# Another college student's 75 gal Journal



## ValorG (Dec 23, 2007)

These were my initial placements of the manzanita wood. No good....at all, I'm trying to go for the very branchy/rooty look which has been very popular recently.


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## ValorG (Dec 23, 2007)

This is the finalized woodwork.... much better than the previous design. Hope you guys like it too  Now to take it apart and put moss on it -_-***** T_T


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I like these much better than the first one. I think they will be more visible once the plants grow in. Good job!


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## ValorG (Dec 23, 2007)

Well I was afraid that I would not be able to recreate how the driftwood was arranged if I took everything apart at once. Woot... idea take out 1 piece of wood and put moss on it then put it back exactly where it was and move on to the next piece.

All the wood is just shoved into the gravel so getting some of the pieces to stand and stay standing without me touching them was a hard task to do :*<. These are large pieces of wood.

Oh the plants used on the driftwood so far is willow moss, christmass moss, mini pellia and java fern. That took a few hours... >_< what tiring work. I'll upload the pics of the tank planted a day or 2 or whenever I'm bored. Keep checking in. =DDD


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## ValorG (Dec 23, 2007)

Tex Gal said:


> I like these much better than the first one. I think they will be more visible once the plants grow in. Good job!


Well I plan on only having foreground plants in and around the woodwork with islands of stem plants on the right and left side... which ill try to blend all together so its not such a sudden change to the eyes.

Basically hc in the front-middle of the wood and dwarf hairgrass in the mid-back of the woodwork. I don't plan on hiding the wood since its so beautiful. Id like to accentuate it if I could.


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## Squawkbert (Jan 3, 2007)

If there's any room behind the wood, I'd scoot the entire thing back in the tank, trying to leave a bit of space between wood & front glass. Doing this will add a lot of depth. If plants grow in on the wood and it remains so close to the front, the whole thing may look either cramped or 2 dimensional.

Beyond this concern, it looks very nice - should look very good when filled in.


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## GlitcH (Aug 21, 2006)

Squawkbert said:


> If there's any room behind the wood, I'd scoot the entire thing back in the tank, trying to leave a bit of space between wood & front glass. Doing this will add a lot of depth. If plants grow in on the wood and it remains so close to the front, the whole thing may look either cramped or 2 dimensional.
> 
> Beyond this concern, it looks very nice - should look very good when filled in.


I couldn't agree more, not only for esthetics, but to make sure the driftwood isn't in the way of cleaning the glass. I don't know what you use but I use a mag float and those are pretty thick. Looks like something like that would hit a couple of those branches.

But I really like the way you've arranged the driftwood.
How many pieces do you have there? 
I'm lookin forward to see this tank progress.


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## thwack (Sep 22, 2006)

Hi ValorG, 

nice wood you have. 

I personally think it would be nicer if you place your wood at both side of your tank.

Hope to see more update.

Regards.


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## ValorG (Dec 23, 2007)

Hmm.. thanks for the comments and nice words everyone, about the moving the wood back, I really cant move it back anymore as the back pieces are half an inch or an inch from the back wall. 

Excluding the 2 front pieces laying on the gravel, the rest of the wood is like 4 inches away from the front glass, just took a look . Should be good enough right?


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## ValorG (Dec 23, 2007)

I know what you mean, but Ive seen a lot of tanks with these islands and wanted something different. I really just wanted 1 area for the wood. Also knowing me.... if I did plan on two islands of wood, id make them both so big that there wouldn't be much room for plants in the middle or the sides -_-... I also wouldn't be happy with 2 sparse looking woodscapes. 



thwack said:


> Hi ValorG,
> 
> nice wood you have.
> 
> ...


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## ValorG (Dec 23, 2007)

So heres how it looks so far planted, no foreground plant yet but it'll get there. See those bubbles? hehe had to take a pic of that. Comments and criticisms always welcome.


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## GlitcH (Aug 21, 2006)

Looks good.

Let the growth begin!


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## Freerider (Nov 8, 2006)

I hope you live at home because I cant believe that you would haul such a large tank to school, dress it up with such a nice aquascape only to tear it down again. Say it aint so.

It looks great IMO, and should fill in nicely.


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## ValorG (Dec 23, 2007)

Freerider said:


> I hope you live at home because I cant believe that you would haul such a large tank to school, dress it up with such a nice aquascape only to tear it down again. Say it aint so.
> 
> It looks great IMO, and should fill in nicely.


lol let me quell your worries and say that I do live at home.  If I did dorm, the biggest tank I would scape is a 20 gal.


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

i love the scape but there are just a few things i would do and they are small:
take the red plant(name escapes me) spred it out more just so the light gets down to all the leaves and for good growth. also the crypt i would move to the other side of the wood cluster. other then that really nice were fish discussed? if not what kind?


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## jasonc (May 2, 2008)

IMO, planting the red plant behind DW, and spread it wider. Later the red plant will be the main focus point for the whole tank. Get some mid ground plants to cover the ugly part of the background plants' base.


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## jasonc (May 2, 2008)

Your DW really nice.....got it from river bank or bought it?


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## ValorG (Dec 23, 2007)

bratyboy2 said:


> i love the scape but there are just a few things i would do and they are small:
> take the red plant(name escapes me) spred it out more just so the light gets down to all the leaves and for good growth. also the crypt i would move to the other side of the wood cluster. other then that really nice were fish discussed? if not what kind?


Thanks for the suggestion, I will move the red plant apart, I have been wanted to seperate them too anyway because I wanted a bigger grouping out of them.

The crypt has been removed because I figured out I don't like most plants that does not attach to driftwood or is not a stem plant 

As for fish I wanted to have 2 groups of small schooling fish, like rummy noses and cardinals. If you guys have other species of schooling fish that look good together, please recommend them. :bathbaby:


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## ValorG (Dec 23, 2007)

jasonc said:


> Your DW really nice.....got it from river bank or bought it?


Hehe I bought it at manzanita.com, got the 100 dollar large package and had to cut a lot of the wood to make them fit, I have only used up like a quarter of the wood given to me. eh... go figure :sing:


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

i love the diamond tetras!!! thats mine and the bleeding heart.


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## ValorG (Dec 23, 2007)

hmm... ur suggestion of the diamond tetra reminded me of congo tetras which I always thought were beautiful. Thanks ;p Just hope they will get along with smaller fish like neons. http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/characins/images/CongoTetraWFCh_Ap4AAf1.jpg


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

oh yes they will get along just fine. what about some german rams and maybe some dwarf gouramis? the tanks is just so nice and bright and interesting i love what the vision is coming to be so far!!


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