r/Aquascape

sooo beautiful

I recently went to Colorado, and while rock hunting I stumbled on this absolutely gorgeous piece of wood.... I REALLY want to use it in a new 30gl Long that I'm about to start cycling. I can just envision such a beautiful aquascape around it...

The tiny bit of bark left on it is charred - not too worried about that - but I'm honestly having a hard time telling if it's hard/soft wood. I do the fingernail test and it's not ROCK hard but it's definitely not soft either.

It was found in/around Nanthrop, Co by Ruby Mountain.

Here is what AI told me.... But I still prefer experienced humans over AI!

Based on the visual characteristics, this piece is almost certainly one of two things:

Rocky Mountain Juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) / One-seed Juniper: Juniper is famous for growing in incredibly twisted, asymmetrical ribbons. As it dies and weathers, the softer outer sapwood rots or wears away, leaving behind a highly resilient, deeply grooved, and beautifully contorted heartwood core. The way your piece has hollowed out seamlessly into a curved trough is a textbook juniper characteristic.

Pinyon Pine (Pinus edulis): Pinyon pines in this region are slow-growing, stunted, and gnarly. However, pine tends to keep a straighter grain than this piece displays, and it usually degrades differently when exposed to the elements.

The Verdict: Your fingernail test—finding it firm but not "rock hard"—perfectly describes aged, weathered desert Juniper. It is technically a softwood, but because it grows so painfully slow in arid environments, its ring density and natural oil composition make it significantly denser and more rot-resistant than standard softwoods.

Can You Use It in Your Aquarium?

The short answer is: Yes, but proceed with caution and preparation.

Because it is a conifer (evergreen/softwood), unweathered juniper contains aromatic phenols, sap, and resins that can be toxic to fish. However, your piece tells a different story. It is heavily weathered, completely stripped of its primary bark, grayed by intense high-altitude UV light, and even partially charred by a past fire or brush clearance. This means it has likely been dead and curing in the dry Colorado air for years, if not decades. Most of those volatile resins have completely dried out or leached away.

Picture 2 and 3 are some before pictures. Also rearranged some plants, so they aren't direct comparisons.

My kiddo is 12 and sent me a picture of a tank he loves. He’s like me to recreate something similar for him. He’s pretty minimalist in style so this appeals to him. Would this be a fairly easy tank to recreate?

Questions:
What is the moss they use for the tree foliage? With this amount of plants would I still need CO2 in addition to the filtration? Could we do shrimp vs a fish in a tank this size? It feels a little small even for beta.

Thanks!

After almost 9 months, my aquarium was completely nuked by a faulty auto feeder that dumped what was probably six months’ worth of food in a single day. Only a few plants survived.
All 20 Lambchop Rasboras (which were breeding), my 6 Pygmy Corydoras (also breeding), and more than 50 Yellow Neon shrimp are gone. Even my beautiful Bucephalandra completely melted away.
Absolutely heartbreaking.

So my aquarium got supplied with these acrylic lid stands and a very thin piece of glass (cracked first time I used it).

After having rimless tanks for years and getting fed up of constantly refilling due to evaporation and the increased risk of mould I wanted to use a lid. I experimented with acrylic that sags but is easily cut for lily pipes etc.

Finally tried using a dedicated glass cutting company local to me that supplied a 4mm thick piece of toughened glass and cut out dedicated slots for the filter and co2 all for the sum of £30. The hole for the co2 also acts as feeding hole… accident but works well.

I don’t think it affects the cleanness of the tank at all and the pros definitely outweigh the cons.

I have these guys planted (dwarf baby tears? Monte carlo?) for a few weeks now and it doesn't seem like they're rooting and are slowly turning light green/yellow.

This is a low tech tank, but will be setting up a mini CO2 system in a few days. Will these guys bounce back, eventually root, and spread throughout the scape?

Just wanted to show off my aquascape in progress.

I hope the placement of the wood looks interesting, mysterious forest perhaps.. what does it look/feel like to you guys? The giant stump is a bit awkward but I will make it work somehow.

Going to add some more river rocks along with substrate soon.

Apologies for the ugly filter sponge pads! 😵‍💫

Hi all, so I’ve completed my first aquascape. Letting it cycle and now I’m slowly thinking about stocking options. It’s a 200L (50 gal) and ive left a lot of swimming room.

So my idea was to stock two angelfish as the centerpieces, some corydora similis, a bunch of lambchop rasbora, and perhaps as a secondary interesting fish, a pair of German rams or a pair of apistohramma cacatuoides. Later on some ottos probably.

Also what color/variant of angelfish do you see here? I’m thinking about Red Devils but might be a bit too much color.. idk

I’d like to know your opinions and ideas! Perhaps some other stocking ideas?

I’m setting up a 26-gallon tank (43” x 11” x 11”) with a Seiryu stone and white sand (1.5” depth) hardscape.
I’m aiming for an Iwagumi aesthetic, but I lack the larger focal stones required to achieve the traditional look. My current plan is to keep it low-tech with only Anubias nana attached to the rocks; no other plants are planned.
I am looking for suggestions on how to arrange the stones I currently have to make this layout work, or advice on how to improve the composition given the size constraints.

I’m just getting back into the hobby after a 10 year break and just got done setting up my hardscape for a new high tech tank. Would love feedback and suggestions before I flood the tank! I wont have the time to maintain multiple tanks so i want to put all my energy into this one and do it right

I’m planning on doing a dark start before adding any plants.

For plants I’m thinking of a mix of anubias and buce on rocks and driftwood, some s repens and alternathera reinicki mini in the mid ground, taller stems (haven’t decided on species yet) in the back left, and some shorter almost carpeting plant in the front right. Will also add some moss on the driftwood and rocks (again haven’t decided on the specific species yet).

Tank: UNS 90P
Filter: Oase Biomaster Thermo 850
Light: Chihiros RGB Vivid 2

I like the way the areca palm in the first one matches the manzanita, but also really dig the contrast in the second photo

I'm just a noob here, how can i improve my tank.

I do have 3 Fan Tail Gold Fish and 1 comet gold fish is it okay for them for 5 Gallon tank with oxygen and a filter.

Any suggestions?

I am trying to maintain a riverbank look while having the most open space for fishes. Kindly, do share suggestions. 🙏 TY 👍

I rescaped my tank because I thought that I didn't execute the idea in my mind well enough the first time. The first pic is the first scape and the second is the rescape. A small part of me feels like the first one was better, but I'm not sure.

If only I had a tank big enough

Hi, this is 90cm planted tank for 5 mths. Water parameters not stable yet. Nitrate remain zero despite daily feeding , adding seachem nitrogen,
On weekly APT 3 fertilizer, with CO2 running 6hr.
Noticed bucephalandra leaves many holes and not flowering. Any suggestions ?

55 gallon scape. Second image is what I'm thinking of trying. Any suggestions or advice before it's all put together.

I posted about a month ago asking for advice on my hardscape layout, and I wanted to show an update now that I've got some plants in. I did a dark start, and so far the plants seem to be doing really well! No melt that I can see. I'm happy with the direction this tank is headed, especially as my first serious foray into aquascaping.

Some plans I have:

replace surface skimmer with one integrated in the lily pipes as well as add a reliever on the outlet

Put the light on a riser

Add more plants (mosses, more epiphytes, floaters, and background plants), honestly as many more plants as I can fit!

Add botanicals

Eventually add fish (this has been such an exercise in patience!!)

Open to any and all suggestions and critiques! And thank you to everyone who made suggestions on my last post.

Cut stems branch quite readily, so I think it will bush out well. The slower growth pattern will probably make it a difficult plant for folks that cannot keep their tanks stable. This reduces trimming work in the long run, but it also means it takes more time to fully fill in. You can see that the leaves are actually more pale green than completely white from the top view

Tank size: 60x36x36cm

OaseBiomaster 250 filter

Week aqua a430, 80R 80G 40B

Fish: Hyphessobrycon Notidanos Yellow/red, H. myrmex

Grown with:

APT Feast aquasoil

APT3/APTe depending on bioload/feeding