Aquascaping

[Attilauk]

hi guys, i was just wondering where you get your ideas from and how you plan the aquascaping in your tanks?

my low light tank is starting to come together and look fairly nice but its taken quite a bit of trial and error to get to this stage. is it all down to hard won experience and knowledge of how the plants will look when grown or is there something else that i haven't considered?

all the planted tanks in the 'planted aquarium journals' section look stunningly beautiful and if i could get mine to look even half as good i would be a very happy man.

cheers

Rich

 

[Dan Robbins]

its all about getting it right from the start.
You've really got to get the lighting, Co2, and fertalisers right to make it easy in the long run.
As for aquascaping, its all down to taste and maybe abit of knowledge.
I like to make mine look as natural as possible, without alot of symetry and what not. I like to keep the species of plants that i keep to a minimum also.
What you want to do is divide your tank into three from front to back.
Firstly choose your hardscape, this is wood, rocks whatever, i keep my hardscape to a minimum, but this is personal choice.
Pick short plants for the front, medium sized plants for the middle, and large for the back.
im not going to lie to you, it can get expenesive, but it is most deffinatly worth while.
invest in an extra light, a co2 kit ( your choice may dependes on the size of your tank) a small DIY CO2 kit works fine for smaller tanks, but id go for a pressurised system for anything larger than 30" personally.

Here is my journal of my planted tank.
Its relatively easy to get started, and if youv got the right equipment, its easy to maintain too.

p.s. i would go for no less than 2watts of lighting per US gallon of water you have. This makes your choices much better.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=266958

i cant emphasise how worth while it is investing in the equipmen from the start.
Dan

 

[Attilauk]

thanks for the in depth answer Dan

you tank is looking fantastic!

i have a Fluval Roma 240 tank which has a very low hood, its possible but really quite difficult to upgrade the lighting in them. with the existing T8 tubes i have just under 1.3 watts/usg at the moment. i have no problems growing low light plants in there, my Echinodirus bleheri, Microsorium pteropus and the various crypts are growing very nicely now. i did get quite lax with my ferts and consequently had a few algae problems, its only in the last month that i have made a real effort to try and get everything back on track and it seems to be working.

this is (a bad pic of) the tank a couple of weeks ago.

i have had a tweak with it since, removed 2 of the swords on the right of the tank as you look at it and added another piece of Microsorium pteropus on bogwood in their place, i will try and get some better pics tonight.

 

[Dan Robbins]

well fair play to you, thats not a bad looking tank!
A small suggestion though, why not add a black background to it? makes everything stand out a little more, and maybe add to that shoal of barbs you've got?
What you could do is add additional T5's ? their abit more compact and may fit side by side with the T8's i understand about the problem with the roma hoods though. V. nice tank however!
What i would do aswell is add some Echinodorus quadriscotatus or Echinodorus magdalena as a foreground plant. I have it in my tank as the forground and it does look very nice.
Get some updated pics up pal!

 

[SuperColey1]

The hobby of aquascaping is much like any other hobby really.

There are different styles and each person has their preference.

As for creativity there are the 75% who go into it halfheartedly, without the proper setup etc and then give up, there are the 24% who copy what others do and then there is the 1% that actually create an original piece of work.

Just like music. There are the ones that don't put the effort in, there are those who jump on someone else's bandwagon and coin it in from someone else's originality and then there are the genius' who are constantly pushing the 'bar' along.

Think Takashi Amano and his nature style and then think how many people just try and emulate this style. There are thousands of samey samey looking tanks out there.

Myself I wouldn't really call myself creative at all. I put my hardscape in, put my plants in and then let it grow. Hardly creative as it does whatever it wants without my intervention really

AC

 

[Attilauk]

ok a couple of updated pics

thanks for the suggestions and your kind comments Dan, a Black background would really help the plants stand out but it would also make it nearly impossible to spot the young BGK i have in there i do have another 4 Denisons Barbs on order from my lfs and i plan to top the Tiger Barb shoal up to 10 i the new year. i will look into extra lighting but at the moment i am quite happy with the growth im getting from the lights i have, i will look out for some Echinodorus quadriscotatus and Echinodorus magdalena too, thanks for the suggestions

Supercoley1 - the music analogy makes a lot of sense, cheers. as for your technique, to use your words, it may not be creative but it certainly looks stunning

 

[Rlon35]

ok a couple of updated pics

thanks for the suggestions and your kind comments Dan, a Black background would really help the plants stand out but it would also make it nearly impossible to spot the young BGK i have in there i do have another 4 Denisons Barbs on order from my lfs and i plan to top the Tiger Barb shoal up to 10 i the new year. i will look into extra lighting but at the moment i am quite happy with the growth im getting from the lights i have, i will look out for some Echinodorus quadriscotatus and Echinodorus magdalena too, thanks for the suggestions ^^^^^^^^^^

I don't know that some of your plants are going to look very good after the barbs start nibbling them to bits. Maybe you are feeding them enough to avoid this, but that could present other problems. The Java Ferns will be OK.

 

[Attilauk]

I don't know that some of your plants are going to look very good after the barbs start nibbling them to bits. Maybe you are feeding them enough to avoid this, but that could present other problems. The Java Ferns will be OK.

i have had a few plants with some comedy cartoon like bites taken out of them but i've found the barbs (and the Bristlenose) prefer to munch on cucumber and lettuce than the plants. i've had the barbs in there for around 3 months now without any major problems, however i accept that the plants could well become part of their diet if im not careful thanks for your concern