Journal 60p Attempt at an intentional hardscaping

[SmartAlec13]

(I hope this is acceptable as the start of a journal, new here).

Greetings, I’m Alec and this will be my third aquascape. I plan on rescaping my 60p (current scape pic below). The first time I did it, I sort of winged it in the moment. The second time, I came in with a design but it wasn’t strong enough and slowly was buried by aquasoil and plants.

So this time I’m coming in with those learnings and trying to design with intention.

Second pic below is my potential new hardscaping.

I have never done an island composition, and usually I am not a fan of them visually. But while messing around with my rocks I found this tower layout impressive.

My idea is to have the right side be a lower sandy area with some smaller rocks (not shown in pic) along with my big ass Anubias and the various crypts as well. Floaters would be above this area.

Front middle and left would be the Monte Carlo carpet, along with some Ludwigia or other stems tucked along the rocks to become bushes.

Tucked into the cracks of the rocks would be Monte Carlo & Java moss to accent it, along with my Hygrophilia.

Back-left would be stem-city. Big Rotala area with some Bacopa and Ludwigia in front of it, especially towards the center.

The middle area surrounding the top tower rock itself would be Cardamine Lyrata, as it grows naturally well in vertical bushes.

Focal point to the right of the top of the tower stone would be Ludwigia Diamond, which gets decently red.





Looking for potential feedback from those with more experience! Some of my concerns:

1. My Anubias are massive, at least for the small. I’m mostly saving them for my fiancés betta tank we hope to setup later this year. I’m a bit worried they won’t fit well into the right side area.
2. The tower is very central, which is the point of island compositions, but I worry my plants might detract from the island look, especially with my plans for the left side.
3. A commenter on my Reddit thread suggested I remove the left side “slope cliff”, instead do another smaller tower there with a sand path. Thoughts?

Thank you for reading. I will probably update this journal with other composition ideas & tweaks as I go, and of course progress pics once I actually rescape it.

 

[Count Krunk]

Hey, did you make any more progress?

 

[SmartAlec13]

Hey, did you make any more progress?

Ah no not yet, I've been putting my time into setting up a second tank, my fiance's betta tank.

This one is next though! I am working up the courage to do the rescape, since it will be a big undertaking.

 

[SmartAlec13]

Questions for those who come across this....

I am debating between two methods for housing my fish & shrimp during the rescape.

1. 20gal Aqueon tank, with a mix of old tank water and RO water (remineralized obviously), sitting on the counter or on the floor.
2. 9.3gal (45U UNS) currently going tank.

Next to my 60p is my 45U, which is now vacant of creatures besides some snails and a few shrimp. I originally was going to use my old empty Aqueon, either on the floor or counter, and house the fish and shrimp in there while I rescape the 60p. But I realize I could just put them into the 45U instead, since that tank is already going.

I know the answer is probably yes, but I am guessing I would need to have the fish and shrimp acclimate to the temperature and water parameters, correct? I am also guessing I would want to use my 60P filter in the 45U in order to keep the bacteria alive and to handle the temporarily-increased load of creatures?

EDIT: Thinking it through, I probably won't put them in the 45U, or maybe only the honey gourami. I would need to half tear-down the tank in order to find all the shrimp and pygmy corys if I put them in there, since its got a lot of hidden areas within the rocks and anubias.

 

[Koan]

20gal Aqueon tank, with a mix of old tank water and RO water (remineralized obviously)

Or just drain the rescape tank into the 20 so the water is the same

Otherwise you'll want to match the GH and KH exactly to the old tank, for the sake of your shrimps and either seed a small filter with media from the old tank or use the existing filter.

You can transfer the fish relatively quickly, but yes you'd need to net the shrimp into a separate container of a little old tank water, drip acclimate them to the new water over 3 - 4 hours before putting them into the 20, just as if you were just getting them from the store.

This is because if you change the water, even though the GH and are the same the TDS will not be and you don't want to shock your shrimps into either early molts or killing them

In either case make sure to temperature match to the tank before you transfer them

sitting on the counter or on the floor

One vote for the counter, last thing you want is accidentally put your boot through it

 

[SmartAlec13]

Or just drain the rescape tank into the 20 so the water is the same

Otherwise you'll want to match the GH and KH exactly to the old tank, for the sake of your shrimps and either seed a small filter with media from the old tank or use the existing filter.

You can transfer the fish relatively quickly, but yes you'd need to net the shrimp into a separate container of a little old tank water, drip acclimate them to the new water over 3 - 4 hours before putting them into the 20, just as if you were just getting them from the store.

This is because if you change the water, even though the GH and are the same the TDS will not be and you don't want to shock your shrimps into either early molts or killing them

In either case make sure to temperature match to the tank before you transfer them




One vote for the counter, last thing you want is accidentally put your boot through it

Thank you for the guidance. I'll probably go with the counter instead of the floor lol, just a bit more of a walk from the current tank.

With the shrimp, I am guessing if I use entirely old-tank-water, I would not need to drip acclimate since it is the same water?

Either way I'll be using the current filter, so the temp would be consistent enough I hope (Oase, so it contains the heater). I'm glad this plan is coming together versus the stressful buckets I had originally planned on.

 

[SmartAlec13]

Alright so I have been reading some of the other threads and I think I have hit another snag in my plan.

Original plan is to move the current fish & shrimp to a temporary holding tank while I do the rescape, then that evening, move the fish and shrimp to the new setup. New tank ammonia to be offset by using some old substrate material, almost all plants from the previous scape, and using the current mature filter I have going. I was also going to do large water changes every other day.

However reading the info about APT Feast, which I plan on using for the new setup (along with a bit of my current UNS contrasoil+Ecocomplete gravel), it seems like it is going to be much stronger and higher in ammonia than this plan would allow; as in, it sounds like it would be bad/risky for me to move the shrimp & fish in the same day as the rescape.

Is my original plan fine, or would I need to keep the fish & shrimp in the temporary holding tank for weeks until the new setup is fully cycled up? I mean I know things need to be fully cycled, but I was hoping using my current filter and some old substrate would be enough to offset it.

 

[Koan]

would I need to keep the fish & shrimp in the temporary holding tank for weeks until the new setup is fully cycled

The ammonia will kill off your shrimp better to set up the second tank substrate as a dark start, until the ammonia is done

Should I bother cycling a planted tank before planting? Introducing the dark start.

Do I need to cycle an aquasoil planted tank? Can I do fish-less cycling with plants? How do I cycle a tank with starter bacteria cultures like quickstart? This article discusses how to cycle an aquasoil planted tank, "old" method vs fish-less cycling, using starter bacteria and how to know if...

www.2hraquarist.com

 

[SmartAlec13]

The ammonia will kill off your shrimp better to set up the second tank substrate as a dark start, until the ammonia is done

Should I bother cycling a planted tank before planting? Introducing the dark start.

Do I need to cycle an aquasoil planted tank? Can I do fish-less cycling with plants? How do I cycle a tank with starter bacteria cultures like quickstart? This article discusses how to cycle an aquasoil planted tank, "old" method vs fish-less cycling, using starter bacteria and how to know if...

www.2hraquarist.com

Unfortunate part is the new setup IS the current setup. So it does sound like I will need to use the temporary holding tank for a few weeks before the new setup is ready.

New issue then is a lack of filters.
Current:
60p - Oase 250 mature (fish, shrimp, etc)
45u - Oase 100 nearly cycled (no inhabitants besides snails)
20gal - no filter (technically I have an old sponge filter I didn't end up using)

Rescaping & Cycling:
60p - new rescape, cycling - ???
45u - empty - Oase 100 as before
20gal - fish & shrimp temp holding bay - ????

My issue is which filter to use for the new cycling tank, and which to use during the temporary holding period. Would it be better to have the Oase250 in the holding bay to keep up with the fish and shrimp temporarily living there, or would it be better to have that in the newly cycling 60p to aid in speeding up the cycling process? I guess I could swap the Oase100 to the 60p-new or the 20gal-temporary and just toss the sponge filter in the 45U since nothing is in there anyway. Though that might mess things up with the plants in the 45U (especially since my heaters are my filters, so the 45U would be without heat)...

I COULD put the shrimp & fish in the 45U, however it is smaller, so it would definitely be cramped and stressful for the 3 honey gouramis (the pygmys and shrimp would love it lol). Plus, getting them out and into the new setup once cycled would probably mean taking down some of the hardscape and taking out the anubias, since they create way too many places to hide that can't be reached by nets.