's that tank. Obviously, there are tons of problems with it, but I was proud of it regardless. I believe it had a shot at a top 10. Not really.
I messed up the Myrio and started to get algae because I wasn't front loading properly and I didn't realize it. I believe I went too lean and thought the Landen would cover the difference.

I won't lie, I felt completely defeated and I kind of slowed down on all my tanks and didn't put my full attention into them anymore. Also, my wife and I were getting a bit burned out with so many tanks to maintain. This is where my journal begins.

I wanted a solution to reduce our work load, and I definitely wanted a bigger tank to house my livestock from the other tanks. I was also sick of lugging canister filters around the house then plugging them to realize I forgot to connect a tube. Fountains of water on our walls wasn't working out so well! I also wanted absolutely no water outside of the tank. By chance, I found the Innovative Marine SR Pro2 120 and bought it.

Now here's the cool thing that happened. I was using a 20 inch RO housing for my reactor, but the tank is only 16 inches high. Four inches of Cerge's reactor was incredibly ugly. And again, by chance, I found the solution. Enter the Yugang Horizontal reactor. I affectionally call it by his forum name because I couldn't be happier with how amazing this thing is. It's so simple, yet so brilliant. I reached out to Yugang and asked if he got the reactor to work. He replied with "my CO2 spray bar works so well I never tried it". I then asked if anyone else got it to work and he said no one has tried it. So I told him I would and apparently, I really am the first person to run this thing through some trials. I think that's pretty cool honestly! Yugang made some calculations for me and on the second build, we nailed it. I get a 1.5pH drop and the design makes it so no additianal CO2 can be added. It's seemingly impossible to gas my fish as the reactor has safety built into the design length. Amazing! I'm so glad there are so many people smarter than I am. It makes my problems so much easier to manage .

The reactor is nothing more than cheap PVC with a gentle stream of tank water flowing under a pocket of CO2. Add a cheap bypass and a method of injection and you now have a Yugang reactor. This success has energized me enough to have another go at the AGA. I bought new lights (Weak Aqua P600's), jammed as many plants I could into the tank and I'm starting my plant selection now. I have a long ways to go but I'm hoping to achieve my goal. The tank is nothing to look at right now; getting plants here in Albuquerque is quite the challenge so I'm mostly waiting on submerge growth and to get them propagated. I also have way too many species but the selection process has begun. I just need to see which ones will grow in Ace Hardware pool filter sand. So far, all seem like they are coming along fine in the sand.

Oh, here's the reactor.

And here's the really ugly tank in it's current condition.


I promise, it will look much better soon. It's been a scramble to pull everything together so quickly.

I hope some of you follow along; I know I will have tons of questions soon enough for all of you!

Hello everyone,

Excuse my multiple posts - I'm new here and trying to determine the best way to ask all of my questions!

As I have stated in a few other posts, I am starting a high-tech, 235g planted tank. Tank dimensions are 72" L x 30" W x 25" H.

I'm still working out many of the details, but for now I plan to make this a South American themed tank centered around a few Electric Blue Acara. And yes, I know they'll dig I don't plan to have a ton of red plants, if any, in the tank, but I do want a light that has potential in that I can use it in any situation should I choose to redo/rescape the tank a few years down the road.

My requirements:

1. Must be able to be mounted via hanging kit/pendant mount
2. Dimmable
3. Usable App for initial setup with customizable channels - I typically loathe preset specs.
4. Reliable
5. Budget - nothing set in stone - but I would assume somewhere around $1,000.00 USD would be sufficient.

I'm an old school T5HO fan, but I thought I would change it up a bit for this tank and see what I am missing out on.

My current top choice is the Week Aqua (version 3) P900 Pro x 2.

I welcome any input on these specific lights (is 2 enough?) as well as any other lights that would be comparable and fit the criteria noted above.

Planning a 90p tank with slow growing and low demanding crypts/java ferns .

Want the shimmer effect (not too much) without the cost of the hyperspot skylight.

Anyone with other suggestions or experience with focus lights like in this picture, which comes with a holder. Would probably just need a PAR at substrate of 50 or lower, having a dimmer would be a plus.

Hi everyone, I'm curious. My pH is 0 and my GH is 7. My pH is 5.5/5.6 all day. I use CO2 24/7. My pH drop is 1.6/1.7. I degas the water with an air pump for two hours, then I check every hour until the pH becomes stable. Why does the drop control always stay green? Isn't the pH drop high for a 0KH? Should it be yellow? Or am I wrong? Thank you very much.

Finally a journal.

I’ll soon be setting up two new tanks, a UNS 90p and a 50c. (Not so!) Patiently awaiting tanks and stands delivery.

They will both be middle energy tanks. I have lengthy periods of busy time and travel that mean the tanks need to survive without human intervention here and there. So plenty of automation is needed, and slow and steady wins over high energy. Or in BBQ smoking terms: low and slow.

Plans:

• Injected CO2, but less than 30ppm
• Inert gravel
• Tidal HOB filter and partial UGF plate.
• Less than EI ferts, but more than PPS pro.
• Tap water (my tap is 50 TDS and only 10ppm Ca) remineralized to 30ppm Ca and 3-4 dKH.
• Lower light levels: Week aqua L on 90p and Chihiros wrgb 2 slim on 50c.
• Easy slow growing plants, and a few fish. Thinking the 50c will be a shrimp tank.
• Some hardscape but nothing crazy

My last tank has had a rough year. Hurricane Helene meant two weeks with no electricity, and much longer without decent water changes.

Then last summer the tank developed a slow leak while I was out of town (ugh!). Had to fly home for a week to triage. Fish and plants have been in temporary tanks. Plants are struggling. Photo is when they had already been in temporary bin for over 6 weeks, I was surprised it didn’t look like an algae infested swamp.





Sooo ready for my new tanks! These are my first really nice tanks, I’ve only owned petco specials before.

For the new tanks I'm planning on over ordering plants since my surviving plants are clearly pretty weak at this point.

Welcome to ScapeCrunch, @astrobooger!
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?

Some of the other terrestrial projects I’m working on. Slowly building towards the halo project, an ebb and flow Florida wetland biotope utilizing a bell siphon for tidal management. These are almost all in my office. The bog biotopes are experiments for emersed growing species that are sensitive to shipping in fully submersed form (Sclerolepis unifloria, for example).

ciao a tutti ragazzi, vi scrivo dall' italia, un grosso saluti a tutti, un abbraccio, ho due acquari uno 32 litri netti e uno da 65 litri netti, grazie per avermi accolto, ciao ciao

This setup is too crazy to not share - enjoy!