# Killies Import > Planted Tanks >  Driftwood Puzzle

## timebomb

Hi, folks,

A friend who lives in the US of A asked me if I can get him some nice pieces of driftwoods. By nice, he meant those with many branches. As far as I know, such driftwoods are difficult to find in Singapore. The few that are sometimes available are priced so high I'm not willing to pay for them. Hey, it's just wood, you know. In the countries where they are found, they call them firewood  :Laughing: 

My friend said in his request that he won't mind getting just the branches as he can stick them together to make them look like a single piece. But driftwood branches are also hard to come by in Singapore. What the local fish shops sell mostly are shapeless blocks of wood that don't look nice at all. 

Anyway, I thought about what my friend said and decided to do something about the few pieces I have lying around the house as I'm planning to re-do my tank soon. A piece by itself doesn't look nice but I thought perhaps by joining a few pieces together, I might be able to come up with something decent. So, I spent the better part of the evening with my wife trying to fix a driftwood puzzle.

These are the 3 pieces I have:




Here are the combinations we came up with:
*No. 1*


*No. 2*


*No. 3*


*No. 4*


*No. 5*


*No. 6*


*No. 7*


*No. 8*


*No. 9*


*No. 10*


*No. 11*


*No. 12*


*No. 13*


*No. 14*


*No. 15*


My wife thinks Nos 5 and 6 are quite nice but I think neither has the "wow" factor. None of the combinations look good to me, in fact. I think I will go shopping for driftwoods this coming weekend. Anyone knows where I can find some nice ones, those with many branches, like the one in Nature Aquarium's display tank?

Loh K L

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## keehoe

Just my 2 cents worth. I think 11,15,8. It also depends on what you tie on it. I think 11 best because i think it will have a variety of depth. Plant growth differently under different water pressure.

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## FC

I like 4 and 11. 
- 4 may be good for your 50 inch tank.
- 11 for the 2 foot cube.

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## nonamethefish

I had a branchy piece which was actually a dead bush of some sort which I soaked to make it sink. Only problem was it was too branchy and during tank maintenance and whatnot eventually broke up and dissapeared. Yours look nice and sturdy though.  :Smile:

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## Slaigar

With only three pieces of wood, you came up with a lot of creativity! I like 5, 14 and 15. With mosses or other plants attached to them, they could look beautiful.

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## budak

As the karma sutra of ligneous copulation (as yet unpublished  writer still conducting 'practical' research for more penetrating insights) suggests, it's not the position that matters, but the pleasure..... with such branchy formations, I find that parsimonious application of epiphytes and an unfussy entourage of surrounding plants helps enhance the effect of fluid solidity amidst seasonal growth.

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## elmike

Thats a piece of wood having a rolling good time...
break-dancing, twisting, somersaulting and contorting itself to the various numbers.  :Laughing:

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## keehoe

One thing i know for sure is, you will sure need a few hour inorder to catch a sick fish out for medication. (Or catch one for esther's magic touch)

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## RonWill

Depending on how the aquascaper aligns the different pieces, he or she can end up with one you haven't thought of.

Kwek Leong, those are nice branchy pieces and I'm one of them, guilty of paying good money for firewood and favor these over stiff, blocky ones.

Arrangement #15 looks interesting, but #9 & 10 is the same thing isn't it? #4 has potential too.

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## BFG

Nbr 4 looks like a pair of tarantula in the midst of their mating ritual. I think I have been watching too much documentary already.  :Confused:

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## timebomb

> As the karma sutra of ligneous copulation- (snipped)


What?? Are you having dirty thoughts again, Budak?  :Laughing:  How is it a twisted bunch of driftwoods can lead you to thoughts of copulation?? 

Jokes aside, folks, I'm kind of surprised Mark Mendoza is the only one who likes arrangement No. 14. I kind of like 14 too. Obviously, Mark has good taste  :Laughing: . Anyway, please take a look at this bigger picture of arrangment 14 and tell me if it looks good to you too.



Loh K L

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## stormhawk

KL, I quite like no. 14 too. Just one problem, it takes up alot of tank space. If you can afford the space loss I believe this would make a VERY interesting centrepiece in the tank.

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## nonamethefish

14 would be nice as would pretty much all of them with plants encroaching on the driftwood and a snippet of moss here and there.

Yeah, catching fish from a planted tank is bad enough-with this in there it just makes things worse.

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## dennis

Loh K L,

I wish I had some nice branches like that! Personally, I think 14 is nice, especially if you are going for a moss, or mostly moss tank. That one has great potential as it would not get to toned down and hidden with mosses. If you wanted to do a more Amano/NA style layout, then I think 13 or numbers 2and 4 are best, but I would invert 2,4 so they were upside down from the photo. This would give lots of vertical structure/strength to the layout with out compromising much tank space. This would also give lots of "paths" for the eye to follow yet still be lead back to the focal point.

14 would definitely be awesome covered with willow or Taiwan moss :Smile:  I would think about building up the substrate as much as possible so that they sit as high in the tank as they can. The tallest brach should almost touch the water surface, but not quite and having a mound of substrate would allow the wood to flow off of it and give a very natural, pleasant look harmonious look.

Merely my opinions :Smile:

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## Slaigar

> Jokes aside, folks, I'm kind of surprised Mark Mendoza is the only one who likes arrangement No. 14. I kind of like 14 too. Obviously, Mark has good taste . Anyway, please take a look at this bigger picture of arrangment 14 and tell me if it looks good to you too.


Ah, thanks Loh K L  :Very Happy:  . I knew someday that someone would realize it, hehe.

I do like the look of 14. It has that natural "thrown together" look but still keeps some symmetry. I am not sure if symmetry is desired in an aquarium, but that can be removed by plants on or around it. How much room does it take up?

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## timebomb

Mark, the arrangment occupies an area that is almost a 2 feet square. It isn't very tall, the highest point is about 13 inches. My tank is 50 inches long, 26 inches wide and 24 inches high. I think I will put the arrangment right smack in the centre.

I think Dennis made a very good suggestion about building a mound for the arrangment but my original plan is to half-bury the whole thing to give it a more natural look. 

You know, for years, I've never found the discipline to do an Amano-like tank. I said discipline because that's what it takes really. All too often, we make a mess of our aquascapes because we use so many types of plants there's no theme to speak of. I don't know about you but I lost count of the number of times I start off with a plan in mind but end up with a mess because "this or that plant is so lovely I just have to have it in my tank". 

I'm planning on a moss-only tank but as it is, I can't decide which moss I want to leave out. I plan to have 3 species, one as a moss wall, another as a moss carpet and one more on the driftwood arrangement. I'll probably grow some Weeping Moss on the driftwoods, just a dab here and there so that the arrangement will stand out. As for carpeting, I'll probably use the Singapore Moss as what Nature Aquarium did with their display tank. I'll go for a Taiwan Moss wall if not for the fact that I already have one in my cube tank so I think I will try and grow a Christmas Moss wall again. That would mean I have to leave out several species of mosses, namely the Erect, Taiwan, Java and Willow Moss. Of all the mosses, I love Taiwan the best so it pains me that I can't use it in my main tank. The Willow is also so lovely it's going to be a heartache not growing it. 

Here's a picture of my Willow Moss that has been growing so well since I had the chiller:



Life is full of tough choices  :Laughing:  

Loh K L

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## Robert

Hi Loh K L,
it seems as if I'm the only one who likes number 11 best. It's looks like a big old tree. All the other arrangements look so usual. They remind me a bit of Amano's style and I think it's not the best idea to copy another persons style. Too many people tried to cover his style and now the excitement of this new unusual style got lost (at least for me). 
I like the idea of a big old single tree. Together with some Weeping/Taiwan moss on the higher branches and some Willow moss or just Java moss at the basis it should look quite interesting and unusual. The moss at the basis of the tree should be a simple looking moss so that the main attention of the beholer will be at the higher branches. But I would remove one of the smaller pieces of driftwood at the bottom because there are too much branches, a few were enough for the look of roots. It should not look like a mangrove but like a oak tree or other big trees. 
I would like to show you a picture of what I try to decribe but at the moment we have winter in my region and this means that there are no green leaves on the kinds of trees I mean. So I show you some other pictures I took last weekend. I hope they help you to decide which moss you will take for your new tank  :Cool:  :



What a lovely stream and forest around it. It was really a wonderful winter day, the sun was shining and this enough to make it a wonderful day because at the moment we have just about 7 hours of daylight and often I can't see the sun for several days. So all looks grey and dark, the sky, the trees, the peoples faces. 



But stop, there is some green in this forest. Many stones and trees were covered with this nice bright green kinds of moss. But damn, they don't grow underwater. The bare part of the stone shows the normal water level of this stream. These mosses are no aquatic mosses and even do not grow semi-emeresed. 







These pictures should help you to decide. I guess the Willow moss will look much nicer in your tank :wink: ! BTW I took the pcitures again at the Marliner Bach but at another position than last time. 

OK, I guees you got the idea. Enuogh off-topic and back to your idea. I won't use a moss wall, it destroys the effect of the driftwood. Moss on the ground, moss in the wood and moss on the back looks too monotony and boring. For such a single object in the middle of the tank, I would try find plants for the rest of the tank which lead the attention to middle object and I won't use any back wall (perhaps some bright coloured paper). Some dark green or better brown cryptos like normal C. wendtii are good for such purpose. Some Anubias barteri var. nana at the right positions are good too. But for the back of the tank they are too small and too bright, I would use A. barteri var. coffeefolia. The dark green and the bright brown young leaves are a nice contrast to the moss and the whole plant is bit bigger than normal nanas. 
The mosses will be the main plants in the tank but if the other plants loosen up the monotony because even if you use all kinds of moss you can find, it will look a bit boring, the whole tank will look much more interesting in my opinion. So the other plants make it a bit more interesting without leading at the attion to them. BTW you want to try a Amano-like tank, don't you? I didn't found a single picture of one of his designed tanks with only one kind of leaf shape. It's seems as if he always uses at least two different leaf shapes e.g. glosso and hair grass to get some tension in the arrangement. 

best regards

Robert


PS There is some willow moss waiting for you in an extra tank of mine (too much to put it in my 30l shrimp tank).

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## strung_0ut

Mr. Loh,

I hate to leave weeping moss out of this one as it is my favorite moss, but it would be interesting to use singapore on the driftwood as to see what morph it takes in the high light. As seen here the compareson with my singapore with two different types of lighting. 


Although I have already seen the christmas shape on your singapore pole. Weeping moss is always a good choice for the driftwood as well. Weeping as the wall would be interesting to see if all the fronds were able to achieve uniformity. Willow moss is really easy as a foreground as you can just plant it like a stem plant. But it really wouldn't go with this kind've setup. So here is what I think: weeping moss carpet, weeping moss wall, weeping moss driftwood  :Twisted Evil:  just kidding. Taiwan moss carpet, singapore driftwood, christmas or weeping moss wall.
It would be cool to see erect moss perfection again, but out with the old and in with the new.

Dennis

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## timebomb

Thanks for the suggestions, Robert and Dennis. I'll probably start working on the tank this coming weekend. I have some ideas but don't know how it will turn out. I'll let you know when the tank looks good enough for pictures.

Loh K L

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## timebomb

> Weeping as the wall would be interesting to see if all the fronds were able to achieve uniformity.


The Weeping don't make good moss walls, Dennis. Here's the reason why:





Maybe it's because I didn't have enough to start with but the Weeping does not grow as thick as Taiwan. Grown as a wall, the Weeping also can't show its unusual characteristic, in that it wraps itself around whatever objects it's grown on.

Loh K L

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## strung_0ut

Very nice nonetheless. I've always wanted to achieve a moss wall, I think its a great way for moss propagation and saving space. My weeping moss looks like that right now just on driftwood, I'm hoping to achieve what Oriental does with their weeping moss.

Dennis  :Cool:

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## ruyle

I'll put in my 2c worth: I liked number 11 the best when you first posted it!
It would be an absolute stunner in a tall enough tank. Number 13 is the
2nd choice if the tank was a little lower in heighth  :Cool:  You guys sure know
how to grow the mosses. I'm going to have to try CO2 again! My mosses
have been doing better now that the house is cooler due to freezing outdoor temps!

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## timebomb

> I'll put in my 2c worth: I liked number 11 the best when you first posted it!


Too late, Bill. I've already put arrangement 14 into the tank.

My wife and I spent the better part of Christmas Eve and the whole of Christmas working on my tank. When I finished last night, I was so tired I went to bed immediately. Didn't know there was a quake until I opened the papers this morning. Hope all is safe with those forum users who live in India, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Anyway, I decided to take Robert's advice and not have a Moss wall after all. I decided on a Taiwan Moss carpet as I have plenty of this moss. I bought a big piece of wire mesh the other day. It's big enough to cover almost the whole of my tank but it would be difficult to work with such a large piece of mesh so I cut it into several pieces. Here's one piece after I tied the Taiwan Moss to it:


Here's how it looks in the tank:


The fish love it so much a pair of _A. australes_ spawn on the moss almost immediately after I put it in:


I found, to my dismay, after the 2nd piece that I didn't have enough Taiwan Moss for the whole tank. As you can see from the picture, there's a lot less moss on the 2nd and 3rd pieces of mesh:


As for the driftwood arrangement, I tied the 3 pieces together with fishing line and used a rock to hold it down as the whole thing was very bouyant:


Here's how the tank looks now. It's nothing like an Amano tank but I'm hoping it will look good when the mosses start to grow:


The driftwood arrangment looks like a giant spider, don't you think?

Loh K L

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## FC

KL,

Your setup looks great, even now! Yes, it is better not to have the moss wall for this case, the tank looks deeper now. I like the large space on the left side of the tank too. The drift woods cluster is a tad small though but good enough.

Good job!

Regarding th fishes, I am not sure. Does having a single and species with less striking colour would provide calm and serene to the setup? Since the mosses are small leaf plants, does small species Rasbora fit?

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## nonamethefish

Maybe find some more pieces of driftwood-perhaps arrange them to use the height of this tank-needs more hardware IMHO but it looks nice!

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