# Cypress river bank



## kwc1974 (Jan 4, 2006)

I am about to redo my 75gallon tank and have been torn between several scapes and have finally decided. A good friend, Davemonkey got me some really nice pieces of cypress knees.....thanks Dave! And so the Cypress river bank tank begins Here are the pieces. Sorry these are night time cell phone pics










This is after a low pressure washing, I have left the bark on for a more natural look, also there is a native Texas aquatic moss that was growing on these that I want to see if it will grow back.

The plan is to have a sand substrate in the front, a lot of anubias nana at the base (almost carpet like) and have some Cryptocoryne retrospiralis in the back behind the wood groupings.

So far not much progress, just trying to figure the layout and how to weight these down (cypress floats really well and won't waterlog). Here are some sample pics I took with some of the pieces in my holding tank.....the display tank does not have a center brace.

layout idea #1










layout idea #2










I like the wood as is but my gut is telling me to trim some of the pieces down. The end result will still have the two tall pieces protruding through the water surface but maybe not as much.

Thoughts? Ideas?


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

I'm really happy to see this - as I wanted to do a Cypress wood tank,
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquascaping/74850-plan-cyprus-knees-tall-grass.html
but abandoned the effort because I could not find affordable knees.

I think part of the charm of Cypress is keeping some of it above water.
as for sinking it, you may have to screw a lot of flat slate to each piece.
if you know a metalworks guy, maybe a lead plate with a zinc coating,
or maybe you can use old flat 10lb dumbell weights and coat them and
use some sort of mat to protect the glass underneath. this idea is a bit
insane but... if you hollow out some of the knee, there will be less fiber
buoyancy lifting it up, and make some wonderful cave areas for animals.

I look forward to seeing your progress, just be patient as trailblazers
like us need time to allow for a few mistakes before we get it right.

I decided to work with Cholla - it's cheaper and less ambitious than Cypress,
but will help me build up confidence to explore other lesser known woods for
future tank designs; http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquascaping/75178-plan-cholla-cactus-tall-grass.html


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## gBOYsc2 (Nov 26, 2010)

I am so jealous! What amazing pieces of hardscape.


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## kwc1974 (Jan 4, 2006)

spypet said:


> this idea is a bit
> insane but... if you hollow out some of the knee, there will be less fiber
> buoyancy lifting it up,


LOL, this is exactly what I am doing! I am hollowing them out using a 1 1/4" spade bit for my drill and then will back fill with metal that will be epoxied in to hold it in and to seal the metal from the water column.

The hollowing process is not that bad, but is a more time consuming factor that I did not account for.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Oh boy! Someone is doing a cypress knee tank--subscribed.

--Michael


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

kwc1974 another crazy idea if you have the tools;
once you have hollowed out as much of the knee
as you dare, take a very long narrow drill bit, and
drill a hole up the center of the knee to the top of
each tooth. this will allow any gas that accumulates
and gets trapped inside the knee cavity to escape,
and the hole will be so small out the top as to not
be noticeable at all. the bore air escape hole does
not have to be perfect to the tip, but at least to
a positive angel toward the top of the tank. it does
not matter if later the hole gets clogged with debris
and plant matter, as air will still be able to escape.

even more insanity;
say you want to take advantage of the above water tips,
and plant some immersed stuff there. using the bore holes
to the top of each knee, you could put an airline tube in
the base of a knee, pump a little air into the knee, and as
the air travels up the bore hole, it will take some water along 
with it, keeping the tip wet for your immersed plants, sort
of like how the air and water lift tube works in a box filter.
there will be no sound or water activity, but your knees
will mysteriously be wet no matter the light or humidity.

just be warned - drilling like this takes the right tools,
precision and patience, so plan well before execution.
if you know a craftsman who makes lamp bases out of
driftwood, they drill the exact same way in order to get
the electric wires thru the base up into the bulb socket.


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## Sigmar (Apr 10, 2010)

Zinc can be poisonous so beware using it. Cypress will sink (hence much desired sinker cypress for woodworker) but will take time. I'll have to get some next time I go back to Louisiana


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

OT: I just know Zinc is used to galvanize steel 
but whatever... if you search fish forums you'll
find plenty of discussion on metal leeching issues,
no need to get distracted by them here.

generally once cypress is dried out, you really can't resoak it again.
that's why cypress key-chains are used to keep dropped keys floating.
so if you can't get it wet from the swamps, you must hollow it out.


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## ScottH. (May 13, 2004)

Can't wait to see this! subscribed!


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## kc1 (Nov 2, 2010)

Not to derail but if anyone is interested in some very unique cypress knees. I have some just let me know!


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## kwc1974 (Jan 4, 2006)

As I finish backfilling the hollowed out cypress knees to weigh them down I just realize I did not photo document how I did it. Sorry

Short story, had a lot of miss match stainless bolting that was going to the scrap bin; I filled the hollowed out area with bolting, sand and gorilla glue. The sand and gorilla glue mixed better than I thought it would, the sand and glue mix helped fill in the voids between all of the bolts and nuts. All of this creating a very solid mass to counter act the Wood bouyancy. This weekend looks like the setup date, will fill you in.....this time with pics


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## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

this thread is good to be fun, looking forward to updates!


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

AWESOME!!! You're ready for me to come work right?! I've cleared my calendar for this Saturday so I can come over and help. Totally cool!


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## doubleott05 (Jul 20, 2005)

to weight your cypress down. 


take a 1" paddle a drill into your knee about 6 inches or so on the bottom side that is agains the glass. ( bottom-up.. take as many one inch wide coupling nuts ( they are big) as needed and glue them into the bottom of the knee. now you have weight in your knee and no worrying about how to anchor it just plug and play.

take a gavanized nut then you want to dip it once or twice in food safe clear finish. then put it in your knee.

thanks
Elliot

hope that helps


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## kwc1974 (Jan 4, 2006)

Update!!!!!

So Davemonkey and TheOldMan came over and after a few beers we got it done. I wish I would have gotten a pic of the before, but oh well. Keep in mind that this is my 75g that has the filtration drilled through the bottom.

layout

























the bane of reusing old amazonia









and the planting

















In tank now
Anubias nana
crypt retrosprialis
native moss yet unidentified think it might be fissidens but looks a little scruffy

Nerites and cherry shrimp

I am thinking of placing in some bolbitis and maybe some dwarf lillys or tiger lotus (letting it grow to top to duplicate water lillies)

Give me your thoughts, suggestions


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

Ooh, that turned out nice after clearing up. I think a Tiger Lotus would be great, maybe on the left side, with floating leaves. With your light it may even bloom for you. The crypts in the back bring it together really well.

So, what is that, maybe 150 rhizomes of Anubias?  It's hard to believe that's not even half of what came out of the tank!


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## Dielectric (Oct 7, 2008)

wow! very impressive. nice job guys!

that is indeed a lot of anubias. i now have anubias envy of both you & dave.


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## krisw (Jan 31, 2005)

Wow! That's a lot of Anubias! Nice job using the knees -- that's not something you see in a lot of scapes... I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.


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## Jason Baliban (Feb 21, 2005)

Cool hardscape!!

I would take 2/3rd of the anubias out, though.

Hope you dont mind, but i took some liberties

jB


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## ValorG (Dec 23, 2007)

Nice mountain looking scape.


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## kwc1974 (Jan 4, 2006)

Jason Baliban said:


> Cool hardscape!!
> 
> I would take 2/3rd of the anubias out, though.
> 
> ...


Wow, now you got me rethinking it a little more. I like what you did with it. I am going to look at this very hard. Good thing its only anubias.

Also, update on the wood itself. The native mosses that were on the knees are staring to grow back real good. One is a fissedens don't know which one yet. Will post pics of the mosses this weekend.


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## kwc1974 (Jan 4, 2006)

krisw said:


> Wow! That's a lot of Anubias! Nice job using the knees -- that's not something you see in a lot of scapes... I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.


Kris, I learned the hard way why cypress knees are not used much. It take a very hardheaded aquascapist to want to use them. Getting these things to stay sunk was overly difficult.


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## Riverboa (Jun 26, 2007)

Great looking scape, really like what you guys did with it.


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## Phil Edwards (Jan 22, 2004)

That's gorgeous!! Jason's suggestion is lovely, but I wouldn't take any of that anubias out, it gives the impression of a lush forest growing at the base of mountains. If you're looking for something to grow emersed, I've got a ton of Bolbitis that I'm going to have to dump eventually; it would look stunning on the wood.


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## Dielectric (Oct 7, 2008)

Phil Edwards said:


> That's gorgeous!! Jason's suggestion is lovely, but I wouldn't take any of that anubias out, it gives the impression of a lush forest growing at the base of mountains. If you're looking for something to grow emersed, I've got a ton of Bolbitis that I'm going to have to dump eventually; it would look stunning on the wood.


i agree with phil. its better with all the anubias.


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

kwc1974 - can you please post a clear water well lit photo,
or is the tank water still milky because it's not done cycling.


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## kwc1974 (Jan 4, 2006)

spynet - The sand I used was real siltiy and the aquasoil was left over from the thank's original layout. Working on geting it cleared up.

Phil Edwards- how much bolbitis do you have? I have some but would like to get some more.


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

Okay, so now that I know you're doing show-n-tell at the next Houston meeting, how 'bout a pic update? Did you ever get the Bolbitis in?

That's an awesome prject by the way. The cypress really turned out nice, and since it is rarely used it makes for a sure enough unique scape.


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