Nano aquascape - "Crystal Canyon"

Dimensions: 27x20x20cm or 11x8x8" (10 liters) - Optiwhite
Lighting: Chihiros C-Series C301 14W
Filtration: Eden 501 (sponge, ceramic rings, Purolite)
CO2: Pressurised 1bps thru glass/ceramic diffuser
Substrate: ADA Aquasoil Amazonia, Quartz sand
Hardscape: Glimmer wood rocks
Fertilization: PPS pro, Easy carbo
Water parameters: Temp. 23°C, pH 6.5, KH 3, GH 6, TDS 180
Plants: Fissidens sp. 'Philippines', Fissidens sp. 'Khao sok', Fissidens sp. 'Vietnam', Riccardia graeffei, Anubias sp. 'Pangolino', Crepidomanes sp. 'Calicut', Rotala sp. 'Wayanad', Rotala macrandra 'Mini Butterfly', Rotala sp.'Needle leaf', Hottonia palustris, Hemianthus sp. 'Amano pearl grass'
Fish/shrimps: Crystal Red shrimps, Ramshorn snails

Building a hardscape

Here are some photos of creating process;

First I have made scapebox of styrofoam boards. Hardscape base is egg crate panel cutted to the size - about 2-3mm smaller than inner dimensions of the tank:

Cutting stones:

All pieces are glued with epoxy putty to the egg crate. This way you can have permanent design without worry to move something when doing maintenance. Also, you can see there are smaller stones glued to the main boulders - I wanted some texture and character on the these quite flat surface stones:

Next step - making canyon bottom (with creek). First I needed a base for gluing smaller stones. Piece of plastic net cutted down to fit:

And glued with super glue to the egg crate:

Then I cut out piece of paper to act as creek:

Now when I have a vision how it will look like it is time to make a shore - gluing stones next to the paper.
A little bit of grinding to fit better:

And here it is, almost finished hardscape from the top...

Next step is moss application by yogurt method.

Now at least 2 weeks of DSM and then flooding.

The tank is flooded!

Day 1:

Day 60:

Added 40-50 CRS. Everything growing slowly especially Fissidens. CO2 is at 10-15ppm (needed to decreased it due to shrimps).

Day 80: 

Stem plants at the back needs trimming.

After trimming:

CRS:

Day 104:

Day 127:

Leopard Ramshorn on R. graeffei:

Day 150:

Crepidomanes sp. 'Calicut':

Shrimps!

Day 192:

Day 209 - Final photo:

IIAC 2019 Rank 73 - not bad for such a tiny tank! :)

CIAC 2019 - Category < 120 l - Rank 47

AGA 2019 - Category <28 l - Top 10