New 180L tank

[Rafoda]

Hello,

I started to build a new tank from scratch. I bought the glass, sealed it, and now it is ready to receive the hardscape. It is 80lx45wx50h cm. This is how it is (YouTube video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abue2caGHUk

As you can see, the tank will be viewed by both sides, which in my opinion is the hardest challenge with this tank.

I found this piece of wood near my house, removed the bark, recut the edges to my liking and this is how it looks like:

I bought these stones (more than I am going to need I guess):

I am hoping to get some ideas from you, experienced aquarium keepers. This is going to be my largest tank so far, and the fact that the tank will be viewed by both sides leaves me with limited choices for my hardscape.

Thank you

 

[Rafoda]

guess i'll have to look for another forum

 

[ceg4048]

Well, do you really think that this is a fair comment? All you've done so far is to show pictures of a piece of wood and some rocks on the floor.

Why not assemble them dry in the tank and arrange a design so that folks can see what's in your mind. This is standard procedure. Based on your video, it seems clear that the tank is ready to receive substrate, wood and rocks.

If you want some ideas, couldn't you have simply browsed the Journals sub-forum? There are even the Planted Tank Gallery and an Aquascaping sub-forums to get ideas from.

George Farmer has written a three part Aquascaping How-to which are stickies in the Aquascaping sub-forum.

I think you could have checked those resources for ideas. There are literally thousands of examples on this forums. All you have to do is look. Are we to be held hostage simply because you failed to perform the most basic homework? Come on man, put in some gravel, throw the rocks in the dry tank, take a picture and show us what's in your head. Only you have access to your brain cells, we can only look at the results and critique what we see.

Cheers,

 

[foxfish]

Not sure about the wood either - is it soft wood, unsealed softwood or especially "pine" is supposed to leach out toxins!

 

[twg]

The wood just doesn't look natural to me, it's almost too smooth. Like a walking stick.

Just my thoughts.

I agree though, assemble the hardscape and take some snaps. The member critique and ideas always flow from there.

 

[ghostsword]

What I would do would be to add as much rocks to the tank as possible, to cover the entire bottom, with a small are of substrate. Plant in between the rocks, and add some sticks of manzanita or bogwood in between the rocks as well.

Make something like this:

 

[Rafoda]

Hello everyone,
after considering your thoughts, I ended up with the following. One side:

Other side:

What if I added another stone to that empty space?:

What do you think?
Thank you

 

[Tom]

I think there's some potential there. Can you give us details on what substrate you have gone for? What are your plans for planting? How secure are those slanting rocks?

One other thing I might try could be to try slanting the single rock in the other direction towards the others. Maybe some more smaller ones around it? Try to keep the rock placement in roughly a 3:2 ratio, but the general rule to begin with is to try odd numbers. You have the right idea having more on one side, but maybe some more smaller ones dotted around would help to "balance" things out. Keep playing and see what you can come up with

Tom