Journal Long-winded ramblings about Dutch-style aquascaping

[JuJuFish]

what part? the hose adaptor piece?

Yes, sorry I wasn’t clear on that.

 

[Kwyet]

Thought I would let you know, I took my Echinodorus Reni out and replaced it with the Rotala macrandra Kochi after all. It has the color at the right height that I want, so I thought I would try it again. What kind of sword is your tall one? It’s gorgeous!

 

[gjcarew]

Oh gosh, tbh I don't really know. Maybe reni? Maybe hadi red pearl?

Glad to hear your scape is working out!



Uh oh! Less than a month until the AGA deadline. I have to

• fix the hygrophila triflora group
• move the trident fern and cut off ugly leaves
• Trim some of the rotala stems in front that are growing too long
• Trim the micranthemum 'monte carlo' group so it's flat instead of all lumpy
• replant the ludwigia super red
• big trim back on the myrio
• Get rid of the outer and frontal sword leaves so it starts pushing lots of new red leaves
• try to make the hygrophila "compact" bush not look like garbage
• trim all the helanthium bolivianum runners
• push all the substrate back from the glass
• replace the white suction cups holding up the moss with black

Other than that it's just consistency from here on out.

There are two weak points in this tank (at least that are obvious to me):
1. The trio of reddish plants on the left hand side. One being yellow would have been better, like nesea pedicellata or something
2. The hygrophila compact. Looks to similar to lobelia cardinalis mini, plus even after like a month it just isn't grown in enough. It definitely doesn't help that that location is super shaded, very few plants could grow there well. I may still move the bolbitis over as that can just kinda be plopped in place as needed

 

[gjcarew]

After.

But also I have some more ranting

• the echinodorus Aflame doesn't stand out against the hygrophila triflora, it should have a full, light green background like myrio Guyana mini or something
• the Monte Carlo shape just looks contrived. IDK why I stuck with the u shape instead of replanting a while back. One of you needs to start telling me when I'm making dumb choices!
• I wish the nymphoides Taiwan was bigger so I could maybe even get rid of the trident fern. But all the shops have around right now is babies
• The anubias log looks like it has Peyronie's disease

Most of all, I'm frustrated by the technical difficulties. First with the broken filter and now the crazy expensive regulator that I bought which breaks if you look at it funny. I went back to a cheapo Fzone regulator and it regulates CO2, which is all I ever wanted.

But in that time, the java fern went to spore, the rotala stunted, the bolbitis got algae, and overall everything fell behind where it should have been.

The thing about dutch scaping is that plant health is table stakes. It doesn't matter what your arrangement is if the plant health isn't impeccable. Indeed you often see tanks that don't even resemble the dutch style do well if the plants are healthy.

You may think I'm justifying giving up, but I wouldn't dare. At this point me and Vin Kutty have an annual tradition where I send him a picture of my tank and he tells me what an absolute amateur I am. and I can't miss that. I like to think it's a ritual we both enjoy.

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

Absolutely beautiful.

Would you share what your current fertilizer situation is? Including what you do for micros? Thank you!

 

[rzn7z7]

You may think I'm justifying giving up, but I wouldn't dare. At this point me and Vin Kutty have an annual tradition where I send him a picture of my tank and he tells me what an absolute amateur I am. and I can't miss that. I like to think it's a ritual we both enjoy.

Priceless

 

[gjcarew]

Absolutely beautiful.

Would you share what your current fertilizer situation is? Including what you do for micros? Thank you!

I ripped off @Burr740 : Journal - Dutchy Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

So I'm aiming for 18/6/26 npk per week. The only difference is I dose daily instead of every other day to get there because I can never remember when I last dosed if I try to get fancy. It's easier for me to just dose whenever I feed the fish.

I also aim for .45 fe for micros, but just dosing Miller's Microplex.

I water change less often, approximately every 2 weeks, but I do big (70-80%) water changes. I remineralize the water with 10 ppm Ca and 5 ppm mg, raising the tank gH to about 5 (including the gH from my tap).

I'm also a Scorpio.

Let me know if I forgot anything

 

[gjcarew]

In a move that could pretty reasonably be described as crashing out, I got rid of the rotala bush. It was stubbornly stunted and just wasn't gonna fill in in time. The trident fern should be bushy enough to take it's place, but this really leaves too much room for the nymphoides Taiwan to fill.

I'm pretty sick of this layout at this point. I don't really like it and want to try something new but I'm still considering entering the AGA so don't wanna change too much.

At this point I might as well also get rid of the ludwigia super red. All the other colors are so subtle that it just looks incongruous. It's also by far the focal point in terms of color, and not in a good location.

 

[gjcarew]

Ok so I picked up some rotala colorata at the auction and I think it really ties the room together. Not as distractingly red as the ludwigia, good height... I'm gonna let it straighten out tomorrow and see if I can get it shaped into a good looking bush.

 

[gjcarew]

Definitely in the home stretch here. The last couple pieces of the puzzle are to replace the white suction cups with black, fill in the foreground with a nice sand, and maybe do some last minute sprucing up. I'll probably take a photo this weekend then more next weekend and see which I like more.

This is definitely not my best work, but the casual observer might mistake it for a Dutch scape so I'm probably gonna submit it to the AGA anyways.

I think after I'm going to try to make an Asian-style Dutch tank, like Cheattha Sae-Teaw or Dennis Wong's farm tanks. Stem heavy, less height contrast, and more horizontal than vertical groupings. More appreciation for a color gradient rather than just contrast. Maybe a little hardscape in the mix for good measure.

I say Asian-style, but in my mind it's pretty similar to the style you (used to) see from folks like Tom Barr, Chris Hendy, and Henry Ngo. You just tend to see it exemplified best in some Asian tanks right now.

 

[Unexpected]

Is that Val on the right wall?

 

[gjcarew]

Helanthium bolivianum

 

[Unexpected]

Helanthium bolivianum

Ah, looks beautiful, I literally can't grow them right.

 

[Rob23]

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a writeup on H. bolivianum (the link is to a PDF). I found it interesting that it quotes APC.

 

[SkaleyAquatics]

Is that anubias behind the lobelia? How did you manage to do that because thats a sweet look.

I think your biggest killer is going to be the symmetry between the monte carlo, lobelia and foreground plant on the right, hygro? Even though the monte carlo is a u. its basically the same size and direction of the two foreground plants on the right. Also is that a small lily infront of the rotala colorata? I think it blends in too much with the bottom portions of the colorata and does not add anything.

Either way good on you for getting at least something presentable. Unlike me this year.

 

[gjcarew]

Submitted my tank to the AGA competition last night. It's not my best work, but not my worst either. My biggest regret is not practicing the photos in advance, so I was kinda scrambling to figure out the camera setup.

Here are a few plants that caught my eye today:

Hygrophila triflora

Bacopa colorata