# saintly's 120 'hills of desire'



## saintly (Mar 22, 2009)

it's been a while sinece i've posted a journal here, so here's my latest scape.

similar to my LFS tank but with a twist or 2

the tank will reside in the far corner.










i did think about putting in the kitchen, but my boy looked at me strange.










so it ended up here.










this was 90% complete. a few alterations took place.










and on to the planting.










moss,










here's an image of that very same moss.




























directly after filling.










2 days in, and the grass is growing nicely.










4 days in....










this tank is nearly 1 week old, and here's how it looks as of tonight.










updates soon. many thanks folks 

mark


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## Viwwo (Oct 30, 2009)

Wow!!!!!! 
I don't know where to start!
Cute kids! Nice kitchen! love the wallpaper!!!!! I really feel that what is around the aquarium is as important as the aquarium itself. If he home looks like crap then the aquarium loses its beauty.
But love love the stones. Where did you get them from? I have been looking for some just like that. 
Just because you have a good eye I really like the tank more with out the plants. But plants are important. lol.


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## A.Dror (Jan 25, 2009)

Very COOL!very impressive!!Love it....



I'm interested to know how did you build the substrate (ADA products?)lighting?fertilization?

It makes me jealous when i see such a good start as this..:yell:




Dror.


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## oheresy (Feb 10, 2009)

Very nice setup. Wish mine looked 1/8 as good as yours.


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## AquaLTU (Nov 17, 2009)

yap very nice , maybe you can make a few pictures from up close?


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## jeremy1 (May 6, 2007)

Very nice. I can't wait to see this tank progress. Can you tell us more about the equipment you are using and dosing plans? Also, what fish do you plan on using?

Sincerely,
Jeremy


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## MiKlo (Jun 20, 2008)

Very nice setup! would like to see a closer full tank shot.


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## GmoAndres (Oct 18, 2004)

Hi!
looks phenomenal, the hardscape is great!
"Saludos" from Chile


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## saintly (Mar 22, 2009)

many, many thanks to everyone for the kind words.

here's a few details.

120x 45 x 45

1 x 150MH with ADA NAMH

oliver knott substrate.

2 x eheim filters.

1 x korolia power head

ADA seryio stone, sand from garden centre and pebbles too.

2 x co2 systems on solenoids.

ferts are EI.

here's a shot showing the rotala wallichii. This of course will change to immersed form










and a couple of pearling rotala....


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## A.Dror (Jan 25, 2009)

Beautiful saintly...specially that one

It looks very professional  with those little brown pebbles










Is that oliver knott substrate has any benefit on the others in the market like ADA for example??

Dror.


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## CrimsonTsavo (Nov 18, 2009)

Beautiful tank and wonderful macros!


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## saintly (Mar 22, 2009)

thanks crimson.

things are doing real good in the tank. ive added some shrimp ottos and a few tetras.

here's a few more images.



















my aunty looking into another world...










a couple of closer shots...


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

It looks great! How often do you trim the moss to keep it in place?


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## theblondskeleton (Nov 22, 2008)

Saintly, your sense of perspective and scale is phenomenal. Thank you for sharing!


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

It's just beautiful! I love the rock work! Did you enter it in the TOTY contest?


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## A.Dror (Jan 25, 2009)

Thanks Saintly


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## saintly (Mar 22, 2009)

davemonkey said:


> It looks great! How often do you trim the moss to keep it in place?


well the set up is only 2 weeks old tomorrow. so i've not touched it yet. it's starting to spead out now though.

TEX GAL-thanks very much  whats TOTY?

theblondskeleton- again thanks you. 

A.Dror- thanks for the advice. i've duly entered.

here's an image from today. 13 days.










in a few days i'll be trimming.

here's an otto...










and my trusty old shrimp.


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## Vadimshevchuk (Jul 5, 2009)

TOTY= tank of the year. Great tank. You made it looks so nice, it just makes the whole room look nicer as well.


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## Bunbuku (Feb 10, 2008)

Stunning! I like how something new appears when the viewing angle is changed. I also like the way you "imprisoned" the hairgrass to keep it under control in a way that looks natural.


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## greenfinger (Sep 8, 2009)

Very nicely done. Love your hardscape. Once your Anubias and stems grow out more, it would be perfect. :hippie:

Great photography skills. Care to share some specs please?


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## saintly (Mar 22, 2009)

Thanks everyone.

A few things to report.

26 amano shrimp added, 2 x SAE's

i did have a little thread? algae but co2 injection rates sorted that out.

The sand is spotless thanks to the shrimp constantly eating.

all the plants are doing great. Moss is becoming adventurous and the anubias is producing 2 or 3 leaves a week.

The stems have been trimmed once sine start up.



















Image wise, i use a 5D. some shots are using tank lights, and sometimes i use my bowens 2 x 200w flash heads,, directed into the tank. no softbox.


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## saintly (Mar 22, 2009)

This tank, in its current state, isn't right.

A few minor errors regards to plant placement, and lack of plants. I thought I'd share the plan with you.

the first picture is how it is now. The 'wrong' bits stand out. mainly on the left side. The right side is just about correct.










The second picture shows roughly, how I want to eventually trim the stems in the back.

The cross over the Riccia, well obviously, it has to go. It will be replaced by moss.

The dots are to show where additional Anubias will go. I under ordered with this. plus I lost one.










the third is rough edit.










over all, these I feel are minor alterations< but more annoyingly things I should of realised from the start (I hate going back into a tank) When I started adding Riccia,on the day of planting, the little voice in my head did say....."no, don't do it you pratt!"


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## saintly (Mar 22, 2009)

So, a few more images. I've been playing around with my blue back ground.



















The stems still need several rounds of trimming before they really get bushy.

many thanks for looking.


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## saintly (Mar 22, 2009)

This must be bad [smilie=l:

ok, the last image for a while i think. don't want to bore you all.

here's one of the cherry shrimp.

[IMG]http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz49/plantedbox/cherry.jpg[/IMG]


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## AquaLTU (Nov 17, 2009)

nice shrimp  true colors


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## saintly (Mar 22, 2009)

thanks aqua.

here's a little picture update.


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## AquaLTU (Nov 17, 2009)

ohh to grow fast  
immediately cutting the time :whoo:


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## JapanBlue (Mar 12, 2009)

Hey,

I like your tank!

Which cam do you use? External flashlight? 

great pictures!

Regards Tim


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## saintly (Mar 22, 2009)

Hi Aqua, yes my tanks always grow quickly, it's the way i like it. 

Thanks japanblue. with regards to my Camera equipment, 99% of the images you see from me are taken with a canon 5d, but recently (2 days) i've upgraded to a canon 5D mk2

I've also swapped to canon DPP RAW editing software. it's 100% better than my old premium RAW shooter.

lighting wise, some shots are taken using just tank lighting, for convenience. but the shot's which appear more 'finalised' use 2 x 200w bowens flash units.

after using the new camera and DPP for just a few days, i can see marked improvments in my images already.

the following is with the 5Dmk2 and 1 x bowens head. (not aquatic shot sorry)










this is a macro of JAVA moss....


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## JapanBlue (Mar 12, 2009)

Thanks for the info!

Looking forward to see the tank fill in!!!


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Your tank really looks nice. I like the blue background. How fun. I can't imagine switching out my backgrounds. It's hard enough to get them on well when the tank is empty, much less, when it's mature. Mine are mostly up against the walls.


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## saintly (Mar 22, 2009)

hi tex gal, it's not too much of hassle. i've still got pegs on the back so switching is a 2 minute job.

This will be last tank i do away from home. Even though it's just down the road, i cant up keep it how I'd like to. when i have tanks at home, I look after it like it were a baby....i just cant do that at the mo and it sickens me.

The next scape will be in this, but at my house with 2 x 150 MH not T5 units :twisted:

here's out it's looking at he moment.










and a shot of a SAE. i placed a shrimp pellet to attract him.


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## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

Another beautiful tank! Every den/living room should have one.

It is alot of work to maintain a stem tank even in one's home but to do it away on a 4ft tank and have it look perfect is probably not realistic. Good think the foreground was low maintainance.

I might have missed something but you said you would redo with MH lighting not T5. Do you mean only MH or combo? What was the main difference for you?


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## saintly (Mar 22, 2009)

Thanks HouseOfCards.

with regards to lighting, I prefer MH. A MH suspended high, gives the wonderful ripple effect that we know about, but plant growth is much better IMO. I mean much more compact growth of stems etc. especialy HC and HM....pure light lovers IME. 

of course these plants will grow in many lighting situations, but to get the best from them bang a MH over them 

I've used a 150 MH over a 60cm tank and the difference was amazing. After this tank is finished, I'll be using MH all the time on anything bigger than 60cm.


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