Creating A 'riverbed' Affect Using Two Colours Of Florabase

[mishmash]

Hope the title piqued your interest

I have two lots of Colombo Florabase x 10L. One is brown and the other is black. Hmmm... well its all they had in the shop and having driven 30 miles I didnt want to have wasted the petrol so I took it like that.SoWhat I have come up with as a scaping idea is to have the brown as a river bed that flows through from front to back following the lines of the the Golden Ratio from front left to back right with a curve to it rather than linear to make it look like a natural flow. Before the 'river' hits the front of the tank it will span outwards so that the brown extends all the way out to both sides and about 5 to 8cm back from the front, a bit like an estuary. Then I will use the black to the left and right of the 'river' to create a mound sloping from the 'riverbed' up towards the outer and back edge of the tank.

Is this making sense so far ? I will try and draw it later if I can work out how to in photoshop.

Another way to describe it is... From the right and left sides, about 4 to 8cm back from the front, coming in towards the middle but further to the right than to the left, the brown will sweep in to an unjoined width of about 10cm, whereupon it will become a 'riverbed' that curves backwards towards the back of the tank with a gentle incline from front to back. Flanked either side by a large (on the left) and smaller (on the right) mound of black. These mounds will raise up from front to back and centre to sides, forming a highest point at rear sides (although I think I will flatten it out before actually reaching that point).Maybe that sounds better.

Please can all you experienced scapers comment on the merits or disadvantages of doing this ? I may end up having carpet planting on the 'riverbed' in the long run, but understand that most carpetting plants dont grow that well in lower light aquaria. (Although I will be dosing liquid ferts and carbon, then moving on to pressurised and EI in a few months time).

Hope this doesn't sound TOO daft, but please say so if you don't think it will work.Alternatively I can mix it all up to have a two tone substrate of just have the brown underneath the black ???

 

[creg]

i like a nice path or riverbed, it works better if you use a bright coloured sand or gravel though i think. you might aswell give it a go and if you dont like the look of it just mix it all togther

 

[mishmash]

i like a nice path or riverbed, it works better if you use a bright coloured sand or gravel though i think. you might aswell give it a go and if you dont like the look of it just mix it all togther

The brown florabase is reasonably light so hoping it will work

 

[ian]

do us a paint sketch, as i'm struggling to visualise this.

 

[mishmash]

OK here is my appalling attempt at using photoshop !!!

The light brown represents the riverbed and the dark is the mounded areas. the river bed will raise from front to back being a couple of cms at front to 5cm at back and the mounds will raise from middle front to rear outer edges

 

[ian]

that would work, and i think it would look excellent.

the one thing you would have to do is get some kind of border in there to stop the Florabase from mixing. Often used is the corrugated plastic stuff from garden centers.

heres a pic courtesy of Mark Evans to show how they work...

 

[coldcazzie]

I think it'd look great as well... the plastic dividers are well worth it - I don't have any in my biotope and I wish I did. Not only to they stop the different substrates from mixing but they help provide stability and stop everything from slumping later on (that's the problem I'm starting to see now).

 

[mishmash]

Hey everyone thanks for your comments. I still like the idea too, BUT I was not keen on the river being the same substrate type so have swapped the brown florabase for the black so I have 20L of black. I am now giving serious thought to using senegal or samoa sand as the riverbed substrate. I think it would look more natural.

Ianho, thanks for the tip about the plastic dividers. Even though I saw James Findlay doing it on their big display I had totally forgotten about the idea !

 

[creg]

Hey everyone thanks for your comments. I still like the idea too, BUT I was not keen on the river being the same substrate type so have swapped the brown florabase for the black so I have 20L of black. I am now giving serious thought to using senegal or samoa sand as the riverbed substrate. I think it would look more natural.

Ianho, thanks for the tip about the plastic dividers. Even though I saw James Findlay doing it on their big display I had totally forgotten about the idea !

im using senegal sand in my new tank its a lovely orangey colour. unipac do a great range for cheap.

 

[mishmash]

Hey everyone thanks for your comments. I still like the idea too, BUT I was not keen on the river being the same substrate type so have swapped the brown florabase for the black so I have 20L of black. I am now giving serious thought to using senegal or samoa sand as the riverbed substrate. I think it would look more natural.

Ianho, thanks for the tip about the plastic dividers. Even though I saw James Findlay doing it on their big display I had totally forgotten about the idea !

im using senegal sand in my new tank its a lovely orangey colour. unipac do a great range for cheap.

Cool, do you have any pics of it ? I would only need 5L for what I want to do with it.

 

[creg]

sorry for the slow reply, i have a journal here

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/382782-all-pond-solutions-240l-tank/

 

[mishmash]

sorry for the slow reply, i have a journal here

http/www.fishforum...ions-240l-tank/

Thanks its hard to see the orangy colour in the pics as the lighting or exposure is a bit dark but I went on Unipacs site and it looks really nice.

 

[creg]

sorry for the slow reply, i have a journal here

http/www.fishforum...ions-240l-tank/

Thanks its hard to see the orangy colour in the pics as the lighting or exposure is a bit dark but I went on Unipacs site and it looks really nice.

it looks alot different in real life, its really nice. i wish id used unipac sand for the whole tank.

 

[mishmash]

sorry for the slow reply, i have a journal here

http/www.fishforum...ions-240l-tank/

Thanks its hard to see the orangy colour in the pics as the lighting or exposure is a bit dark but I went on Unipacs site and it looks really nice.

it looks alot different in real life, its really nice. i wish id used unipac sand for the whole tank.

I bought the samoa sand and in the shop it looked great. Now I have got it home, it is not as bright as I thought, and I am worried that it will blend with the brown of the florabase too much (although admittedly the florabase will end up covered in plants so not really an issue).

 

[Zikofski]

i may have a better pic my sig is senegal altho it said silica on the bag but hey looks amazing i love it also take a look at my journal got some gd pics in there