sera Hard­scape Desert

Setup instruction for sera Hardscape Desert

What may sound contradictorily at first is in fact rather attractive – with the Desert hardscape, we are creating an underwater desert. This is included:

  • 2 x sera Rock Grand Canyon S/M
  • 3 x sera Rock Grand Canyon L
  • 1 x sera Rock Asian Pagoda XXL
  • 1 x sera floredepot 4.7 kg (10.4 lb.)
  • 1 x sera Gravel Ocher 3 l
  • 2 x sera Gravel Ocher 6 l
  • 1 x sera Gravel Beige 3 l

Four setup steps are required for the Desert hardscape:

1. Fill in nutrient soil

sera floredepot bottom ground consists of sand, peat, essential nutrients and trace elements. It supports the plants growing on as well as forming strong roots. For the sera Hardscape Desert, the nutrient soil is distributed in a layer approximately 2–3 cm (0.8–1.2 in.) thick in the entire Scaper Cube. For not disturbing the final appearance of the landscape, we recommend hiding the nutrient soil behind the ornamental bottom ground along the aquarium glass.

2. Fill in decorative bottom ground

The combination of the very fine grained sera Gravel Ocher and the somewhat more coarse grained sera Gravel Beige optimally imitates the desert soil. The ocher colored gravel is poured with a rising slope towards the back side for the Desert hardscape. The sera Gravel Beige allows creating great highlights also after positioning the rocks.

 

 

Tip: Keep a small amount of the ornamental bottom ground for filling or smoothening undesired unevenness also after setting up the hardscape, or after planting.

3. Place rocks

The Asian Pagoda XXL (A) mainstone protrudes highly and is placed left in the back. It is an absolute eye-catcher. The smaller rocks, Grand Canyon L (B) and Grand Canyon S/M (C), have been arranged at the side and in the foreground here, and thus create an impressive mountain pass with a great range.

A) sera Rock Asian Pagoda XXL

B) sera Rock Grand Canyon L

C) sera Rock Grand Canyon S/M

4. Add plants

The Bucephalandra spec. (3) is particularly suited for attaching it to the rocks. This can, for instance, be done with suitable glue or fishing line. The other two plants, Hemianthus micranthemoides (1) and Eleocharis acicularis (2), are planted into the bottom ground. Gently press a hole into the gravel with the fingers, or push it aside to do so. Make sure the nutrient soil does not mix with the bottom ground and gets to the surface while doing so.

The roots of the plants can be shortened to 2 cm (0.8 in.) if required, e.g. for planting them more easily. Please use sharp scissors (e.g. sera flore tool S) to do so for avoiding squeezing, which may lead to rot. In case of smaller plants such as bottom covering plants, we recommend cleaving the plant carefully and without damaging single stems, and to plant them in smaller bushes with some distance to each other. This is best done with a pair of tweezers (e.g. sera flore tool P).

Tip: Before adding fish, it is worthwhile with new Cube setups to wait until the plants have grown on and cannot be pulled out by the fish anymore.

The hardscape setup just serves as an inspiration – there are no boundaries to your creativity.

The following plants have been used in our setup example:

1. Hemianthus micranthemoides

2. Eleocharis acicularis

3. Bucephalandra spec.

This video comprises the single steps:

 

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