Then the next thing was to find the right branching wood to give this mountain some characteristic. This wasn't so hard as I started looking for dead bonsai trees and finally found a dead bonsai tree in one of the nursery, which I insisted they sell it to me"¦.
(they must have think I'm nuts for buying a dead tree). I then cut off part of the branch, which I think can match my little mountain, and dry it out in the sun for a few days.
I then treated the branch so that it won't rot easily"¦. Might add some artificial green leaves on the tips in the future, if I can find the right size"¦
Once all this is done, it's a matter of securing it to the piece of rock.
I then source for some artificial leaves and glue them onto the dried branch.
Next project is to make a custom fiberglass mountain tray to sit the mountain rock "¦.
I will also spray water over the rocks daily to ensure this mountain rock is moist all the time as this type of rocks is very porous and will absorb water like sponge. It will also help in reducing the humidity moisture from the tank wide surface.
The lights above the tank and the moist rock will be great to grow out some plants and green moss on those mountain rocks as it will act as natural sunlight"¦!!
To give the overall set-up the all-natural-look, I added at the base of the mountain with some soil and grow some grass and once those moss and grass starts to takes off, I will remove those artificial leaves....
You can see from my sketches, I was originally thinking of using a live bonsai plants but decided against it in the end as I think I will only kill the plant in a long term as my interest is in the reef so a dead bonsai suit my needs just fine :lol:
Who knows, if one day I can find a suitable fiberglass tray, I might convert the upper section of the landscape into a plaudarium? But I guess that's a project for later on"¦.
:rolleye1:
