Past, Present, Future

Initial setup - December 2006 layout of the tank. It was getting cycled to prevent major outbreak of algae. Luckily, my strategy worked because there was no outbreak whatsoever. Fill-in plants were from my 35gal, overgrown before the 85gal setup to fill at least half the tank. It worked.

This pic was taken early this month before major changes were done. At the moment, all stem plants on the right were taken out but a small stump (to prevent a big re-cycle), and replaced with rotala rotundifolia and limnophilia aromatica. I hope it would fill-in soon. The glosso is in place and starting to send out runners. The riccia pillows are in the borders to prevent overlapping, and the cryptocoryne undulatas already have new shoots. The anubias nana is growing a new leaf every 10 days, so I hope it would fill-in the bottom-right of the large driftwood in a few months' time.

Ever a restless soul, I wanted to visualise the future look of Kapatagan. Here is my rough 'compre'.

Behind the scenes

Recreating 'Kapatagan' doesn't come easy. Planted tanks are far costlier and more meticulous to maintain than normal fish-only tanks. With budget restraints, aquarists become resourceful and creative. In this particular tank, I had to build things that otherwise would be expensive.

The ODNO lighting with custom reflector.
ODNO stands for 'overdriven normal output' fluorescent lamps. This one is 3x55W ODNO - meaning 3 normal 36W FLs each with a 55W electronic ballast to 'turbo-charge' the output. I would have used 2x36W (72W) e-ballasts but since I already have the 55Ws from my 35 gal planted before, I used them for experiment here. I'll probably change to 72W e-ballasts depending on the outcome of the glosso carpet which I had just planted. The custom reflector was conceived due to the high cost of quality aquarium lighting fixtures in the local market. Luckily I chanced upon a manufacturer of office lighting fixtures and had the reflector done to my specifications.

The riccia 'pillows'.
Another DIY. This one in place of the expensive riccia pillows sold by ADA. Another route is to tie the riccia in small rocks or mesh sandwhich. Since I will have glosso as carpet in the foreground, I used these pillows as perimeter to border the glosso carpet from the hairgrass and the hardscape.

'Kapatagan'

Kapatagan is a small clearing near the summit of Mt. Banahaw in the Philippines. A refuge for mountaineers who either ran out of camp space in the summit during peak season, the darkness caught up on them - making it difficult to traverse the ridge, heavy winds in the summit, or simply like it there for whatever personal reasons they have. Mt. Banahaw, revered as 'holy mountain' by locals and the religious, is the place I frequent during my mountaineering days. That was 9 years ago. Now busy attending to my 8.5 and 2 yr. old kids, I decided to recreate a part of the holy place, to remind me of the piece of nature I'm missing, right inside my home.

A cornucopia of orchids, wild flowers, senescent trees and medicinal plants, Mt. Banahaw has its own share of wildlife that you may frequently hear but seldom sighted. Owing to its lush rainforest, protected by the government, it is a haven for creatures big and small, feasting on nature's bounty.



Across Mt. Banahaw is the mystical Mt. Cristobal. Known to mountaineers and locals as the 'devil's mountain', its generally darker color and eery presence gave it its 'hike-at-your-own-risk' legend. I've had my fair share of unexplained 'circumstances' on that mountain. On weekends it is usually visited by alien fanatics and, according to locals, withcraft practitioners. Stories of both wonder and spectral would greet the unassuming guests. If I may visualise the 'feel' of the place, it would be something like this, pun intended.

This pair of angels are far from scary, although they do bite. They used to be with some other angels, pencils and corys in my 35gal planted but when I setup this 85 gal, I decided to give them a place of their own in the meantime, after they killed a number of tetras and corys, and even an adult male angel bigger than them. Sad to say they will be due for adoption once I find a willing hobbyist who would care for them in their own planted tank, alone. They continue to spawn, but sadly, I don't have an extra tank for which to transfer the free-swimming babies - which are eaten after a while.