Fast Forward to 2024

 New house, new layout, same tank.  Took about a year after moving in to finally be ready to set up a new scape and this time I wanted something super minimal as far as plant growth.  I wanted something that I could keep the lights on really low so I wouldn't get algae and also not use CO2.  After letting the tank fill out for half a year, I realized it was 2024 IAPLC submission time, so I figured why not.  My previous post with the Bonsai Tree, it turned out I never hit submit or something so I didn't even end up getting entered that year.  Oh well.

I'm pretty proud of this layout, simple island layout, with rocks and the same wood I've used in previous tanks.  My focus here was on ferns and buce.  The fish are kind of random because I always let the kids come and help pick them out.  This is actually the longest I've keep this many fish without jumpers or just some going missing.

I followed the suggestions by IAPLC and took out my equipment and also put up some cardboard to block the light.  I imagine they will crap the photo before entering it into the book.  I can't imagine I won't make the book again this year since I've hear previous layouts that made it that were comparable that easily made it.

2020 IAPLC Submission

Time sure does fly.  Before I knew it, it was approaching the end of May and the deadline for submitting was here.  I had hoped the tree would be way way more filled out but I was pretty happy with where I got it.

The fish would not cooperate with me.  It's like they knew when I took all the hardware out they figured I was cleaning the tank so they were freaked out.  This was the best shot I could get of them.

The tree had actually grown in even more than this but I trimmed it some because I wanted to be sure I could see the slope of the grass line behind it.  I also put down fresh sand to make the river pop.  Here is a cool tank shot I submitted to Reddit shortly after and got the most upvotes for a post I've ever made.  People were either super stoked or freaking out about having a glass stand.

As a footnote, about a month after I submitted the top shot here I realized I didn't ever get a confirmation email from ADA like I did in 2019.  My heart sank when I realized this.  I tried to email their support to see if my submission got in successfully but I never heard back.  There is a high probability that something failed on the website during my submission and I didn't notice.  I guess I'll either get a letter in the mail or I won't.  Sad because I was 1301 last year and made the book which you can see in my stand in the picture above.  I was really looking forward to making the book again this year.   Fingers crossed till October or whenever the results come out.

There She Grows

A little time had passed and you can see how well the Dwarf Hairgrass is growing in.  A nice dense carpet with no real maintenance trimming wise.  I do occasionally have to pull some runners out of the sand.  You can also see I have some floating plants going.  My thought was to try and absorb some light and nutrients to try and keep the algae battle under control.  Well that didn't really work.

This setup has had quite the algae fight.  From the beginning it's been blue green algae and some hair algae.  When I clean this tank weekly, you should see how much algae I suck out.  The tree isn't growing in as fast as I'd hope.  Note, this post is actually being made many months after the fact so you'll see the tree does come around strong later.  At this point I hadn't really figured out a good technique to get the algae out of the Christmas Moss tree.  

Either way the tank looks cool to me.  Trying to get everything looking good for my IAPLC 2020 shot.

Dwarf Hairgrass & Christmas Moss

I loved the idea of simplicity for this tank.  Only two types of plans, Dwarf Hairgrass for the carpet and Christmas Moss for the tree.  I chose Christmas Moss because it was so successful in my last scape and I figured it would look cool in the tree once it grew out.  Here is the final shot immediately after I flooded the tank.

I want to say I spent about $40 or less on the plants for this re-scape.  It was nice that re-scaping cost so little this time compared to my initial investment.  I really do enjoy this part of the process.  Below you can see how I divided the Dwarf Hairgrass into small clumps and how I initially got the moss into the tree.  I didn't glue or tie the moss to the tree so I figured some would come loose.  I basically just stuffed it into the tree branches as best I could.  Looked pretty good to me. Also note, I had soaked the bonsai tree in water for a few weeks to ensure it wouldn't float because I didn't want to mess with tying it down.  Another thing that makes this scape to easy to maintain is that I can pick the tree up out of the scape when I'm doing maintenance.  I take it over to the sink and can use the hand sprayer to blast off any algae.  Having nothing in your way when you are doing weekly maintenance is quite the treat from my last scape.

Here was a shot just before I flooded.  I plan to let things go for a few weeks before I add any fish since I did add some brand new ADA Aquasoil Amazonia.

A Fresh Start on Scape #2

After my last scape (and first scape ever), I knew I wanted to try something completely different.  There were a couple things that made me want to do this.  First, I wanted to have a new entry for the 2020 IAPLC.  Secondly, I wanted to try something that would be simpler and have less maintenance potentially.  Thirdly, I think minimal scapes like Iwagumi are pretty cool when done well.   I found a place online called Bonsai Driftwood that had an amazing selection so I could get a tree that fits to exactly what I was thinking.

Here you can see where my final hardscape landed.  The concept is that there would be something short and carpeting on the left and right side and then a moss in the tree.  There would be sand between the DragonStone to look like a river.  There was actually quite a bit of work to get to this point.  I had to clean out the old tank and I actually took all the old Aquasoil and rinsed it with a collander and dried it on a tarp on the driveway.  The soil was in good shape so I'd need all that from the previous scape plus more to be able to build up the hill I wanted the tree to live on. 

This next picture gives a shot of just how much soil was really in there.  I didn't put down and ADA PowerSand this time, but there was some mixed in with the previous soil.

The Beginning of the End

I'm still a little behind real-time with my posts, but I want to keep things chronologically accurate.  I already have a new scape going well but I'll post about that in the future.  For now, I want to talk about the end of my first scape that placed my 1301 in the IAPLC 2019.

For a long time with this scape, I had battled algae.  I worked so hard, and did so many water changes.  I never let this get my down and kept fighting to keep a nice looking tank.  After my final competition shot, I even removed some of the most algae ridden plants and planted a ton of new stem plants.  Those looked good for a few weeks but ultimately, the algae had a hold.

I went out of town for 4th of July vacation and came back to a mess.  I just couldn't stomach the idea of trying to keep this scape alive any longer.  Here are some shots of what the tank looked like after I came back from a trip and then neglected it for a few more days.

You can see it was a mix of green dust algae, black beard and some other things.  It was honestly nice to know that I was going to tear it down and just see what would happen to it for a week or two.

1301

The results are in.......

1867 total entries in the world, top 1600 make the book and I came in 1301.  So cool.  Much better than I expected.  My only goal was to get my picture published and I did it.  I had reviewed the previous year's book to compare and I figured I'd come in around 1500 or so.  That pretty much concludes this chapter and scape.  I've already torn this one down and started a new scape.  I'll try and get caught up soon to add new posts about what I'm doing this time.