Is hardscaping pointless sometimes?

[Jim]

Is hardscaping pointless sometimes? Do we get too hung up initially on hardscaping a tank?

I see so many posts on plant forums of people rescaping and spending hours and hours on their hardscapes tweaking them, to in their own eyes, perfection. Yes they do look great, but later photos of the same tank 3-6-12 months down the track.....there's VERY little to be seen of the original hardscape. It's all hidden by the growth of plants.

Of course this doesn't apply to Amano type setups that are religiously pruned and trimmed, but from my years on plant forums, by and large most rocks and wood end up getting totally obscured eventually.

I think then that large rocks etc just end up as detritus/mulm trap build up areas that have much reduced flow (sometimes total dead flow areas) that stop the flow of nutrients to plants that are behind them.

Also if the rocks are taking up X amount of surface area of the square of the tank bed and can't be seen, wouldnt that area be better either open? or better again planted out?

 

[nayr88]

go dutch lol plenty of plant mass and not much if any hardscape


theres not really an answer to your question, i get what your saying but its just personal preference really, what yoy want to see when you look into your glass box of water

 

[ghostsword]

My point of view is what you don't see on the photos matters.

Sometimes it the small details that make a scape and that cannot be seen on the photos. That little piece of wood sticking out on the corner, that rock slightly obscured by plants, the crevice that moss is starting to take over, those are all details that in my opinion make a setup truly spectacular.

But as Ryan said, it is all a matter of opinion, what you like to see on your tank.

My kids like to have spongebob houses on their tanks, along with moss and manzanita wood. Who am I to tell them that it is tacky and not natural?


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