Journal UNS 150U - Nature Aquarium

[Koan]

Awesome write up

Absolutely love the flow in this hardscape. Gorgeous!

And you're right, Hakkai stone is straight up weathered lava rock, probably a basanite it doesn't actually have fracture planes

 

[BranchScape]

Really like the layout and look forward to see how it's planted.

I like to have a temporary rock to sit on things when possible during the dark start. Typically you can remove it in a week or two. The wood might be buoyant still but it's at least partially saturated and less likely to break the glue points.

Dark start, aborted. Well, interrupted at least.

I woke up early yesterday morning as I needed to get a couple of water changes done, and refresh the CO2 generator for my plant holding tank that is currently holding some precious cargo in the form of some Eriocaulon Feather Duster that I neeeeeeeded for this build (darn if that plant isn’t difficult to find), before starting the rest of my day.

Coffee in hand, I descended the stairs into the basement and discovered that overnight the hardscape gods had some entertainment at my expense, and smited me. Hard. This happened after more than a week under water, but the necropsy revealed a tiny piece of stone that had chipped off under a glue joint, and probably initiated something of a domino effect. Possibly a hairline surface shipping crack…at a pivotal location. I didn’t even know you could break Hakkai stone! Not all of the wood floated, just three quarters of it. Thankfully, the more vertical rock that took forever to stand up and position initially during the build didn’t fall backwards and hit the glass, but the one remaining piece of wood that didn’t float, and a support rock buried in the substrate behind that stone helped keep that stable at least. I will take that as a win.

However, I think this scape below is a bit too minimalist, and needs more height, don't you? So, after taking care of the barn I rolled up my sleeves, and got to work on a somewhat unplanned 100% waterchange, interrupted by several hours of overzealous gluing.

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Draining the tank took what felt like an eternity. The irony is that my water transfer pump is “out for delivery” today, along with 125’ of hoses. I thought I had a little more time to get the pump as I wasn’t intending to fully drain the tank until planting. Draining a 140 gallon tank with a Python hose is…inefficient, to put it politely. You can’t say that the hardscape gods don’t have a wry sense of humor. If I didn’t address this situation yesterday, with my schedule this week, it would have to wait until next weekend, but next weekend I could probably drain the tank in 10 minutes, not two hours. At least I got my laundry done while I was waiting, and it gave the RO system a headstart to begin cranking out another 140 gallons.

This exercise convinced me that the water transfer pump is a good way to go, though. My tanks are at basement level. It’s a walkout, and there’s not much grade. The pump will also allow me to vary more where the water drains to outside, as there is a bit of terrain to negotiate outside. Passive siphoning is just too slow for a tank this size, and too restrictive as ‘water don’t flow uphill’ as they say. And thank you, Oase, for all the extra bits and bobs they include with the filters. At least I didn't have to stand there holding the hose, and when the level got low enough, I just laid it down in the tank over a shallow dish, and didn't even lose a single grain of sand.

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With the water level finally down to about an inch, it was finally time to get to work. The hardscape went in the first time in a bare bottom tank, with no soils or sand, and I really didn’t want to excavate all that back out if I could avoid it. There’s still beneficial bacteria starting up in the substrate, but it’s about 65% aquasoil/powersand/additives to 35% sand. I knew that keeping the substrate in would slow me down, and I had no idea how long it was going to take to put it back together, so just in case I was smited again during reconstruction, I set the filters up in their happy place so I didn’t either, forget about them, or feel compelled to rush things, and could at least salvage the start of the dark start.

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During the post-disaster necropsy, and subsquent reconstruction, I did question the glue. These manzanita pieces are pretty thick, not your typical wispy pieces, and are very buoyant. I am always impressed that heavy wood can float so well, but not surprised. We lived in the coastal redwood belt in California for 37 years, and one of our places flooded in the 97/98 El Niño, and watching massive full-sized redwood trees barreling down a flooded river like turbo-charge battering rams, and piling up like matchsticks on the beach, is something to behold. Thankfully this wood is much smaller, but no less ‘floaty’. Superglue, though, IMO is actually fairly fragile, and brittle, and wood is not a stable beast. I considered just covering the tank, and letting the filters run in buckets for a while so I could source a more durable glue option, but I also just wanted to get this put back together, and resume the darkstart as I am itching to get planting. Once again I was thwarted by watching too many European aquascaping videos on my re-entry into this hobby. What I really wanted to try was something like Arka Aqua-Fix Polyglue. I know the rocks are heavy enough to counter the floating potential of the wood, it’s honestly the superglue I question. During the ‘necropsy’ yesterday, it is clear that even dumping a ridiculous amount of glue into tissue paper, cotton pads, or that Riverest/Wio type dryer-lint looking stuff, the glue tends to set before truly saturating to the core of the binding agent. Or maybe I just suck at gluing

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I did, late last night, after a lot of doubting myself, and my re-gluing effort, finally get the tank completely refilled, with the filters and pipes back in position. The RO system has been working like a dream, and at least had time yesterday to crank out another 140 gallons on the fly. That booster pump has had a workout already, and was worth every penny.

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As a side note, I did get to test the water sensor alarm while disassembling the lily pipes from the filters yesterday. They work great, albeit the notification to my phone was a bit slow.

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However, I am procrastinating this morning, and half-afraid to go back downstairs to see if I am back to square one again with Manzanita corks bobbing around in the tank. If I am defying physics here, and the forces of nature need to be reckoned with, does anyone have any alternate glues for larger scapes that they like to work with, that aren’t cumbersome to work with in tricky spaces, or take an eternity to cure? I am very open to suggestions. I am sure this won’t be the last time one of my hardscapes tries to launch itself into near-earth orbit. It happens to everyone at some point, and it is a rather humbling experience. Let's hope dark start 2.0 goes better...

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[Capraquaria]

Really like the layout and look forward to see how it's planted.

I like to have a temporary rock to sit on things when possible during the dark start. Typically you can remove it in a week or two. The wood might be buoyant still but it's at least partially saturated and less likely to break the glue points.

I was lamenting not having any extra rocks laying around yesterday, if only for insurance. I think I need to hit the local rock yard and come up with a couple weighing stones for future scapes. Or even this one if is misbehaves again!