Well, after soaking (with sporadic water changes) the DW for about two months and then hearing some positives from Diana Walstad on driftwood and tanins in the tank, I finally decided to just plop my new mopani wood into my tank and play around a bit. I started by finding the golden square and then trying to figure out how the wood could accent the corners of the square.

So, whatdy'all think? Should I rotate it more to bring the front forward more? It's a bit tippy, as there is more weight on the right. Though I hope it will stabliize. The back side of the wood doesn't have the nice colors and it's full of crevices, but if folks think it will flow by flipping it, I'm game.

I also threw an fairly sizable, somewhat rectagular piece in the back left hand corner. I liked the individual piece in the front, so I used the second piece to cover up some tank hardware. So, that could be added into the mix as well.

The water is a bit cloudy as this immediately after a WC. Also, some of the plants I just kinda thrown in there, as I don't want to spend too much time until the wood gets its final resting place.

So, throw out those artistic suggestions. I'm all ears!
Brian.

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I must say your tank is quite beautiful. I was starring at it for a number of minutes.

Now for the reason for the thread, the only suggestion on the wood I might have is to move the piece of wood standing upright maybe to the back and to the left just a bit. Maybe have some of your background plant leaves obscurring the wood a bit... Or even a 2-3" move to the back, and 2" to the left would be a better spot... But that's being quite picky, right now i htink it looks great, just a bit too much bark showing is all.

Thanks for the suggestion. Based on my limited past experience, having bark showing is seldom a problem for long! I'll have to go home and think through your suggestions.

It looks great. I would do pretty much what Orion suggested by moving it back a little. You may also consider tying a moss (java moss, taiwan moss, etc) and allowing it to secure itself to the wood, eventually, for a very nice effect. Looks great though!
-Ryan

How much does that piece angle from back to front?
Just wondering if the photo doesn't show the true position.
Cause angling that way can help suggest depth.
In the right setting, I like having exposed wood placed on angles jutting towards the front glass.

I'm certainly no "golden square" expert.
What exactly do you mean by "emphasize the corners?
It looks to me as tho only 1 of the 4 corners - the top left - is accentuated by the wood.
If you rotated it a little, swinging the right/back portion back and to the left, would that accentuate one or both of the right side corners?

Good observation/question, Ed. It was getting a bit late last night, so I likely left off some info. What you are seeing is a single piece of V-shaped driftwood. There is a knob in the back of the taller arm on the right that is pretty much up against the back glass. The other arm is pointing toward the front, and I, too, was thinking about depth when I placed it that way. And, as the piece is a bit heavier on the right side, the balance can be tricky.

Well, I'm no expert either, but I did spend the night at "Holiday Express" (my apologies to anyone who's not familiar with these annoyingly, semi-humorous commercials ).

Here's the golden square concept, in my limited understanding. Throughout history, many classic works of art have consciously or unconsciously exhibited a ratio in the placement of focal points. That ratio (and I think it's called 'phi' (sp?)) is 1.618. So, measuring along the curved front of my tank, I get 36". Dividing that by 1.618, I get 22 1/4". So, the vertical lines are each placed 22 1/4" from the tank edges. Based on my substrate depth (and to save some math), I chose 18" as the top/bottom height, so the horizontal lines are placed at 11 1/8". Now, in theory, if you can get focal points to land on the corners of that golden square, then you should come up with something that visually appeals to most folks. In my placement, I attended to get the point of the shorter piece of wood (as you mentioned) *and* the placement of the A. nana on the thicker wood piece (lower right corner).

So, that's my story, and I'm sticking with it .

Good inputs, folks!
Brian.

The way I was looking at it (and I do NOT have a good eye for such things) by having the 2 legs of the V-shaped wood align with the two sides of the "Golden rectangle", you run the risk of having the negative space - the open space between the legs of the V - centered smack dab in the middle of the tank.

When I see a V shaped structure, my eye can easily be drawn to the center of it - either the place where the 2 legs join or the open space between the legs - rather than the legs themselves.

Do you understand what I'm getting at?

I want to be clear that I'm not trying to be critical of your tank - it is very beautiful.
I'm just trying to clarify my understanding of this concept.

With your explanation, in the pic at least, I don't think the a.nana draws much focus to the lower right corner. You have at least 3 clumps of a. nana in the general area, so that one does't really stick out. And it will receded even more into the background as the plantings mature. If you wish to focus on that corner, perhaps a different color or leaf shaped plant in the foreground.

Ed - I think you've just captured a slew of the thoughts I too was going through...even down to the thought about replacing the nana, which came to me after my last post!! I did want to make use of the square, but I didn't want the DW centered. I'll definitely need to work on some accent plants or possibly focusing on keeping the rest of the square clear, creating some negative space. You and I are certainly on the same wavelength.

I've always had a decent eye for spatial placing and orientation of things, but I wouldn't call myself artistic. So, don't worry about anything you perceive as criticism! If I were (still ) that thin skinned, I wouldn't have put the question out there .

Oh, and just so I don't steer folks too far afield, it appears that the better term to use is the 'golden ratio'. Here' an article written by Brigit from over on the AB boards where I first heard about this and other interesting aspects of aquascaping. http://aquabotanicwetthumb.infopop.c...2&m=3876034022

Now, if I can just come up with that concave design that maximizes use of the golden ratio....

The only thing that kind of sticks out at me when I look at the aquarium is the small piece of wood. It looks too upright to me. The angle looks very strong and it doesn't flow easily.

Mike

Good stuff, Mike! As my Hygo is blowing left to right, I was thinking of trying to get that 'flow' into the DW somehow. Would that seem more natural to you?

Let me give it another look!
Brian.

Hmmmm. I wonder how the fishes are liking all of this excavating ?

Anyway, had to try to eliminate that piece that was too straight and figured I'd get some use out of the other piece I purchased. Lots of stuffs floating in the water, as the major rework just completed.

Better, worse, neither ? LMK!!

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I think that did the trick, very pretty.

That rescape got an "ooohhh" from me the first time I saw it. Definitely better. I like the way you added the red into the golden square, along with the greens and browns. Certaily adds more contrast and accent to the desired focal point.

Hey Now!! Thats the ticket...

Could ya lean it about a 1/4" more to the right??

Lookin good from where I am sittin!!!