New set up: Comments and feedback welcome

[alvinchan80]

Hi guys... i am currently setting up a new aquascape.. please give some comments..





All comments are welcome...

[Navanod]

Hi bro,

Welcome to the scaping team

My humble opinions:

1. The main rock is kinda flat and too smooth on the display side. Looks unnatural IMHO. Maybe can try rotating it to show other sides?

2. Number of rocks is even, which creates symmetry, making it looks unnatural again. Also, the arrangement is too orderly, creating a triangulated pattern on the left, unnatural again.

3. Spacing of the rocks are quite wide, try forming into clusters of 3 or 5s for a start and see if you like the looks. Normal way is for 2 smaller rocks to "support" a larger one

4. Erosion will be a big issue. I know you've used a more stable material underneath the soil right? Make sure that your rocks will not fall or roll down if the soil gets eroded away. i.e, the weight of the rocks should sit on the stable base

I shall not go into the "flow" and directions part yet...quite hard to explain haha!

Good effort nonetheless bro, keep it up and don't rush!

[Shadow]

Is this a cube tank?

just want to add, some of the rocks are small, it will be overshadow by plants in no time. Also you probably want to get bigger main rock

[alvinchan80]

Is this a cube tank?

just want to add, some of the rocks are small, it will be overshadow by plants in no time. Also you probably want to get bigger main rock

The rocks are actually buried with only the nice facing tips facing out of the soil.. Most prob I will be making HC lawn using dry start first.. Might be take the bigger rock on the far right to create another plateau on the left with some supporting smaller rocks I think..

Not really easy.. Now I know why Bro Nav is having trouble setting up with tons of variations to set up.. (and now I got lots of leftover rocks)

[alvinchan80]

Updates...

*note: the right side soil slope is already removed.. its flatten out already...

[tofubox]

Hi there, the substrate on the right where the sharp rock is standing looks abit flat, u might wanna give it a bit of shap to look natural just my own input.

[alvinchan80]

Hi there, the substrate on the right where the sharp rock is standing looks abit flat, u might wanna give it a bit of shap to look natural just my own input.

great minds think alike.. haha.. i actually used the soil flattener to poke abit to make it more natural looking.. but right now, no water is added... maybe when water is added, it might be better... also worry my netting of volcanic rock will be exposed when water goes in.. lolx...


Guys, do you think i should make the background higher sloped instead of flatten out?

[alvinchan80]

Clearer Updates to my tank...

Masters of aquascaping.. please give me ideas on how to make it better...









Hope to get some ideas soon...

[blue33]

hmm... something looks familiar "leh"? I would have guess is you that day.

[alvinchan80]

hmm... something looks familiar "leh"?

Hi Blue.. nothing familiar about it.. its your tank... it is really very good tank.. thank you very much...

can Blue Shifu teach me some guides on what I can do to improve my scape & maybe teach me along... Oh ya.. i want to thank you for guiding us on the set up... it really benefits me a lot... now all my staghorn is dead or dormant.. THANK YOU SO MUCH..

[blue33]

lol... glad you like it. Didnt know Peter is your friend/buddy?

Personally i think the rocks are too sharp and too many of the similar shape and sizes. The no. of rocks should be in odd no., the most is 7 rock. Show those that has character or ugly part, these usually will bring out the best effect of the scape. Do not clutter so many piece in the same area, it wont look natural at all. IMHO.

Iwagumi need some harmony effect also. ...

[alvinchan80]

lol... glad you like it. Didnt know Peter is your friend/buddy?

Personally i think the rocks are too sharp and too many of the similar shape and sizes. The no. of rocks should be in odd no., the most is 7 rock. Show those that has character or ugly part, these usually will bring out the best effect of the scape. Do not clutter so many piece in the same area, it wont look natural at all. IMHO.

Iwagumi need some harmony effect also. ...

Peter is a good friend as well as my best friend's childhood friend.. haha... should have told you beforehand.. so sorry about it ya?

shape too sharp? hmmm... guess its back to finding rocks? actually i placed so many rocks is to cover the base.. some of the netting of volcanic rock seems to be able to be seen if high erosion occurs... guess its back to the drawing block for me...

i am really not gifted for this.. haha.... try try again

[Navanod]

Do not worry about the nettings or lava rocks being seen now. Because they WILL BE, hahaha!!
You can always top up with soil to cover or do what I do, shovel them back. But until the plants grows over, erosion will surely happen

[alvinchan80]

Oh... now I know... thanks bro Don...
I keep some soil aside to cover those 'holes' later or just use those that have been eroded to cover back? either way is fine i guess right?? hahaha

So the right background i will create a slope, but how high the slope should look more natural? half of the slope of my cliff now?
Remove some rocks to make it odd number... hmmm....

[Navanod]

Forgot to remind you about the most important thing.
Find and put your main rock at the golden ratio point. Google it

And take a look at the styles and evolution of the Iwagumi styles here:
http://www.aquajournal.net/na/iwagumi/styles.html

You can pick and follow a style, mix them or try to come up with a brand new style. At this point, yours looks like Style II.
Read through the rest of that site if you can and maybe you'll understand more (hopefully more than me...haha!)

[Tian85]

Will like to know what you use to create such high slope. is it all aqua soil?

[eviltrain]

you can actually add chunks of fist size or smaller lava rocks under the soil to create the high slope. this will prevent the soil from eroding easily.

[alvinchan80]

Will like to know what you use to create such high slope. is it all aqua soil?

what i did was to get those netted bag for putting in media for sump tank & dumped in volcanic/lava rock inside to give it the height and also hoping not to use up too much soil.. all these are read & taught by bro Navanod... haha....
but in total, i did used up approximately 9L + 3L of ADA2 soil... still have some leftover to create a background slope during the weekend....

Bro Nav!!! to DSM HC or not to?? haha... been pondering over this for awhile..... hair grass?? what plants to use emerse method? or can i just add water then plant??

[Navanod]

The lava rock/chip idea was taught to me by Blue33. He even pointed me to the shop. I find that bags of smaller chips are easier to work with that large chunks of rocks because the bags can be molded to the desired shape and size.

I failed in my DSM, so I cannot help you very much there. If you want to start off underwater, make sure you blast CO2 or the HC may melt. Thats what I did (since no livestocks at that time), hehe.
I'm actually having issues with the hairgrass invading my HC instead of growing onto the empty spaces I left for it at the back.

[alvinchan80]

The lava rock/chip idea was taught to me by Blue33. He even pointed me to the shop. I find that bags of smaller chips are easier to work with that large chunks of rocks because the bags can be molded to the desired shape and size.

I failed in my DSM, so I cannot help you very much there. If you want to start off underwater, make sure you blast CO2 or the HC may melt. Thats what I did (since no livestocks at that time), hehe.
I'm actually having issues with the hairgrass invading my HC instead of growing onto the empty spaces I left for it at the back.

actually right now i feel that the left side with all those rocks seems alright... although the number of rocks in even number, but i m sure some will be covered by some plants sooner or later...
what is the bps to be blasting CO2 when you are starting off underwater? 4bps? 6bps?

should I place a angulated rock on the right barren spot to face the left?? =P