Welcome to ScapeCrunch, @Long Sun Aquascaping!
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?
Welcome to ScapeCrunch
We are ScapeCrunch, the place where planted aquarium hobbyists come to build relationships and support each other. When you're tired of doom scrolling, you've found your home here.
Hello Welcome, Long Sun Aquascaping
- Thread starter Art
- Start date
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Hello everyone!
I'm Cody Crosby, a longtime aquascaping lurker who finally had the guts to seek out TAC and do a deep dive on the hobby starting two years ago. I am sure that my introduction to the hobby looks similar to many of y'all's. Before 2014, I kept only small freshwater tropical fish and made only a few halfhearted attempts at aquatic horticulture. However, life took me to Australia in back-to-back summers in 2013 and 2014. While wandering through my local neighborhood in 2014, I stumbled across the store "Slippery Little Suckers" in Sydney. Unbeknownst to me, the owner was one of the top Australian aquascapers, personally knew Amano, and had done quite well at the IAPLC. He showed me a few ADA booklets, and I was immediately captivated. Though I picked up a Cube Garden Mini M and Aquasky light from AFA almost immediately after returning home, it gathered dust for a bit until I started graduate school in Austin, Texas.
I finally booted up a simple (amateur) Iwagumi in 2015. I battled all the usual issues, exposing my unsurprising lack of knowledge; a nonexistent fertilization scheme paired with an overwhelming light and only carpeting plants led to the largest diatom bloom that a Mini M has probably ever seen. As I got overwhelmed during my PhD, I let this tank go by the wayside for almost 5 years until I photographed it and entered it in IAPLC 2020, narrowly avoiding last place (rank #1895 out of 2358). The scape, titled "Ethereal Plains", is shown below.
After beginning my job as a professor of physics and engineering at a small liberal arts college in Texas, I kept a few iterations of a low-tech 55-gallon tank. I learned a lot of valuable lessons from these tanks (for example, softened water without remineralization is a massive mistake), but I found my passion dimming a bit. However, this passion was to be soon re-ignited.
Steve Chong came to my local fish shop (huge shoutout to Tiny Aquatics!) and gave an aquascaping seminar. I convinced my wife that purchasing a front-row VIP seat was worth it, and found myself hooked again. Hearing Steve articulate his thoughts, intertwining design and biology, captivated me completely. I noticed that a man at the back was offering solid advice and seemed to know a great deal; this turned out to be Hiep Hong, another accomplished scaper who lived nearby. Afterward, I asked Hiep out to a meal and asked him to sign one of my aquascaping booklets. He and Ryan Noel (contacted through Instagram) mentioned TAC, and I finally had the guts to try the IAPLC beast again. I am scaping a 60P with the intention of entering it in this year's contest; I unfortunately cannot start a journal here (yet) due to the nature of the contest. I hope to be an active participant in this forum in the meantime, and thank you for having me!
I'm Cody Crosby, a longtime aquascaping lurker who finally had the guts to seek out TAC and do a deep dive on the hobby starting two years ago. I am sure that my introduction to the hobby looks similar to many of y'all's. Before 2014, I kept only small freshwater tropical fish and made only a few halfhearted attempts at aquatic horticulture. However, life took me to Australia in back-to-back summers in 2013 and 2014. While wandering through my local neighborhood in 2014, I stumbled across the store "Slippery Little Suckers" in Sydney. Unbeknownst to me, the owner was one of the top Australian aquascapers, personally knew Amano, and had done quite well at the IAPLC. He showed me a few ADA booklets, and I was immediately captivated. Though I picked up a Cube Garden Mini M and Aquasky light from AFA almost immediately after returning home, it gathered dust for a bit until I started graduate school in Austin, Texas.
I finally booted up a simple (amateur) Iwagumi in 2015. I battled all the usual issues, exposing my unsurprising lack of knowledge; a nonexistent fertilization scheme paired with an overwhelming light and only carpeting plants led to the largest diatom bloom that a Mini M has probably ever seen. As I got overwhelmed during my PhD, I let this tank go by the wayside for almost 5 years until I photographed it and entered it in IAPLC 2020, narrowly avoiding last place (rank #1895 out of 2358). The scape, titled "Ethereal Plains", is shown below.
After beginning my job as a professor of physics and engineering at a small liberal arts college in Texas, I kept a few iterations of a low-tech 55-gallon tank. I learned a lot of valuable lessons from these tanks (for example, softened water without remineralization is a massive mistake), but I found my passion dimming a bit. However, this passion was to be soon re-ignited.
Steve Chong came to my local fish shop (huge shoutout to Tiny Aquatics!) and gave an aquascaping seminar. I convinced my wife that purchasing a front-row VIP seat was worth it, and found myself hooked again. Hearing Steve articulate his thoughts, intertwining design and biology, captivated me completely. I noticed that a man at the back was offering solid advice and seemed to know a great deal; this turned out to be Hiep Hong, another accomplished scaper who lived nearby. Afterward, I asked Hiep out to a meal and asked him to sign one of my aquascaping booklets. He and Ryan Noel (contacted through Instagram) mentioned TAC, and I finally had the guts to try the IAPLC beast again. I am scaping a 60P with the intention of entering it in this year's contest; I unfortunately cannot start a journal here (yet) due to the nature of the contest. I hope to be an active participant in this forum in the meantime, and thank you for having me!
If I understand IAPLC correctly you can't post photos of it here , but we'd love to hear about the planning and progress if you want to do a narrative!
BranchScape
Active Member
Welcome, excited to hear what we can about your contest scape and have a chance to learn from you.
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