A 1ft Cube Journal - Hardscape

[Mizu World]

Dear hobbyists,

I have been getting questions about hardscapes lately, especially for rocks.

Since the trend seems to be towards small tanks lately, I have used a 1ft cube (from the new 1ft package I have on Mizu World) to show you what you can do with some Kurokinryu Stones.

An example of a simple Iwagumi layout in a 1ft cube:



I won't tell you about the substrate you can use (be it ADA, GEX, Nisso or whatever) since the main topic is on hardscape.

Here, we have a nicely textured and longish Kurokinryu Stones - M as the main rock.
Most people think that this is too big for a 1ft tank but it's actually just a nice size.
Iwagumi is all about the hardscape first so this should be your main focus. The rest are just secondary.



Here, we use 4x Kurokinryu Stones - SS as support and fill the foreground area with Dressing Sand - White. The white sand contrast well with the Kurokinryu Stones and gives a refreshing feel to the whole scape.

The background substrate has been sloped to match the angle of the main rock.

Suitable plants for this scape includes Rotala rotundifolia, Haigrass, HC, Glosso, etc. Or you could go even lower tech and just plant mosses at the background.


Cheers,
Ben

[Mizu World]

The focus on this thread is about hardscaping. So it's likely that I will not go into the step-by-step setup of this tank.

Will definitely be back with the same tank but different placements of hardscapes.

[Mizu World]

A few other views before tearing this down:





All done up in 10 minutes (including shooting).

[jacian]

Nice setup and thanks for the effort for showing us the hardscaping. However, I find that the choice of plants plays an important part in the layout as well. In this case, I find the main rock a bit too 'short' if I will to have stem plants behind it.

Just my 2 cents.

[Mizu World]

Yes, it's true. The current setup you see is more suitable for low, foreground plants.

Please note that the foreground was not raised a lot as this was set up quickly to show how to utilize the hardscape.

Hopefully, I will have time to do a complete setup for this mentioned piece in the near future.

Thanks for the feedback. Do share and discuss more on this so that we can all benefit from each other.


Cheers,
Ben

[Jervis]

I only realized the true beauty of the main stone after you posted the top view shot. It's a very nice piece of rock you have there The crescent shape is more than enough to make up for the lack of texture/pattern.

[Mizu World]

It's a really unique piece with a nice shape and texture.

But my limited photography skills does not allow me to show the real beauty of the main stone!

[sfk7]

i'm really interested in getting the stones from you but after browsing the website, how can I choose what i'll be getting?

since this is not really about scaping maybe you can pm me. thanks

[aquaSynthesis]

Bro... You passed with flying colors! Ouch! I hate it to know that I once touched that piece before! Nonetheless awesome piece of rock like I told you, just that I have shallow idea of how to place that rock. well....now you've shown me..

[Graeme]

Thank you for sharing this.

I cant seem to master working with rock into my scapes.
After reading/viewing this I will have another try

Graeme

[Mizu World]

Bro... You passed with flying colors! Ouch! I hate it to know that I once touched that piece before! Nonetheless awesome piece of rock like I told you, just that I have shallow idea of how to place that rock. well....now you've shown me..

Well. You choose to give up on the piece.

[aquaSynthesis]

Well. You choose to give up on the piece.

Because I know you can do better with it. and the other rocks that i got from are already in my tank. i'm satisfied with it! will show you the pics soon for your comments and criticisms.

[Mizu World]

Great that you were able to achieve what you were aiming for.

We all learn through comment and criticism.

[aquaSynthesis]

But I haven't email you the pics bro. hhhmmm....

[Mizu World]

Another setup using the same sized aquarium (30cm cube) with 2 pieces of Kurokinryu Stones - M (main stone) and a smaller supporting stone.

This setup is suitable for a low growing carpet at the foreground and small leafed stem plants at the back. A slight touch of red stem plants can be added to provide more impact.



Close Up of Hardscape

[blue33]

An example of a simple Iwagumi layout in a 1ft cube:

From this front look the stone looks flat(taking space) and short to me, but from the top it looks slim and fits well. Oh, can we get to choose the stone we like? I guess not, online yeah...

[Burnz]

Another setup using the same sized aquarium (30cm cube) with 2 pieces of Kurokinryu Stones - M (main stone) and a smaller supporting stone.

For the purpose of discussion only, I think the size of the rocks looks a bit imposing for a 300x300 cube tank. I would orientate the bigger piece more diagonally and use a much smaller supporting rock to create more space in the front and back to grow the fore/background plants suggested. cheers

[Mizu World]

Partly true. While the rocks can be shifted to an arrangement that you would like, the final size of the rock will be diminished once plants take over.

The look of the stones in the final scape will never look as imposing as what you see here.