# New scape pictures



## HONDO (May 4, 2008)

Hi everyone. I changed my tank a bit, and just wanted to share some pictures. Im sorry the pictures are such poor quality.

75 gallons, current stock: Green Severum, Green Terror, BN, Blackskirts, 4 pristellas (AKA lunch)

I am in the process of moving my stock around, with some great advice from others on this forum, but in the meantime let me know what you think!


















































































thanks for looking!


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## BRANT13 (Feb 18, 2009)

i LOVE that peaice of driftwood....and GTs are fun fish to have wish i wouldve never got rid of mine


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

Looks very nice Taylor,.....a large open aria with a shaded aria to the left (becouse of the plants) and a nice part of driftwood with some cave like shelter for the keyholes :thumb: You could ad some more driftwood on the right so Sev won't fit in the cave like structures but you also could keep it like it is. If it was for me I would add one mid sized round river rock in the midle of the open aria on the left. This will break the flat sand surface without looking messy. But hey,...it is your tank and it realy looks nice like it is. Well done


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## HONDO (May 4, 2008)

great, thanks for the compliments and the help ruurd. i have a nice round rock that i will throw in!


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## Dutch Dude (Sep 14, 2006)

Don't throw it to hard :wink: You could try and see if you like it,....if you don't just pull it out. The tank already looks very nice and you have done a great job on it :thumb:


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## cage623 (Feb 2, 2008)

Very well done! I love the large driftwood. I also agree that there needs something on the left side though. Maybe toss in that rock and post some new pics.


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## HONDO (May 4, 2008)

ok, i made a few small changes. i added the rock on the left side, and i made a little mound of sand between the side of the tank and the rock. i think it gives it alittle more personality. i also threw in one more piece of driftwood to the pile, its the piece closest to the middle of the tank. i like the anubias stuck in front of the wood on the right. again, just a little more interesting to look at. anyways, thank you guys for the suggestions and let me know what you think!

ps, sorry my pictures are not very good. i need to hire some of you photographers to come over and take pics for me!


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## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

Looks good bud, I have to say I'm not so keen on the driftwood with the plant - it looks too "placed", but if you like it that's what counts.

Personally I'd go for some larger, slightly rounded yet slightly irregular grey rocks, jutting out of the substrate around the area where you've put that new driftwood. Then I would scatter smaller but similar rocks and pebbles around that, becoming sparser the further from the main rock pile you go (trying to emulate the natural breakdown of the larger rocks to smaller grains, and the spread that would occur due to river currents). Some people will say you shouldn't mix rock with driftwood - I find that to be utter nonsense, I have seen lots of pics from the Amazon where the scene is almost exactly as I describe and it is this principle I have based my 75s latest scape on. I'll have to get some pics up for you to see what you think.

Just envisage that this is a stream and that driftwood will have to catch on something (as will plants) before it stops and settles, so keep this in mind with your placement - where would the plants be likely to settle - ie in-between niches of rocks/driftwood where the current will be gentle, allowing it to settle and root, etc.

The type of rocks I'm using are almost identical to those found in these pics from the Amazon:
http://www.akvaryumforum.com/forum/amaz ... -t747.html

As for your PM regarding the Keyholes, you're welcome to contact me any time, I'm happy to help. It's easily done IME and I never had issues, occasionally the Rotty would bluff charge the Keyhole just to remind him who was boss but the Cleithracara had the sense not to stand up to it - too much of a size difference for there to be any real problems. I didn't breed them though so I couldn't speak for breeding behaviour but I can't really envisage major issues, certainly not to the extent that it would cause detriment to either sp. health. In fact my larger Keyhole seemingly admired my Rotkeil and would follow him around just behind his trailing fins, at first the Rotty didn't like this and would reel around to see what this little fish was upto, but he learnt that it was harmless emulation - the Keyhole seemed convinced that it was a Rotkeil too :lol:.

If you start them young you'll have less probability of issues as the Keyholes mature with the dominance of the Rotty in place, rather than mature specimens that you introduce which will inevitably cause some initial hierarchy quibbles (just not too young or they'll be eyed up for snacks!)

Your pics aren't at all bad, it's the jpeg compression that's causing the lack of quality in the image and it doesn't help that the tank seems hazy, probably from the re-scape, the camera will really pick this up and compression will only make it worse, try taking the pic again after it's settled down, I also try and shoot from just marginally above the bottom plane on a flat level, if anything slightly looking upwards - this seems to help with a sense of scale, if you shoot dead-straight the image can look very flat.

All I did here was burn out the background, normally I wouldn't do this so much but I want to show you how much difference it makes when you can't notice the haze. I found a lot of compression errors in the image though which really limits how much I could do, but this is just to demonstrate.









Not so bad eh!
:thumb:


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## HONDO (May 4, 2008)

very cool, thanks for the response. i think the plants look placed because they are... carefully placed at that! i will play around with them and see if i cant come up with some rocks and play aroud with those as well. all great suggestions. 
my tank wasnt so cloudy, i just have a really bad camera and dont use the flash when i shoot cause it makes that huge spot on the photo. oh well, thanks for fixing it up. looks great.

thanks for the info on the keyholes. i didnt think there would be issues, just wanted to get an opinion from someoe who has done it before. is 4 a good number in a 75 with the sev?

thanks again for the information!


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

I like your tank! Here's a tip for placing anubias - use some fishing line or thread to tie it to a piece of rock or wood (instead of carefully placing it). After a few weeks the plant will be firmly attached by the roots and you can remove the thread/fishing line if you want to (a lot of time thread will just break down anyway).

You can also use rubber bands for this as well.

Here's a picture from my old 135g - all of the plants (anubias & java fern) are attached to pieces or wood or rocks... It makes it really easy to aquascape once the plants fasten themselves to the wood/stone as you just pick it up and move it to where you want it - no planting and rooting to worry about!


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## HONDO (May 4, 2008)

thanks!


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## RyanR (Apr 29, 2008)

Man. I love that tank! :thumb:

What kind of plants and lighting are you using?

-Ryan


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## HONDO (May 4, 2008)

are you asking me or illy-d?

if you mean me, its just a bunch of different kinds of anubias and to be honest i have no clue what kind of lights. just what came with the setup when i got it from the lfs. i know its nothing special but anubias are low maint and sevs like the lower light so it works for me.


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## pugmug (Nov 15, 2008)

I really like the driftwood in your tank. I should have looked at your thread before I posted a new one. I just asked if I could have a Severum with a GT in a 90. I suppose this answers my question.


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## HONDO (May 4, 2008)

it has worked so far, but long term we will have to see. if i cannot setup a 6 ft tank i will probably re home the terror. i dont feel like it will be enough room. i have been mulling over some stocking changes for a few weeks now.

however, they have gotten along very well so far. i dont want to break them up because they get along well, but 4 ft seems smaller and smaller every day as they grow.

i saw your other thread though and i agree that it depends on your individual terror. mine is a female who is very calm with the larger male severum, but she also eats my tetras and is getting braver every day. no matter how you look at it, the 75 or 90 will probably not be a great long term idea.


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## HONDO (May 4, 2008)

Ok, I changed it around again. Tried to work the rocks in, let me know what you think!


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## Dewdrop (Nov 20, 2007)

I don't have any SA cichlids...just in here looking around :lol: Gotta say I think your tank looks GREAT now but there is one thing I'd change. I'd move the plants to kinda hide those (2 intake?)tubes =D> .


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