Journal Forest Jewell

[*Ci*]

I have not really delved into any kind of planned aquascapes, all of my tanks have evolved (or you might say - devolved) into chaotic jungles. Recently, though, I was inspired by a forest aquascape by Nigel Hoevenaar, which he detailed in this thread:

Nigel's Forest scape 34gal | The Planted Tank Forum



It looked like something I could have fun learning with by trying to reproduce the scene in my vintage nano tank, using local woods and plants I could scavenge from my other aquariums. I know that might not sound very creative, and that forest dioramas are somewhat ubiquitous and disliked by some, but there you go … one has to start somewhere : )
Some other inspirational layouts pulled off the internet:







My tank measures 16”x8”x9”h (about 4 gal.) Right now the tank houses a betta, some java fern, guppy grass and a few houseplants growing out the top, no filtration, an in-tank heater, and relies on a tiny led desk lamp and sunshine from the window for lighting. It has a transparent textured yellow glass background, which creates a beautiful effect in the afternoons when the sun strikes the west window.



The plan is to add a thermo filter with nano stainless lilypipes, a better light bar and a co2 system. I may or may not leave the betta in there (he would certainly not fit the scale of the scape!)

 

[*Ci*]

First thing I did was scrounge around the wooded areas nearby for some twisty arbutus branches common in my corner of the PacNW. I quickly found that the bark on older dried pieces was extremely hard to remove, and though the wood had character, the trees do not really produce the fine twigging I needed for nano roots.

Instead, I found enough decent manzanita sticks at my local lfs (notoriously poor selection) to fulfill the vision, along with chunks of black lava rock.



I built a cardboard box layout box the size of my tank, and used a tray of sand to, sort of, position the sticks. They kept falling over anyway, and it’s difficult to layout rocks and upright sticks in any kind of permanent fashion. I quickly realized I would just have to jump in and start glueing.

I’m using the paper towel and CA glue method learned from online videos. You tuck in pieces of tissue, cigarette filters or cotton wadding between the uneven surfaces of rocks and wood, saturate it with thin CA and it forms a tight and secure bond. I had some mica pigment powders in browns from another hobby, which I sprinkled around the glues areas to hide the whiteness of the paper.

A potential final layout:



The glued up clusters of rock and stone are soaking in a tub for now, while I work on some other aspects of the build. This is where I am at right now. Thanks for following!

 

[*Ci*]

I want as little equipment in this nano tank as possible, so I chose a small canister for filtration, the Oase Filtosmart 60, along with SS 9mm lily pipes.





I came across a retrofit hack to add a heater to this unit - most of the other Oase models have incorporated heaters, and this filter comes with the same size port, but there is no Oase heater that will fit the depth of the canister. You can get the proper cap from their Filtosmart 100 model and use this particular brand of heater that has the exact diameter to fit the cap and the right length for the canister body:



As I mentioned, I may want to keep the betta in this tank, and he is used to 75F, but even if I don’t, my house gets very cool on winter nights, especially right in front of of the window. I like having heaters in my tanks to keep the temps from fluctuating too much, even if they are kept low, as in my 68F shrimp tank.
The heater is only available in the Uk (ebay) so I had to wait awhile for it to ship here, and also needed an adapter for the plug.

Today, I cleaned the tank out, and installed the filter and a new hygger 14w Full Spectrum Clip On. The canister is hiding behind the potted plant, the retrofit heater fit in the port perfectly and I’m happy with the size of the lily pipes.

hygger Full Spectrum Clip On Light - hygger



The next piece of equipment to consider is a co2 system. The plants in this scape will be very low demand (mosses, ferns, buce) and I will be injecting minuscule amounts of co2, so after some consideration, I decided to try a pressurized citric acid/baking soda set-up. I have a 4 liter Fzone Co2 Reactor kit on order. Maybe I’ll regret the work involved with mixing the ingredients up, maybe not, but it feels to me like a fun thing to try.

Fzone CO2 Generator Kit – Fzone Studio

 

[*Ci*]

I thought I might do pockets of ADA aquasoil (already have on hand) with black gravel for the rest, but with so little actual floor space, I decided to go with all inert, using Seachem Flourite Black.

Most of my plant list is mosses and epiphytes anyway - all scavenged from my other tanks:

Riccia Fluitans
Christmas moss
Anubias petite nana
Anubias nana “pinto”
Bucephalandra sp.
Dwarf Hairgrass
Hygrophila 'Araguaia'
Guppy grass
Java fern sp.


Ready for a dark start while I wait for some black CA glue (a tip I got from @Bolbi ’s blog). Seems to solve the problem of unattractive white blobs on wood and rocks.



Of course, it’s not readily available in Canada (no stores carry it and costs $42 a tiny bottle on Amazon.ca). It is amazing how often this happens here with items cheap and plentiful just south of the border. Anyway, I ordered a 2 pack from Aliexpress, which usually takes a few weeks to get here, so now we wait.
One last look at the glow effect from the yellow glass before covering up:

 

[*Ci*]

The black CA glue arrived so I decided to plant. I had put some established media from my other tank into the filter and the ammonia I was adding to the tank every day was disappearing in 24hr., so I don’t know if a cycling process is really needed. I won’t put any livestock in for quite a while.

Using the plant list above, it took me 2 hrs to get this much in (there are more plants than can be seen!), but It seems kind of sparse. Should I be patient till things fill in? Should I try to squeeze as many more plants as I can right away? I guess I could empty the tank whenever I want to add more. I started an EI low light weekly fertilizing regime (as per rotala butterfly recommendations) and will do a 50% change every week.
So - Day 1:



No co2 yet. I set up the Fzone co2 generator and it is working great! But I am not happy with the in-tank nano diffuser. It is positioned under the lily pipe return, but the micro bubbles don’t seem to disperse with the flow, they just rise to the surface and pop. I would like to come up with some kind of better way of diffusing suitable for a nano, that is not visible and does not take up much space in the tank. I know about the nano spray bar thread, but the options discussed are all too big to fit in and amongst the branches. I’ll figure out something ¯\(°_o)/¯

 

[FrankZ]

Should I be patient till things fill in? Should I try to squeeze as many more plants as I can right away?

I think patience is the right move here. Cramming a bunch in now might make thinning a nightmare later. Speaking of thinning, I was trying to think of some ways fast growers you could use as temporary plant mass but all my ideas would be a major pain to remove with all the wood. Pearl weed might be a good temporary plant. Fast growing for sure and fairly easy to remove.

This is going to look amazing once it’s all grown in to your vision. I can’t wait.

 

[Koan]

my vintage nano tank

Okay I'm just going to say what everyone else is thinking..




this tank is straight up Rivendell.



gorgeous

 

[*Ci*]

Okay I'm just going to say whatever else is thinking..

this tank is straight up Rivendell.



gorgeous

Thank you. As a complete LOTR nerd, that is the very highest of compliments ~•♥•~

 

[*Ci*]

2 1/2 months later:
Growing very slowly, especially the mosses. I put a lot of tufts all over the place, much of it melted.
Still, it looks forest-y, I guess. There are some yellow shrimps in the tank now, not much algae to speak of, just a bit on the front glass to wipe off each week.
For such a small tank, it seems to be very high maintenance, though. The bottom accumulates a lot of debris/mulm, and I cannot syphon it well with a 2 gallon, 50% change. Also very hard to get in and around all the wood. The Riccia Fluitans glued to the trees gets crazy thick and I keep whacking it back to almost nothing. It’s not a good look - what I really wish is that the branches develop a nice coating of green algae - it would look more to scale and realistic than mosses, I think.
When the sun comes streaming through the west window behind the tank in the summer, I’m sure my wish will come true with a vengeance!