First real "scape" attempt
 

I have shrimp tanks and tanks with plants in them but I seem to buy whatever plant is on sale and stick it in there and while the fish love playing in them, some don't look very "scaped".

This was just extra aquasoil I had laying around, an 10gal, 2x13W CFL bulbs, already had the driftwood with a nice small moss tied down to it, so I cut the fishing line and pulled off the moss and just left what was attached just to give it that sparse moss feel. The rocks are just ones from my backyard, I have a bunch in different sizes but didn't want to clutter it with rocks or too many, so I choose these ones.

I got a small thing of DHG today on sale and planted that as the only plant I want in the tank? Is this a decent attempt and any suggestions on moving the rocks around? I sort of like how the curve of the driftwood gives a cave appearance under it. I'll probably just move my neons over to it in a month or so when it's cycled and settled.

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/150/tank2f.png

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/4489/tank1x.png


I know the glass is dirty. lol.


I don't know if I like the rock in the left corner behind the wood or not. I have other plants I could put there, just not sure I want anything other than the hairgrass but if I can take some other tank shots of the plants I have (don't know the name of half of them, it's whatever Big Al's has on sale that week. lol.)

I do know I have
-vals, which I don't want the runners of it everywhere.
-sunset hydro
-java fern
-petite nano anubis.
-some tall bushy stem thing that looks like hornwort but really bushy and grows roots
-one that sort of looks like marijuana with purple tops and that closes up at night.
-big wack of riccia that grew into my hob filter on my shrimp tank and is thriving being in the filter flow but growing emersed.

Played with some more rocks? Better? Worse?

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/851...1228231508.jpg

Better, but a little monotonous. Try this maybe:

http://i.imgur.com/iIMzY.jpg

Get rid of the X rocks, and do something with the ? rocks, like turn the long one up on the end, and pile the other with another rock somewhere. This should create a bit of a meadow space and also increase rock interest. The square rock has definitely got to go though.

I don't know much about this but I can tell you this from watching videos of aquascapes. You need to have one focal point but right now your scape is crazy. Maybe use some big rocks on the left side and take out the other big rocks use the smaller rocks but keep them close together and not all over the tank.

hope I am not too harsh in examining the scape - but here are my thoughts:

1) for a scape to have depth banking of substrate should be from front to back, and should be al linear as possible(but depends on scape - your's requires one) to create defined lines of the scape.
2) hardscape should be of same colour. Different colour is always a major distraction.
3)The scape totally lacks flow. I like the right back rock arrangement but if you notice it all gets lost from there on, the rocks seems to be just stacked where-ever possible.

I recently scaped something in these lines adding a pic for reference to show how it can be done(hope you don't mind me posting the pic)..very simple though..a bit of height is what you need :)

Unless you plan to grow moss on the rocks, I'd not use white/light colored rocks with black/dark gravel. It doesn't look right as it would never occur in nature. The gravel/sand is always the same as the rocks in a stream/river.

This is a roundish black river stone I grew Flame moss on for a nano I ended up selling. This was about 30days old and ready for a trim to start the next rock. I like flame moss for this project, grows fast & thick.

http://i541.photobucket.com/albums/g...25-12_1608.jpg

Problem is this is cheapo scape and I have white rocks and brown substrate. lol. And don't all those Iwugami use ADA brown substrate and ADA dark greyish sereyi stones?

I'll play around some more, just trying to work with what I have already though. See what else I have in boxes of stuff. lol.

But, they didn't ask my opinion.
:tongue:

White rocks that are completely smooth remind me of a stream, but this doesn't have the look of a stream. So I say the white rocks should go.

Also you never know if they'll leech or give off stuff in your water.

You could do lots of driftwood with some more jagged rock, but those just don't look natural with your scape.


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I've used them in other tanks with no problem. Hmmmm, I have lots of different sized lava rock I could try. Just trying to work with what I have, as much as I'd love to go spend $100 on rocks or wood, I can't. Big Al's boxing day sale already got me on other things I needed. lol. I'll play around and see what I can do or what else I have.

LOL I understand.

I spent $100 on rocks and DW. I am big on aquascaping, and fortunately, I have lots of materials now :).

I only do nanos, so I imagine bigger tanks are tougher.

Try the lava rock. And maybe put moss all over. It looks excellent.


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I'll try the lava rock. So I have 3 big pieces and some smaller ones. Following the aquasquaping idea, I should have 1 big focal point 1/3rd the way, then maybe something smaller and not so big in the other 2/3rd's?

Yes. And it never hurts to throw driftwood/ things covered with moss as a filler in between all that.

You can always look at my 18" long to reinforce the focus and two other draws.

Make use of empty space.

Hehe I'll help any way possible since you so frequently help others with shrimp questions.


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better?

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/5...1229230105.jpg

You my friend need something dynamic going vertically.

Those are nice rocks though. They fit a lot better.

Could you turn one on its side?

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