# An English Garden



## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

Hi Guys

Thought i would introduce myself..names Elliott and im 17 and come from North London in England..for years i have successfully kept Reef tanks but after studying Amanos incredible work with plants and fishes ive decided to make the switch..im also very interested in art of all types..thats what im studying at college along with design

This is my first ever planted tank and heres my equipment spec..

60cm x 30cm x 30cm

Fluval internal filter
Hydor Pressurised Co2 System
Twin 24 watt Arcadia T5 luminaire (Plant Pro Lamps)
Nighttime Moonlights

Ferts

ADA BrightyK
ADA Green Brighty Step 1
ADA Green Brighty Special lights

Substrate JBL Florapol topped off with black quartz gravel

Cheers To Aqua Essential for supplying ferts  

Plants i plan to use

Riccia Fluitans
Micranthemum Umbrossum
Hair grass
Hygrophillia Rosavernis (might swap for Rotala once tank establishes itself
Lotus Lily

Planned Fishlist

Rummynose Tetras x12
Ottocinclus Cocama x5

I will now show u my planned Aquascape..i have plants arriving Friday so planting will take place then 

If you have any ideas to improve the scape let me know..i would rather know if it looks rubbish before spending hours setting it up!

Thanks

Elliott


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## Jubs (Mar 24, 2006)

Welcome to APC Elliott. Sounds like you have your equipment in order, looking forward to seeing what becomes of your plans.


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## nswhite (Aug 25, 2006)

Ya good luck.


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## Lauren (Mar 18, 2006)

welcome! My only suggestion for your scape would be that it is too semestrical. Somewhere on this forum there is a tutorial explaining focal points. I'll try to find that.


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## Lauren (Mar 18, 2006)

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...opic-golden-ratio.html?highlight=golden+ratio

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...ee-basic-layouts.html?highlight=basic+layouts

I hope these help.


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## Afroturf (Apr 15, 2004)

Welcome, good to see another Brit on APC your plan looks great and your equiptmant/fert look good to make sure you don't overdose the ferts at the start as i takes some plants a little while to adjust to a new tank, look forward to it progression. Good luck.


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

Cheers Guys!!!

Yeah the scape needs some work..i'll show you how the scape looks so far later..ive been working on it all afternoon! ..feedback will be much appreciated good or bad..being an art student im used to criticism 

So you rekon i should maybe start with half the recommended dose on the ferts then build up to a higher dose over a few weeks??? i don't wanna induce algae into my nice new clean tank lol

Pics to follow later..the water needs to clear abit first!

Thanks

Elliott


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## Afroturf (Apr 15, 2004)

Yeah i half should be ok, then build it up over the next few weeks.


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

Nice choice of stuff. The only thing I might say from your sketch is that the Lily might be best in front of the stem plant as that will form an ace backdrop for it.

Can't wait to see pictures.


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

OK..initial hardscape..please excuse the mess


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

Waters clearing and the foreground is reaching completion..Dwarf Hairgrass,Ricca Fluitans and Weeping Xmas Moss is planted!!!..aquascape isn't looking much yet but i think you will get the feel of my English Garden Design as my other plants are added as these will highlight my centre piece which is a lawn of hairgrass and the other plants will represent the borders..just like your walking into a country garden..well i hope atleast


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

Afroturf..just looked through your tank pics..the 24 gallon looks awesome..i have to ask where the hell did you manage to get Downoi from in the UK i would kill for some lol..i though it was un-obtainable in the UK!

Thanks

Elliott


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## Lauren (Mar 18, 2006)

I'm liking it! Looks a lot better in person than it did on the sketch. Keep it up.


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

UPDATE:Water has now cleared!!!


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

Come tomorrow the final plants will be added to create the finished picture..the other two plants to go in will be tall hairgrass and Hygrophillia Rosavernis or maybe Rotala Indica if i can get it

The weekend i will probably put in a couple of Ottos from my other tank,these should keep any diatoms at bay!

Next week i start light fert dosing to get the plants off to a good start..i will use 1ml of BrightyK and 2 drops of jbl ferropol 24 daily..then increase this weekly till im upto 4 drops of ferropol and 3 ml of brightyk after 3 weeks i will start dosing step 1 and special lights 

How does that sound???

Thanks

Elliott


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## Afroturf (Apr 15, 2004)

Looks good so far i agree with Ed that the lily would look better infront of the Hygro. I got most of the plants including the Downoi from Aqua Essentials a great place to get your planted tanks things.


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

Yeah Aqua Essentials rock i got all my ferts from them..Richard is very helpful too..top company i got my products the day after i ordered them!

Unfortunatly they are out of stock of Downoi,its a very hard plant to find..thats why i was so shocked when i saw it in your tank!

I might add another piece of bogwood to the tank to make my scape a little less symetrical!..yeah im gonna take the advice about the lilly..it will definatly look better infront of the stem plants..it will make a stunning contrast.

One more thing i need to ask..around the piece of bogwood on the right im going to surround it with tall hairgrass as per my pic..do you think i should keep the tall grass around the wood only or would u place it along the whole back of the tank????

Thanks

Elliott


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Good start Elliot. But if it were me, I'd clean the algae off the glass before doing anything else.


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

Great start Elliot,
Love that piece of wood on the right, very nice.  

I'd ask Richard when he's likely to have some more in and maybe he'll even order some with his next Tropica order for you! He's brilliant with stuff like that.


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## Afroturf (Apr 15, 2004)

I'd stick to how it is on your plan but thats just personal preference, sure other people will think differently, also unless its a small piece of bogwood i would leave out the extra piece as this could cause the bogwood to take over the whole scape.

Like Ed said Richard will more than likely have some more Downoi when his next lot of plants come in.


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

Looks like i may have sourced some Downoi 

Is it very hard to grow??? some people describe it as very hard to keep! i would like to know how tricky it is before i place an order because its expensive stuff!

Im considering replacing the Hygro rosavernig With Rotala Rotunifolia....can't make my mind up yet..is there any other good background plants that would complement my design you could recommend???

Cheers

Elliott


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## gf225 (Mar 26, 2005)

Hi Elliott,

Great to see another UK member on here.

You should consider PFK for some decent aquascaping articles...... 

Check out the Tropica website for demands of most aquarium plants, including downoi (Pogostemon helferi).


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## bioch (Apr 8, 2006)

Reefs are lame.


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

Hi George

Your PFK articles are great..infact it was one of your tanks that inspired to switch from Reefs to Plants...You have created some stunning tanks


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

Hey Guys

Got a slight problem..got a very small amount of BGA appearing on my hairgrass..i rekon its prolly caused by my absence of stem plants i have placed an order for some stem plants though (Needle leaf ludwigia,Eustrallis Stellata and Rotala Indica and they'll be with me next week)

In the meantime im considering my options....

Do a 4 day blackout don't really wanna do this as i don't wanna kill my riccia and hairgrass..

Start Dosing ADA brighty special lights that is rich in macro nutrients..Amano doesn't recommend dosing this till after a year..god know how all his tanks are algae free with no macros for a year 

Increase water flow..but then i'll prolly pay by losing co2

Increase Co2

What do you think

Elliott


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

Any ideas what i should do???


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

To get rid of the BGA that appeared in my tank, I upped the circulation, syphoned off as much dirt and algae as possible and added some carbon in the filter. This seemed to help and over the course of a couple of weeks it did the job.

I also added pressurised CO2 later.

As long as you keep the filter outlet low you should be able to up the flow without gassing off too much CO2.


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

Cheers Ed

My tank is already looking better since ive upped the flow..ive added a very small amount of phosphate remover to..cos ive heard you don't want to much of this in a new tank with no stem plants to suck it up..i'll let u know how i get on

Thanks

Elliott


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## brennewoman (Feb 6, 2007)

A bit hard to see as yet. Has it cleared out any yet? Would like to see how it's progressing. And are you going to use any ruined wall or old statuary looking items in there? Every english garden I've seen has something whimsical like that. hmm....Aquarium gnomes? *lol*


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

Yeah i might do something like that..could do with something that'll give it quite a unique feel.. 

I'll do a picture update the weekend...hopefully things will look abit better by then 

Thanks

Elliott


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## gf225 (Mar 26, 2005)

elliott89 said:


> Hi George
> 
> Your PFK articles are great..infact it was one of your tanks that inspired to switch from Reefs to Plants...You have created some stunning tanks


Thanks for the feedback.

My tanks are ok, there's so much still to learn though....

I'd like to try reef one day but all that purple algae scares me. 

How's the BGA?

I look forward to updates.


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

BGA looks like its faded abit..next week im gonna chuck in aload of stem plants and start dosing brighty special lights daily

Thanks

Elliott


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

Pictorial update


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

hope this works


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## elliott89 (Jan 21, 2007)

Update

Tank is progressing as planned except for some thread algae which i guess is due to some sort of nutrient imbalance..i will be switching from ADA to Seachem ferts next week and i will begin EI dosing to help solve the problem

Here is a pic from today

Feedback is always appreciated 

Thanks

Elliott


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## bristles (Mar 7, 2006)

I think it looks better grown in a bit. Nice thread please keep updated.


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## fishtastico (Feb 28, 2007)

very interesting thread.

elliot your tank is coming along nicely.

I am in the planning stages of my aquascape and I too was thinking of an English garden. I remember this English-style garden I saw in California (on the Pacific coast). The garden, next to a bed & breakfast, was maybe 400 meters (1/2 of a mile) from the ocean. Everything was awash in this pale green hue of the mist and fog from the ocean, the flowers were orange, red, and yellow and there were tall cypress tress in the distance.

In planning out my aquascape I am hoping to capture the spirit of this garden.

I hope to see more photos of your tank as it comes along.


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