Macro, macro, macro! What a wonderful world this is!

The following images may make ladies shudder!

All the following images were taken with the Canon 5D MK2 and the Canon 65mm MP-E F2.8 and external flash.

Be sure to keep checking back for updates.

Are you ever short of inspiration for your Nature aquarium? Fear no more! No more hunting through aqua journals, trawling the net for latest in the new Nature style tanks. Simply put, all you have to do is, get up off the sofa, walk out the door and find the closets thing that resembles a big mass of trees! Where I’m from, they’re locally known as ‘woods’

Jokes aside, their tremendous place’s to ‘draw’ inspiration from. At any time of year there often stuffed with moss-covered trees, areas that have been constantly fed by nature’s own water table and consist of the most densely populated areas of wild plants you may ever see.

Even if your wooded area isn’t all that big, an area lets say 20 foot square can be the host to some amazing stuff that you can take inspiration from. I’ve also found, and
I’ve also found, and probably obviously, Woods which consist of deciduous trees, often keep the ground much more moist which enables wonderful life forms such as moss to develop on the base of trees, alive or dead. Often the dead stumps can be a wonderful sight when covered in the green stuff!

So, why not get down to your local park, forest or woods and see what you can find!

Here’s a short post showcasing my latest 120cm Aquascape. It’s of a low tech nature and isn’t as heavily planted as my previous works.

It’s based around river stones of different colours and textures. I have a sand and graded gravel foreground, to compliment the stones.
The plant mass is much lower than usual, to accentuate the stones. I’ve tried to add colour with plant choice and fish.

The plants are as follows…

Nymphaea lotus (zenkeri). This, without doubt, is my favourite plant at the moment. It’s colours are splendid, without being ‘garish’ From subtle greens through to stunning pinks and purples, this plant is a must for any aquascaper to try in their lifetime.

Cryptocoryne wendtii ‘Tropica’ (109E) I’ve used a few bunches of this plant from my old aquarium.
Vallis spiralis ‘tiger’ to create a backdrop of green.
Eleocharis parvula, was used on the ‘wings’ of the tank, still hidden from view, this should add a certain something in the later photos

Here’s a short HD video giving a better impression…

The video and the below picture just go to show the varying colours from the same leaf on this Nymphaea lotus (zenkeri).
Hopefully, you’ll agree the fish look nice to.

As i’ve mentioned before, the whole tank is of a low tech nature, and co2 injection is much lower than previous tanks. Ferts are at a minimum and light intensity has been decreased via tape to the underside of the plastic sheet with slots into the Arcadia luminaire.

As for fish, I’ve added a few varieties such as white cloud minnows, rummy nose tetras and Opaline Gouramis.

We’re delighted to announce after a small upgrade to our facilities, we are now able to hold over 150 plants in stock, meaning no minimum quantity requirements on certain species!

» BACOPA COMPACTA
» BOLBITUS HEUDELOTII
» CERATOPTERIS THALICTROIDES
» CRYPTOCORYNE AMICORUM
» CRYPTOCORYNE UNDULATUS GREEN
» ECHINODORUS TENELLUS (Vitro Cup)
» ELEOCHARIS ACICULARIS
» HEMIANTHUS CALLITRICHOIDES ‘Cuba’
» JUNCENS REPENS
» LILAEOPSIS NOVEA-ZEALANDIAE
» LUDWIGIA ARCUATA
» MICRANTHEMUM UMBROSUM
» POGOSTEMON HELFERI
» STAUROGYNE SP.

We also welcome any suggestions for other species to stock, but we are limited to space for the moment…

Here’s our first big competition on PlantedBox.com, and to honour our friends at UKAPS.org, we thought we’d make the comp just for the forum members..

The rules as follows:-

• Exclusive to UKAPS members within UK mainland with a minimum of 25 posts.
• Try to keep it clean… No swearing, vulgar comments, etc. But a sense of humour is welcome.
• Maximum of 5 entries per person.
• No mods, experts, admins or founders (sorry guys!).

Please PM your submissions to PlantedBox.com over at the UKAPS.org Forums.

Something like….

fish says…
shrimp says…

The competition runs for 2 weeks and ends on the16th April 2010. Any entry after this date wont be judged.

The prize shall be the manzinita wood here:

Hopefully we’ll do this kinda thing often too.

So here’s the picture to caption:

Good luck to all

We’ll also have site updates soon, with gallery images and new journals. Lots to look forward to

Enjoy the short video and please let us know what you think

It is with great pride and excitement that today we announce the launch of our new shop, here at plantedbox.com!

Mark and James have been working hard behind the scenes over the last few months to bring together a friendly, affordable, easy to use online shop with a few products that we use within our tanks, including a full range of Aquatic Plants by AquaFleur, hardscape materials, substrates and more. This selection of products will also grow over time, so if there is something you’re interested in, please ask.

Our main aim has always been to help others and really show what is possible with planted aquaria, and with the opening of shop@plantedbox we hope the site will be better funded so we can share more information, add more staff, and extend the main website further.

We’d like to thank all those involved in helping us get the shop open, including suppliers, and pre-opening customers. We love you guys

- Mark Evans & James Maslin

To visit the shop, please click here.