Stumped - How To Get That "river Look"?

[Sophie]

I've been thinking and planning for the longest time on how to create the nearest possible resemblance to the Clown's natural habitat. I've accepted it isn't going to be perfect as a vast majority of folk have reported it being extremely muddy and I'm not putting mud in the tank...

I understand I need to do several layers of different sized substrates. Rounded pebbles of different sizes... but what colour? Should I start with a brown coarse sand/grit? Light coloured sand? Ah! I can't seem to find many photos either.

Sadly I can't just go slashing bags of substrate open and mixing them round

 

[Akasha72]

the problem I think you'll have is that the sand will always be on the bottom as it will just fall through gravel. The best advice I can give you would be to do a google images search for various aquascapes and then save the photo's you like to your pc. It's what I did when I was trying to decide on a scape. I couldn't decide but when I'd done saving various photo's it was obvious that the majority were pathway scapes and that's what I went with. 
 
If your unsure of what colour sand/gravel you want to go with look to see what's available for each different type. I'd start with the larger 'rocks' if that's what you are wanting as I think it'll be easier to match sand. You could also have 2 or 3 different colours of sand too and mix them for a really unique look

 

[Baccus]

Sadly mixing sand is not like mixing paint, it doesnt really seem to "blend" like you think it would and you end up with two very distinct colours especially if you happen to mix white and black sand.
Sand will tend to work its way to the bottom of any gravel but you could try starting the base of your subatrate with some larger rounded rocks (possibly bedded on some sand to protect the glass underneath, then use river gravel around the rocks and then top off with washed river sand. You could also think about adding something like ADA which is generally small rounded soil substitutes that many shrimp keepers use to maintain the pH in the tank.
Think about where any currents in the tank are going to be coming from and imagine where sand would naturally accumilate on the sheltered side of any structure like rocks or wood. These sheltered areas are also where many plants would naturally find a sheltered place to grow. In my 4ft tanks I have a HOB filter stationed at one end of the tank which gives me the flow/ current along the length of the tank. From there I just place rocks, timber and plants in position that looks nice and natural. With any plants too think about the strength or hardiness of the plants, any soft easy to break plants will always do better in a sheltered place out of direct current while other more robust plants will handle the current/ flow and make the tank look more natural. Val is a handy plant (even if it does grow like crazy and will need trimming), if Val is planted near the filter return the long strands will reach the surface and wave in the current back across the length of the tank.
If possible check out any photos or paintings that give a cross section view of creeks/ streams/ rivers to help give you some natural looking inspiration.

 

[Sophie]

The tank is a 7ft x 3ft deep x 2.5ft high. Including sump it's 1800 litres in total.
It has 3, 2000lph pumps pushing the current from left to right.

Giant val is something I'm considering but with a shoal of Tinfoil Barbs I'm dubious even that will work..

ADA soil doesn't come cheap to cover such a large footprint sadly but I was considering using it in certain areas for the val. The other issue with plants is my loricariids. Most of them are going to uproot if I'm not careful.

Thanks for the tips ladies, I'll continue the hunt for images.

I'll scrub sand off the list, I've only had one or the other and never mixed the two. It didn't occur to me that it won't stay where placed. Grr! Something that needs to be gotten right the first time round...