Fudo

The tank itself is a UNS 90L, with a chihiros wrgb slim on top. Filter is a UNS delta 60 and I also have a co2 reactor installed for diffusion. The story of this tank starts with the end goal. I wanted something that would be eye catching in my living room, but also worthy of an IAPLC submission. I ordered hardscape from Aquaforest Aquarium, sight unseen, and began playing with the batch of Sansui stones I received. Knowing the hardscape design was going to be critical, I set up a dojo and continuously played with it for weeks. Tweaks here and there, complete teardowns and restarts, more tweaks, until I was finally happy with the result. The amount of time I spent was critical for me as I really needed breaks from scaping to be able to see flaws or things I really didn't like. When it came to plant selection, my initial inspiration was for a Brazilian style setup, but the hardscape setup really seemed like an iwagumi style would be more fitting and thats the route I ended up going. I wanted to illustrate a strong right to left flow with plants, a strong counter to the stones structure pushing in the opposite direction. Given this, I opted for Eleocharis montevidensis on the right side so that it could drape across the tank in the direction I wanted. I also added eleocharis acicularis on the left that I could trim along the shape of the hardscape (since you can't trim montevidensis). The foreground and midground was a mis of eleocharis parvula, monte carlo, marsilea minuta, and hydrocotyle tripartita mini. In the end, the marsilea basically disappeared with the other 3 plants taking over. For the foreground substrate, I added ADA la plata sand so that there would be a strong contrast between the sand and rocks. Aside from the front inch or two, I planted everything else in Controsoil. There was also initially a sand path that felt too unnatural, so I let that get overgrown with the foreground plants.

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