I couldn't just leave it alone...

[parker002]

The Mopani wood is very dense and over time, it starts to settle. I just wasn't happy with the amount of unused space at the top of my tank vs. the amount of used space at the bottom. The density of the pieces was almost reminiscent of dropping a big piece of rock in there - there wasn't an abundance of areas for the fish to congregate. They were spending alot of time swimming AROUND my wood instead of swimming THROUGH it.

So I decided to swap out the African wood for a driftwood sculpture. There's a LFS about an hour away that specializes in making custom driftwood ornaments by taking pieces, connecting them together, and attaching them to a piece of slate. The draw for me, outside of the fact that they can be pretty striking, is that they're 1 solid piece of wood that doesn't require the same level of care when cleaning the tank or pruning plants. Because the Mopani was actually several different pieces carefully fit together, it was frequent that I would bump them, forcing me to spend time fixing the way they looked instead of cleaning my tank.

So I asked my wife for a sculpture for my birthday. I finally got time this past weekend to make the change.



She didn't stop at the driftwood piece though. She also bought me a new air stone - a Via Aqua LED bubble wand. The overall effect is absolutely amazing!

[parker002]

Replaced the original pics. And here's a close-up of the driftwood piece.

[Carl]

This looks very striking!

The place you got these sculptures does great work

Carl

[parker002]

I had some Scarlet Temple on the right side of the driftwood but it grows so slowly and tends to attract black algae. The empty area where it was is now occupied by some stalks of Hygrophilia Difformis.

[parker002]

I hated to get rid of the Scarlet Temple - it's red color was unique from the other plants in my tank. However, with the LEDs and everything, the Hygro is BRIGHT green, almost WHITE. So it looks cool too.

[goldenpuon]

Those are some beautiful pictures Parker! You have a talent for good tank setups! Have you ever thought about offering people advice for beautiful tank layouts? I don't think there is a job you could get doing that, but you definitely have a knack for it if you ever were to get into it on a bigger level!

[parker002]

Hmmm...interesting idea. I spend too much time on my own tanks though!

[babygeige]

That looks great! In the last couple of issues of Tropical Fish Hobbyist, there was a small series dedicated to demonstrating how to set up a hardscape only tank. The author just put some gravel, rocks and a large driftwood sculpture in it.

here's a link to the final result. the pic is kind of small, but you get the idea:www.tfhmagazine.com/assets/006/31932_400wh.jpg