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As Keith says, you either carry on with what you have now, hope the plants make it work for you... or you strip it back down and have what you really want. What are the consequences if you don't like it? You stop maintenance, you wish it were different every time you see it, you strip it down and restart anyway but now with a bigger mess? It's your call and this hobby will continue to test your patience but playing with hardscape is one of the most fun parts of the hobby for me.

If you really were going to rethink things you could get the sand out without too much havoc. Maybe cut a piece of card to divide the soil and sand, remove the stone that is doing that job then spoon it out, once the majority is out you could use a damp cloth or sponge to pick up the remaining bits.

I don't have too many suggestions on what you could do instead as it's quite hard to get a feel for the individual stones and them as 3D objects but what I would suggest is spend 2 or 3 days and for an hour on each of them make a collections of scapes that inspire you. They don't have to be dragon stone - it's something to inspire a layout, a concept, a philosophy. You'll probably see a theme in the collection of ideas - triangular, island, beach, pathway etc.

It sounds like you've decided you want the vertical stone to be the centre piece so look at a layout that will work with that as the focus. It reminds me of pride rock from the lion king - google 'pride rock aquascape' - cliche but you take the idea and iterate over it, add to it, simplify it - it's not a literal copy. When I saw it I also thought of the latest scape Dave Chow did at Green Aqua - photo / video.

Remember you don't need to use every stone you have. Maybe look at the concepts of iwgumi - you don't have to follow the minimal planting style but use the stone work concept to help build an idea.
 
If you really were going to rethink things you could get the sand out without too much havoc. Maybe cut a piece of card to divide the soil and sand, remove the stone that is doing that job then spoon it out, once the majority is out you could use a damp cloth or sponge to pick up the remaining bits.

Or you could just siphon it out;)
 
So I just redid the hardscape layout because it wasn't making sense to me after seeing so many iwagumi hardscapes in YouTube to inspire myself.
The plants arrived late thanks to DPD. The customer service from Aquarium Gardens was amazing!
Just planted it last night.
Filter is not where it's going to be but the power cord is too short, I already ordered an extension.
What do you think?
IMG_20190703_011238.jpg
 
hey guys, i just did some tests on the tap water and the aquarium water (1day with api quick start, seachem prime, fertilizers and liquid co2)
maybe it's too early to do tests, but these were my results:
Tap
- KH Total Alkalinity: 13
-GH General Hardness: 17-18
Aquarium
- KH Total Alkalinity: <1
- GH General Hardness: 8

I'm a little bit worried about alkalinity, but maybe it's too soon, or did i mess something up?
 
Goncalo Oliveira

img_20190703_011238-jpg.jpg


I like the layout except the front RH corner. Reasons being no matter where you want to look at your eyes are immediately dragged to that corner.

What to do.
1 Turn filter off.
2 Drain as much water as possible and store.
3 Move the two green balls up higher.
4 Take out all the white ???
5 Take out the rock.
6 Replace with exactly the same black Substrate and continue with the same slope.
7 Gently replace the water as not to disturb any of the plants or new substrate.
8 Turn filter back on.
9 The water might be a little murky when it settles give your filter a good cleaning using the tank water and top up with new clean water.
10 Buy a few more of those green balls.

OK it might look a big job but if completely organized it should be all finished under the hour. A few days later you will be saying "Why did I use all that white"

Keith:wave::wave:
 
Goncalo Oliveira


I like the layout except the front RH corner. Reasons being no matter where you want to look at your eyes are immediately dragged to that corner.

Keith:wave::wave:

Hey Keith, thanks for your suggestions but I actually like how it is right now, maybe in the long game I'll do that but I think the white sand will make a good contrast with the shrimps I'm planning to put there.
 
Hi,

Hope the new plants are looking good.

I think your tank would look nice with the stone near the sand removed and smashed up. Use this to hold back the soil.

Eg

 
Goncalo Oliveira,
Hey Keith, thanks for your suggestions but I actually like how it is right now, maybe in the long game I'll do that but I think the white sand will make a good contrast with the shrimps I'm planning to put there.

It's your tank in our home and as long as you a happy it's perfectly OK with me. A few points for you to think about. The white will get very dirty quickly and start looking extremely untidy. The shrimps will spend more time grazing in the non white area.

Keith:wave::wave:
 
Hi,

Hope the new plants are looking good.

I think your tank would look nice with the stone near the sand removed and smashed up. Use this to hold back the soil.

Eg

Hello, thanks for your advise and lovely video. I'm actually thinking of covering that rock with Leptodictyum riparium.

Goncalo Oliveira,


It's your tank in our home and as long as you a happy it's perfectly OK with me. A few points for you to think about. The white will get very dirty quickly and start looking extremely untidy. The shrimps will spend more time grazing in the non white area.

Keith:wave::wave:

Yes I still have like 3kg of sand so probably will be replacing with time. I will keep them there with the moss balls eheh
 
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