StoneAndRootYour first tank, built rightStoneAndRootYour first tank, built rightThe gear is bought. Here's where it all goes: six layouts drawn to scale, each with a placement diagram, plant counts, hardscape notes and a twelve-week trimming calendar.
Instant 51 page PDF with six printable tools. Secure Stripe checkout. All sales are final.
First 100 buyers at $37, then $47
First edition, checked Nov 4, 2026.
Not ready? Get the free sketch pad with the anchor points marked.
The tank is on the stand. The light, the filter and the soil are in a pile beside it. You watched the video that started all this a dozen times, and it still doesn't say where the first rock goes or how many pots of grass fill the front.
People in the comments keep asking the same things:
"Would have been more helpful if a chard [chart] was provided as to what should be the quantity of various kind of substrate as per various size of tank"A viewer, on a planted tank video
"how often does it require to get cleaned ?"Another viewer, on a planted tank video
The book answers that one per layout. After week 6, the Root Cave takes 10 minutes a month. The busiest layout, the Stem Hedge, takes 20 minutes a week.
The beautiful scape is the end of the story. Nobody shows you the plan, the count or what happens in week six when the grass has run wild. This book is that plan, six times over, drawn for the tank you already own.
Most first layouts put the biggest stone dead center. It feels balanced, and it makes the tank look stiff, because there is no good place left for anything else. Move it to one of two spots and the whole tank opens up.
The two spots are the golden ratio points of a 30 inch tank:
Set your biggest stone at one of them, alone, before anything else goes in. Everything you add after that has an obvious place: behind it, beside it, on it, or in front of it. The book calls this the anchor, and every one of the six blueprints starts with it. The other three moves, and the counts for each layout, are inside.
Every blueprint has the same four pages: the drawing, why it works, the hardscape with the arithmetic shown, and planting day with a twelve-week trimming calendar.
"Show me the receipt." It's what I say when a tank looks too good to be easy.
The scape videos that make people want a tank skip everything after the gear. So this book is drawings and arithmetic. Every plant count comes from a rule in chapter 2 that you can check with a ruler. Five of the eight plant heights come from the grower's own pages and three from retailer listings, all listed on page 50.
What we don't claim: these are designs worked out on paper, not tanks we built and photographed. Plants grow differently in every tank, which is why every blueprint has a calendar and a troubleshooting chapter.
Not for high-tech CO2 tanks or carpets of demanding plants. Every layout here is low or medium light.
Every blueprint is drawn for 30 by 12 inches. Chapter 2 gives the formulas, so you can scale soil and plant counts to another size with a ruler and a calculator. The drawings themselves are for the 20 long.
No. All eight plants are sold as low or medium light, and all six layouts are planned without added CO2. The book keeps the light at 6 hours a day in the first month.
No. Pull the plants into a bucket of tank water, set the anchor where the blueprint says, and replant by zone. The calendar starts again from week 1.
After the 3 to 4 week cycle, when ammonia and nitrite both read zero. Plants go in on planting day. The book never shortens the cycle.
You get a PDF to download right after checkout. The pages are sized for phones and laptops, and the tool pages print on letter or A4 with "fit to page".
All sales are final. This is a digital download you get right away, so we don't offer refunds. This doesn't affect any rights you have by law. Questions go to [email protected].
Six blueprints, 51 pages, every count shown.
$37
First 100 buyers at $37, then $47
First edition, checked Nov 4, 2026.
Next on the shelf: The First 12 Weeks Care Cards, one printable card a week for what to trim, test, change and feed.
Instant 51 page PDF with six printable tools. Secure Stripe checkout. All sales are final.
All sales are final. This is a digital download you get right away, so we don't offer refunds. This doesn't affect any rights you have by law.
Three blank 20 long grids, one inch to the square, with the 11.5 and 18.5 inch anchor points marked. Sketch your own layout before you buy a single stone.
