Aquascaping: Bonsai Driftwood

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The first in my aquascaping timeline would be to get equipments and supplies to start my tank. I intend to do this on the most efficient use of budget without sacrificing quality.

To start off, I bought some tweety wood and lava rocks from Cartimar(the Mecca of Aquarists in the Philippines).  This would be the foundation of my aquascape.

Materials:

  • select driftwood pieces (preferably small and with lots of crooked branches)
  • 1kg lava rock
  • glue gun
  • cyanoacrylate glue (super glue)
Tools:
  • drill
  • pliers
  • hack saw
The base of the sculpture would rest on lava rocks. I arranged the rocks to provide a stable platform while still looking natural. This would be glued into place with hot glue.

The next step is to select the base of the tree. This would be the roots, trunk and branches. I picked the most suitable base from the store and picked small pieces of driftwood that can be used as branches and roots.

The base is attached to the rocks using hot glue while taking care not to expose any glue. The branches and roots are selected and cut using pliers and hack saw. This is attached to the main trunk using super glue. A nice way to attach a large piece of branch is to drill a hole on both points and stick a dowel(toothpick/barbeque stick) and apply super glue.

To give you an idea for the costs of this:
  • lava rocks - Php 50 / kilo
  • driftwood - Minimum price is Php 15. I got the main trunk for Php 120, the other branch parts for around Php 80 and small pieces worth 15 each.

This is not yet the final product. I ended up cutting the top to a maximum height of 9 inches and adding some more roots and branches.

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