Peter16

This will be my firs nano attempt it is actually 2.91g but who cares ?
Im doing this tank in different stages. im up to stage 3.
Stage 1. Consisted of gathering funds. so i sold all the useless stuff around the house on ebay. My greatest achievement was a small motorcycle some neighbours throughout. I spent a day pulling it apart and by late afternoon i got her going! so i put it on ebay for .99c and sold it for $102

Stage 2. conduct DIY parts. so i put together the diy co2 unit and build the lightstand. costs so far 3.50 for spray paint and the ebay fees.


Stage 3. Final preperation. I recieved my UP AQUA gravel today and i love it. It looks soo good. and i will order plants on the weekend. and in a month or so will order the mini heater and filter media.....

So here are a couple pics.
Please tell me what you think.

A thin sprinkling of old root tabs. gravel depth there is about 20mm



This shows where the tank is, temporarily next to my bed, once i fill it up with water i will move it down to the computer room. It also shows my diy light stand, on my little table i made back in year 10.
I apoligise for the bad shot, my room has 2 black walls and a black ceiling so there is very little light and I had to use the flash.


This is the current scape, the mounds in the corners are a lot more 'vert' (steeper incline) in person. I kept it simple as i want the plants to be the main focus, so they should over grow the rocks in time if you know what i mean.
I would really like your honest opinion with this.


And this shows its position... oh and the greatest marine company in the world
Hence my black and red room.
Excuse the old federation style bed. Its my water bed
[IMG]http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii128/mercury16_2007/100_1577

amphirion

tell you the truth, it seems very plain. there is nothing there to attract or engage the eyes with anything. the "evenly" positioned rocks give a sense of symmetry, which also fails to engage the eyes.
also the fact that the stones are very small will also influence the aesthetics of the tank in the long run. I know that you wanted the plants to be the main focus, but consider this: the rocks are so small, that the plants will grow over them or cover them up which leads to the question: "why even place rocks there in the first place?"

a possible solution would be to somehow place the rocks together in some fashion that allows them to appear as one larger rock, that way when the plants start growing all over the place, at least you can still say: oh there's the rocks.

or even better, use the rocks to create a wall, and place soil behind it and scoop out the soil in front of it so it resembles a hill, and the rocks are holding a good amount of "soil" behind them.
like this?


anywho, that's my two cents, feel free to take or leave. and have fun!

Peter16

Thanks for the reply amphirion. It all helps.
I attempted a few other possible scapes, what do you think ?

This is how i will grow the hair grass and glosso. the hairgrass will cover one corner/side of the tank.

here are some other scapes i tried.
type 1

type 2

Type 3

Type 4 - pretty boring

Type 5 - Step up, I liked this one.


Type 6

amphirion

i do like type 1--> but like i said before, you're going to need small low growing plants otherwise the rocks will be overwhelmed. do you have any plan on controlling the hairgrass? it'd be nice if the hairgrass would stay in its place but it likes to grow and take over like a weed. but i guess you already know about that and glosso wanting to grow vertical so i won't go there.
i like type 5 also but i think that it also need a little more depth which can be created using more rocks and placing more substrate on the "higher level". this set up is also advantageous for controlling the growth of hairgrass. if it tries to cross over the rock barrier, it can easily be snipped.

my original plan actually resembled most plan 6: however, the pile of rocks would actually be perhaps midway of the tank, and buried to half the thickness of substrate. the substrate on front of the rocks would be pushed towards the sides and back of this "rock wall"--this creates the illusion of layers, where you have one layer of strata on front of the tank and the second strata is held behind the pile of rocks.

Peter16

Lots of people on aussie forums have said type 1, and 5.
I do like 5 for the exact reasons you stated. I think i will go with it and build it up a bit higher.

amphirion

im glad im not the only one who thinks so too. go ahead and work with 5. looking forward to seeing you finalize the hardscape.

Peter16

The problem with type 5 is, for the first month or 2 it will be emmersed to in order for the hairgrass to remain moist up on the higher level the glosso will be under water by about 1.5 inches/40mm.
Will that be okay?

here are 2 more. I tried making the layered one with the mountain but didnt turn out to well so didnt bother photographing it.

Type 7. meh


Type 8. this one looks a little unnatural but i like it and the hairgrass can easily be contained by the rock boarder.

amphirion

too bad the hill effect didn't workout for you.
however, you could do something like type 8, but in terms of aesthetics you should probably follow the golden ratio and move the "center" mountain a bit more to the right or the left- this makes the scene more dynamic and engages the eyes.

if you really want to go hardcore accurate scaping, if you noticed in natural rock scapes, angled rocks seem to follow in the same direction- this occurs due to erosion via wind, water, or glaciation. by placing the rocks in a certain dynamic position, you can greatly increase the complexity of your tank.



i've never used the emersion technique for glosso so i can't help you there...sorry.

Peter16

Thats okay you have helped me alot with the scaping side of it.
I would try the "hardcore accurate scape' but dont think it would work with my chosen plants.
Im going to get more rocks this afternoon. then i will try a few different types. I might end up using type 1 and use a "collar" just beneath the substrate to contain the hairgrass.

amphirion

hahaha. that was what i was trying to say!