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I Donated 2026
TLDR: Wood buy from Belinda again
I was on the hunt for a very large piece of driftwood for my 120p. I knew I wanted something that would have branches that stuck out of the water. Everything local to me, including Aquarium Co-Op, was on the smaller side (the piece in my 75p was about the biggest they had). I didn't want to combine pieces and was really looking for a singular piece of large driftwood. I had seen some local posts on marketplace with larger pieces, but nothing really caught my attention.
@JayP had made a post about Belinda's Driftwood on Facebook and I started casually browsing her posts until I saw a piece that really spoke to me.
Belinda responded to my DMs surprisingly quick, including some back and forth to figure out if it would fit in the tank. She estimated shipping would be $100 and asked if she should remove the longer branches to save on shipping, estimating it would save roughly $30, which I declined. I started messaging her on a Wednesday morning and had tracking Friday afternoon. All in, $160 for the wood + $113* for shipping = $273. For comparison, I spent $40 on the wood for my 75p, which is a fraction of the size. While $113 for shipping seems high, it seemed reasonable to me given the size (oversized shipping) and recent USPS temporary increases due to oil prices. Not to mention, Belinda didn't charge anything for packaging, which there was no shortage of. USPS took about 2 weeks to get the wood to me, but thanks to the packaging, it arrived undamaged!
*This was shipped with retail pricing and Belinda is now using PirateShip (based on FB posts), so I'd expect shipping costs to be lower given the commercial pricing via PirateShip.
Without further ado, this thread is worthless without pics
Here's the initial screenshot she sent me since I had messaged before the piece was posted. She essentially does a photo dump of pieces that she's posting soon and I messaged her that I was interested in one.
As delivered by USPS. This thing was packaged like a tank!
Humans for scale
Unwrapping the packaging
Each individual branch was padded with support and had cardboard on it. The carboard in the top right corner of this picture was shockingly thick.
45 minutes later, I had it free
In the tank (It's almost a perfect fit as is!)
Soaking (now).
I was on the hunt for a very large piece of driftwood for my 120p. I knew I wanted something that would have branches that stuck out of the water. Everything local to me, including Aquarium Co-Op, was on the smaller side (the piece in my 75p was about the biggest they had). I didn't want to combine pieces and was really looking for a singular piece of large driftwood. I had seen some local posts on marketplace with larger pieces, but nothing really caught my attention.
@JayP had made a post about Belinda's Driftwood on Facebook and I started casually browsing her posts until I saw a piece that really spoke to me.
Belinda responded to my DMs surprisingly quick, including some back and forth to figure out if it would fit in the tank. She estimated shipping would be $100 and asked if she should remove the longer branches to save on shipping, estimating it would save roughly $30, which I declined. I started messaging her on a Wednesday morning and had tracking Friday afternoon. All in, $160 for the wood + $113* for shipping = $273. For comparison, I spent $40 on the wood for my 75p, which is a fraction of the size. While $113 for shipping seems high, it seemed reasonable to me given the size (oversized shipping) and recent USPS temporary increases due to oil prices. Not to mention, Belinda didn't charge anything for packaging, which there was no shortage of. USPS took about 2 weeks to get the wood to me, but thanks to the packaging, it arrived undamaged!
*This was shipped with retail pricing and Belinda is now using PirateShip (based on FB posts), so I'd expect shipping costs to be lower given the commercial pricing via PirateShip.
Without further ado, this thread is worthless without pics
Here's the initial screenshot she sent me since I had messaged before the piece was posted. She essentially does a photo dump of pieces that she's posting soon and I messaged her that I was interested in one.
As delivered by USPS. This thing was packaged like a tank!
Humans for scale
Unwrapping the packaging
Each individual branch was padded with support and had cardboard on it. The carboard in the top right corner of this picture was shockingly thick.
45 minutes later, I had it free
In the tank (It's almost a perfect fit as is!)
Soaking (now).
3 Replies
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625 views
I'm looking to switch ferts I have a 20g low tech and 40g high tech both currently getting a mix of apt 1 and 3. I'm wanting to switch to pps pro using the gla salts (cheaper and gets my foot in the door with the dry ferts) for both tanks, but I've seen some recommend against it for low tech, I have no issues dosing daily, actually prefer it, and if I understand correctly, its actually better for the tank as far as stable nutrient levels. My question is, can this be done? Is it really that much of an issue to go pps pro on a low tech? I really want 1 solution (i.e. macro micro mixes) for both problems (the two tanks (obviously they'll need their own amounts as for as dose size)). I'm limited to 20 gallons of clean water at a time (remineralized with apt sky plus to 6 GH since I have neos, amanos and snails) due to space constraints so I can either do weekly 25% changes on the tanks or 50% changes every other week. Any and all input is welcome. TIA 
6 Replies
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84 views
Got on the tree build kick in past 2 weeks to make somthing I like for 36g freebie build to replace the huge tree turd #2 in there. I got 6 stumps ready today to get built for smaller tanks, 3 done today 3 waiting. Built the larger 17 tall 16 wide tree pics added other day to journal but gonna a build 2-3 more larger trees and the 6 smaller. Sell the ones off on eBay and etsy I don't want.
The larger stump 2nd post pic s 16" tall 15 wide plan to use in future scapes smaller. I've been using Amazon branch packs 15.00 for 25-35 pieces and amazon spiderwood 6-8" 5 for 12.00 for small trees. The large tree I made was a 10.99 piece I tore apart and used the 3 larger branches and built onto them to get the large tree in added pics cost me in end around 22.00 .... I have 10 pieces coming in mail Friday 5 large and 5 medium all spiderwood to make larger trees with this weekend.
Bought a ton of Amazon wood on Amazon lol 2 for 17.00 10-14" so I glued some of them together for larger usable pieces. some came out cool and well worth the 17.00 for the pieces glued together.The 1 has natural plant pots on top. The v shape last 2 pics 12" deep and 16" wide
After literally glueing a finger to a rock today Imao I quit! I ended up used all the accelerator I had anyway so Friday or sat before I can finish my smaller trees. will update as it goes, It will be a forest of trees when its done.
The larger stump 2nd post pic s 16" tall 15 wide plan to use in future scapes smaller. I've been using Amazon branch packs 15.00 for 25-35 pieces and amazon spiderwood 6-8" 5 for 12.00 for small trees. The large tree I made was a 10.99 piece I tore apart and used the 3 larger branches and built onto them to get the large tree in added pics cost me in end around 22.00 .... I have 10 pieces coming in mail Friday 5 large and 5 medium all spiderwood to make larger trees with this weekend.
Bought a ton of Amazon wood on Amazon lol 2 for 17.00 10-14" so I glued some of them together for larger usable pieces. some came out cool and well worth the 17.00 for the pieces glued together.The 1 has natural plant pots on top. The v shape last 2 pics 12" deep and 16" wide
After literally glueing a finger to a rock today Imao I quit! I ended up used all the accelerator I had anyway so Friday or sat before I can finish my smaller trees. will update as it goes, It will be a forest of trees when its done.
2 Replies
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15 views
Staff member
I Donated 2026
Founding Member
Hello Welcome, Binnhim
Welcome to ScapeCrunch, @Binnhim!
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?
2 Replies
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46 views
Rockstar
I mention this plant on occasion, but no one ever comments. So I thought I'd make a post for others and me for future reference.
It is my favorite Erio. It is a darker green, doesn't get too big, and for me it has never sent up any seed stalks.
I find it easy to grow. I have high light but nothing crazy at 124PAR and high CO2, 50+ppm. It gets about max 3-4" and makes side daughter plants when large. I'm not sure my dosing scheme is. Sort of an EI daily dosing kind of thing.
What gets me is every autumn, it starts to melt. I'm not sure how it knows it's autumn with consistent light and a heater, but it must get a little cooler in the tank or something. The plant starts to turn brown and sends up (I'm not sure of the correct term) vegetative stalks with little plantlets on the ends. I've found you can plant these stalks into the substrate with the plantlet on top, and it will grow into a new plant. They've been easy to grow. This is the third year this has happened to me.
Pic of plantlets below. I'll try to get a better one sometime. All I had time for tonight was a crappy phone pic.
This year I divided one of the mother plants in hopes that it wouldn't fully melt and would regrow. That is still in progress.
Anyone else's experiences are welcome.
This plant is the same plant as the one on the right above.
It is my favorite Erio. It is a darker green, doesn't get too big, and for me it has never sent up any seed stalks.
I find it easy to grow. I have high light but nothing crazy at 124PAR and high CO2, 50+ppm. It gets about max 3-4" and makes side daughter plants when large. I'm not sure my dosing scheme is. Sort of an EI daily dosing kind of thing.
What gets me is every autumn, it starts to melt. I'm not sure how it knows it's autumn with consistent light and a heater, but it must get a little cooler in the tank or something. The plant starts to turn brown and sends up (I'm not sure of the correct term) vegetative stalks with little plantlets on the ends. I've found you can plant these stalks into the substrate with the plantlet on top, and it will grow into a new plant. They've been easy to grow. This is the third year this has happened to me.
Pic of plantlets below. I'll try to get a better one sometime. All I had time for tonight was a crappy phone pic.
This year I divided one of the mother plants in hopes that it wouldn't fully melt and would regrow. That is still in progress.
Anyone else's experiences are welcome.
This plant is the same plant as the one on the right above.
4 Replies
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86 views
Staff member
I Donated 2026
Founding Member
Hello Welcome, Poppet7B9
Welcome to ScapeCrunch, @Poppet7B9!
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?
0 Replies
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12 views
Supporting
I Donated 2026
Rockstar
When I was walking around Aquashella Chicago, I crossed paths multiple times with Logan Rando while he was filming. I was wondering if he had posted a video of the show yet so I checked out his channel. No video of Chicago yet, so I instead watched his video of New Jersey. About half way through the video, Father Fish rolls by on his scooter and announces he'll be making an announcement that will destroy the tropical fish industry. LOL! I didn't know Father Fish was actually a speaker at Aquashella. Seems funny that a guy who preaches about not giving money to the aquarium industry was invited to speak. I figured WTH, I'll bite and go to his channel to see what the big news was. I couldn't bring myself to watch the whole thing, but I did scan through it and still don't know what the big Earth shattering news was. Just the same ole preachy stuff and I regret destroying the brain cells. I have to be more careful of that, as I'm older and can't afford to lose many more. I'm sure glad my path into this hobby was seeing the work of Takashi Amano, other knowledgeable aquascapers, and all the great folks in this community.
2 Replies
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46 views
Has anyone ever kept Dwarf Neon Rainbows (Melanotaenia praecox) with goldfish?
I have 4 fancy goldfish (either Fantails, Orandas, or some sort of hybrid of the two). They are around 4–5 inches each. I also have a school of 8 Dwarf Neon Rainbows in another tank (2 males, 6 females).
The rainbows are super sensitive to CO₂. The moment I cross around 30 ppm in my planted tank, I can see them struggling, so I’m thinking of shifting them to the goldfish tank, which has no CO₂.
The goldfish tank is 300 litres (4 × 2 × 2 ft / 80 gallons), and the rainbows are around 1.5–1.75 inches.
Usually people say no to goldfish tank mates, mainly because of a mismatch in temperature or temperament. But in this case:
I have 4 fancy goldfish (either Fantails, Orandas, or some sort of hybrid of the two). They are around 4–5 inches each. I also have a school of 8 Dwarf Neon Rainbows in another tank (2 males, 6 females).
The rainbows are super sensitive to CO₂. The moment I cross around 30 ppm in my planted tank, I can see them struggling, so I’m thinking of shifting them to the goldfish tank, which has no CO₂.
The goldfish tank is 300 litres (4 × 2 × 2 ft / 80 gallons), and the rainbows are around 1.5–1.75 inches.
Usually people say no to goldfish tank mates, mainly because of a mismatch in temperature or temperament. But in this case:
- The goldies cannot possibly eat the rainbows at their current size.
- The rainbows don’t fin nip, or at least I’ve never seen them do it.
- The water parameters in both tanks are quite similar.
- Goldfish tank: GH 6, KH 2
- Current rainbow tank: GH 4, KH 0
- Temperature is pretty much the same in both tanks: 24–25°C (74–77°F).
4 Replies
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87 views
Staff member
I Donated 2026
Founding Member
This month's theme is: plant, hardscape and fish
This one is going to be tough but I hope some of you take up the challenge. Take a picture that captures a plant, some hardscape and at least one fish in the same picture.
Be as artistic and creative as you like.
The rules:
A $25 store credit from BurrAqua thanks to @Burr740!
This one is going to be tough but I hope some of you take up the challenge. Take a picture that captures a plant, some hardscape and at least one fish in the same picture.
Be as artistic and creative as you like.
The rules:
- Submissions are allowed between October 7 and October 23.
- Voting will start on October 23 at 12:01 am Eastern time.
- Voting will end on October 31 at 11:30 pm Eastern time.
A $25 store credit from BurrAqua thanks to @Burr740!
0 Replies
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34 views
This was in my Google news feed today. I thought it interesting as to the how and why of Aqua Soil.
share.google
What Is Aquasoil, and Why Does It Come from Japan?
Volcanic soil, bonsai, rice paddies, and a 1995 patent: what aquasoil is, why it started in Japan, and why not all black granules are the same.
share.google
1 Replies
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61 views
Staff member
I Donated 2026
Founding Member
If you would prefer not to see the daily login counter under a member's name or in the navigation bar, you can now choose to not show it. Simply go to your preferences section: https://scapecrunch.com/account/preferences. Scroll down to Content options and uncheck the two appropriate lines.
Thanks to @Pepere for bringing this to our attention.
Thanks to @Pepere for bringing this to our attention.
0 Replies
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39 views