Cypress river bank

[kwc1974]

I am about to redo my 75gallon tank and have been torn between several scapes and have finally decided. A good friend, Davemonkey got me some really nice pieces of cypress knees.....thanks Dave! And so the Cypress river bank tank begins Here are the pieces. Sorry these are night time cell phone pics



This is after a low pressure washing, I have left the bark on for a more natural look, also there is a native Texas aquatic moss that was growing on these that I want to see if it will grow back.

The plan is to have a sand substrate in the front, a lot of anubias nana at the base (almost carpet like) and have some Cryptocoryne retrospiralis in the back behind the wood groupings.

So far not much progress, just trying to figure the layout and how to weight these down (cypress floats really well and won't waterlog). Here are some sample pics I took with some of the pieces in my holding tank.....the display tank does not have a center brace.

layout idea #1





layout idea #2





I like the wood as is but my gut is telling me to trim some of the pieces down. The end result will still have the two tall pieces protruding through the water surface but maybe not as much.

Thoughts? Ideas?

[CichlidFan]

are you doing anything special to decontaminate the cypress knees? I'm not sure, but they might have some residual chemicals from being in the creek and exposed to who know what.....I do like the looks though.....and I hope everything turns out well with your experiment there....

Maybe the wood can be anchored with a footprint of redimix cement? ....whatever you end up doing, I can't wait to see more pictures down the road...

CF

[FrontosaurusRex]

I think this tank is gonna be awesome. Keep us posted.

[danielp]

Good to see you posting up it's been awhile.

Very nice pieces of wood.

I wouldn't cut the tops of the knee's off. It wouldn't look natural. If you want to remove them take them at the base.

I think tanks i've seen in the past with limbs coming out of the water look good.

[kwc1974]

Good to see you posting up it's been awhile.

Very nice pieces of wood.

I wouldn't cut the tops of the knee's off. It wouldn't look natural. If you want to remove them take them at the base.

I think tanks i've seen in the past with limbs coming out of the water look good.

Thats right......I'm baaaaaccckkkkk

No any trimming will be done from the bottom up. The natural look of the wood is one of the most important parts for me.

[kwc1974]

are you doing anything special to decontaminate the cypress knees?

I went through a pretty rigorous rinsing process. Not much else you can do without blasting it so hard that you start altering the look of the wood.

Usually I do a quick bleach dip as well, but in this case there was some native mosses that I wanted to perserve so I only used clean water to rinse with.

[manifresh006]

yeah like u said iff any trimming to the bottom(of some only) would be done it would make them look great
and i like the second layout more good luck and keep posting updates

[danielp]

Thats right......I'm baaaaaccckkkkk

No any trimming will be done from the bottom up. The natural look of the wood is one of the most important parts for me.

makes sense.

some of the short knobs really make the piece hopefully you can retain as much as possible.

what kind of fish are you looking at.

[JGUERRA]

i really like #2 looks nice

[cichlid1409]

this is gonna be sweet! I like #2 also. will this be a heavily planted tank? what type of fish are you thinking of putting in?

[Roujin]

Looking forward to seeing the progress Kevin! Its been awhile but man you certainly are back!

[kwc1974]

For planting I am lookag at a heavy gouping of anubias nana (almost carpet like), and behind the wood groupings crypt retrosprialis.

I might add some moss, but that will depend on what the native mosses that I will try to keep do once/if revived.

As for fish the usuall cleanup crew
o-cats
olive nerites
shrimp

but for main fish, maybe threadfin rainbows

I thought about a group of angles but I am liking that idea less and less.

[FrontosaurusRex]

Rainbows would be awesome in that tank.

[danielp]

but for main fish, maybe threadfin rainbows

I like this idea.

Something busy that will interact with the wood swimming around and in and out of the openings.

[Kotter-Wane]

I like the first layout. The second doesn't seem balanced to me. I like the threadfin rainbows. I like to watch my males "flashing" the girls after mealtimes. )