CollinT

I'm new to this aquascaping business so bear with me. Bellow is a picture of what I've come up with for the hardscape as of right now. I'm about 70% satisfied with it, but something just feels 'off' still. I think it has something to do with my rock group on the left maybe being arranged in a less-than-natural fashion. Perhaps?

The ultimate plan for planting is to have a carpet of Glosso that covers the front of the tank and kind of pushes upward a ways into the center and a little bit up the incline. At about the middle section I'm thinking about starting a kind of loose line of Dwarf Hairgrass that is planted in natural-ish looking clumps around the bases of the rocks and maybe (if it looks right) a few small clumps mixed in with the Glosso. The back of the tank will be a mix of Dwarf Hairgrass Blyxa Japonica and Wisteria. Hopefully the Wisteria and Japonica have the proportions I'm 'thinking' they do, as I'm kinda shooting in the dark since I don't yet actually have the plants.

Anyway I'm rambling like mad simply tell me what you think as I'm probably going to tinker more with it tonight.



(sorry, my photo taking skills aren't the greatest)

BSS

I'm no expert at hardscaping, but I'll give a few opinions. I tend to like when rocks/driftwood all fall/lean in the same direction. To me the focal rock on the left side should be rotated 180 degrees so it 'faces' the same way as the bigger formation (which I tend to like as it).

Also, I might tend to move the smaller formation forward a bit, because once the plants get started in there, it could easily disappear.

Good luck!
Brian.

Roger Miller

Nice stones. They will tend to darken in time due to things growing on them. That will emphasize the surface texture if there is any. If you want to keep the stones light-colored then you will need to bleach them every now and then and give them a good scrubbing..

My sense of it is that the rocks on the left aren't prominent enough to balance the large grouping on the right. Once you have plants in there the small rocks will be even less prominent and may completely disappear. You might either beef up the grouping on the left or remove it. If you remove it then you will need to move the large grouping a little to the left to preserve the balance.

I'm not clear on what effect you want to get with a background planting of water wisteria. Maybe my imagination just isn't as stretchy today as it sometimes is. You might get a better sense of depth in the tank by using a background plant with darker leaves. Most alternatives will also give you a more manageable aquascape then you will get from water wisteria.


Roger Miller

CollinT

Yeah, I think your right on this one. I initially had all of the rocks going the same direction so they looked kinda like they had been jutted up from the ground by a fault shifting or something of that nature. I ended up change it because the rocks I had just weren't shaped the way I wanted. Thanks for the advice, i think I'll probably change it back.


Thanks man great advice. The problem I was having with making the left side more prominent was that it gave the tank a kind of twin peaks effect that I didn't like. I Then thought about moving the grouping on the right more to the left but it felt too centered then. Perhaps I should revisit that and see how it turns out.

As to the effect I was looking to achieve with the water wisteria... I don't really know. Heh. I suppose what I want from the tank is to keep as much of the background visible as possible and stick to kinda grassy lower growing plants to give it a sort of open sky look. I thought that maybe using small groupings of the wisteria behind the right rock clumping (maybe the left as well if i make it larger) and allowing it to kind of shoot up behind the rocks would look neat and 'maybe' not ruin the (admittedly, minimal) sense of depth I've created. It should be noted that my knowledge of the plant is minimal, so I'm not really sure how it's going to grow in there, but I do know that I liked the leaf structure. Thanks again for the great reply.

I think I'm having a hard time visualizing the way plants will transform the hardscape. If I were looking for a sense of depth and to create a kind of expansive looking space in a small area, what would you all recommend?

Chris S

I think it is pleasing to the eye and looks very natural.

KungPaoChicky

The hardscape is skillfully and meticulously arranged. The only thing I would reconsider is looking a triangular rock lay out. It has been discussed here plenty of times, and I think it would bring more depth and more of a natural feel to the tank. Then again depending on what your planning on doing with your plants, I may completely wrong.

CollinT

Thanks for the comments.

Last night in a fit of restless - um - stupidity, I tore the entire hardscape down. After about an hour of tinkering I began to regret making such drastic changes. No matter what I tried it just wasn't coming together right.

I'm fed up with these rocks so I'm skipping class (I'm sorry Native American History!) and venturing out in search of more. Hopefully i can find smaller rocks with a bit more dept, since most of my little rocks are more like shards of a larger rock. Which makes sense as I did break them off a larger rock in my back yard...

I'll be sure to keep everyone updated (since I'm sure you're all riveted by the processes of my neuroses).

jude_uc

I know you tore it down, but I think the spirit of it was very good. I think the only thing that could have been changed was that the left grouping be moved closer to the right grouping. As you had it, you have two groupings equally spaced. I think by putting them the same distance from the walls, you beg for a symmetry which leads to people asking you to make the left side more prominent. If they aren't exactly symmetrical, but instead balanced by an asymmetrical layout (in both distances and size) you might be better served.

-Adam