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Congrats on a lovely looking tank, Gareth!

I love the wood. I must try some of this out at some point!

My first thoughts are that the tallest piece of wood is too straight, at odds with the twisted nature of the remaining pieces. There seems to be a mass of tangled pieces in the lower third of the tank that may become 'wasted' once planted?

What are you intentions with the planting, especially around the high density of wood around the left/centre?

34x turnover seems a little overkill! What's the theory behind it? Are you running intense lighting and nutrients?

I don't remember seeing many final 'scapes from you, so I'm really looking forward to see this one develop... :D
 
George Farmer said:
Congrats on a lovely looking tank, Gareth!

I love the wood. I must try some of this out at some point!
Thanks, George. It's really nice wood, the joy is the versatility of it because a single branch is much more modular than say redmoor where it's either one piece, facing which ever way suits it best, these don't seem so one sided and are much easier to construct complex assemblies with.
My first thoughts are that the tallest piece of wood is too straight, at odds with the twisted nature of the remaining pieces. There seems to be a mass of tangled pieces in the lower third of the tank that may become 'wasted' once planted?
The straight piece is actually the bones of the scape, everything forms from it, and yes the juxtaposition is stark, but like you say I envision most of it to become "wasted". I'm thinking of it more as a planting armature. That brings me onto your next point, I envision about 70% of the lower 3rd of the scape to become the framework for planting and wasted, the lower most level dominated by moss and a feature anubias nestled underneath a protrusion of Bolbitits and narrow leave java. The "arm" or "shelf" that reaches almost horizontal through the front I imagine to be mostly hidden by bolbitits, the large straight contrasting branch will be encrusted in java fern upto the bottom of the top 3rd of the tank forming a strongly triangular focal running from there down to the bottom right corner.

What are you intentions with the planting, especially around the high density of wood around the left/centre?
Pretty much entirely encased, only a hint of the form showing through, the gnarled root bulb I really want to be the only part showing, the wood above it forming the plant work which will give cohesiveness to the other elements of the scape. That said, I've been pointed in the direction of leaving that hole area bare, something I'm mulling over.
34x turnover seems a little overkill! What's the theory behind it? Are you running intense lighting and nutrients?
Haha, that was a typo on my behalf, it should be 24x, I will be running intense lighting and EI, I'm building a LED array that I intend to replace the 2x 24w t5's I have over the tank at the moment. Ideally I need someone to Okay my Schematic then I'm sailing really.

I don't remember seeing many final 'scapes from you, so I'm really looking forward to see this one develop... :D
Thank you, alas luck and good favour has never been on my side with some aspect of my private life intruding and meaning I never get to see a vision completed, I hope this will be different! God knows I've been saving money to buy the tank for long enough!
 
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Just a quick pair to try and highlight how it's constructed and the depth I have to deal with.
 
Looking Good mate :thumbup:

The wood formation you have created deals excellently with the depth of the tank! Cant wait to see this one progress.
 
Hey Sam, yeah, Bolbititis is the only plant I know that I definitely want to use. I'm pretty much open to any suggestion as long as it's not do an iwagumi. :lol:

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Don't really like either of these but they give an idea of the scapes I've been kicking about while trying to get a clearer idea of what I want from this scape. I'm thinking I'll only really tweek the rock work from the first since I was so won over by it. I'm certain there's room for improvement, I just can't see it at the moment.
 
Garuf said:
Hey Sam, yeah, Bolbititis is the only plant I know that I definitely want to use. I'm pretty much open to any suggestion as long as it's not do an iwagumi. :lol:

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Don't really like either of these but they give an idea of the scapes I've been kicking about while trying to get a clearer idea of what I want from this scape. I'm thinking I'll only really tweek the rock work from the first since I was so won over by it. I'm certain there's room for improvement, I just can't see it at the moment.

I think the top hardscape is very promising Gareth. Its nice to see your work up on the forum.
 
Thanks, Graeme. It's nice to have a tank to scape! I'm very out of practice I feel.

On a separate note, did you post the final frontal photos of the ukaps cube? I was certain I'd seen it but couldn't find it anywhere on the forum.
 
Nice couple of scapes there mate. I like the wood work of the first, and the rock work of the second :crazy:

I think the first is would work great, but I think if you could tweak the wood on the second it'd look much better :D I think it's the left few pieces that trouble me :)
 
don't read too much into wood placement. you'll drive yourself nutty in doing so.

imagine where stems, background plants will feature, further down the road. this dictates the wood. or if wood comes first then think about stem placement.

I really, really, really think the hardscape should be further back. you've got more depth than many tanks, and your losing it. once filled, it'll look like its touching the glass.

even if hardscape is touching the rear, vallis and stems planted tight to the back pane of glass look like there in the distance.
 
Hey mark, thanks for the tips. I've been thinking about the planting more now that I think I know what I'm aiming for. I could do with finding some tanks that aren't tanks I've seen a hundred times before though :/

I don't know, but the further back I push the hardscape the more of a foreground I'd gain and since it'd be sand I don't really want huge expanses of the stuff, I just don't think it'd be right and it's not the look I particularly want. I was thinking that the planting would be what gives me maximum depth hence sticking the woodwork in the midground/foreground thus giving me room for crypts and varying stems.

I'll have a go to see what I can come up with, I'm just concerned I'll end up with more sand than plants.
 
I think it should be further back aswell, there seems to be alot of ''dead space'' at the rear left hand side.

The arrangement looks amazing though :)
 
This is going to look awesome! :) Where did you get the stones and Manzanita from though? And what type of stones are they?

Thanks, Celestial.
 
How do you mean "dead space", Spanner man? Someone else called it out on another forum but I'm not sure I see it, which scape do you mean in?

I like your approach, Jase, I do enjoy rescapes, guiltily always though. I do plan on packing it out but I don't know, everyone says more depth but in my head I imagined the planting to give it but now I'm not sure at all. I'll be pushing it all back and try again, I'm just worried about too much of a foreground. That said... maybe a hc foreground into sand would be nice... Hmm.

Thank you, Celestial. The stones are a mixture of Derbyshire limestone I collected myself from a scree slope and mini Landscape Rock from AE, ( I don't think they stock them anymore? ) and the Manzanita is from PlantedBox, all the scape materials I've bought are available from PlantedBox right down to the substrate though if you want to save on postage.
 
Hey Garuf, I personally think you DO need a good bit of planting space behind the wood, If you want to get that Amano "stem bush" look you need to plant the stems deeply.

Check out this ADA tank http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/stemplants.html, the foreground is relatively small but planted with nice bright glosso, sand would have a similar effect. Looks like a clearing in a forest, you need the depth of stems to trim them so they slope in to the "clearing".

Moss on wood or leave it bare with the bolbitis?

Looking forward to seeing your ideas come to fruition, Tom
 
One other thing, will the limestone be OK with CO2? My previous experiences with coral sand in planted tanks is massively high pH and kH no matter how much CO 2 you pour in. Which is a shame cos the rocks look awesome.
 
Garuf said:
How do you mean "dead space", Spanner man? Someone else called it out on another forum but I'm not sure I see it, which scape do you mean in?

I like your approach, Jase, I do enjoy rescapes, guiltily always though. I do plan on packing it out but I don't know, everyone says more depth but in my head I imagined the planting to give it but now I'm not sure at all. I'll be pushing it all back and try again, I'm just worried about too much of a foreground. That said... maybe a hc foreground into sand would be nice... Hmm.

Thank you, Celestial. The stones are a mixture of Derbyshire limestone I collected myself from a scree slope and mini Landscape Rock from AE, ( I don't think they stock them anymore? ) and the Manzanita is from PlantedBox, all the scape materials I've bought are available from PlantedBox right down to the substrate though if you want to save on postage.

By dead space i meant that the space behind is a little useless, personally i would prefer the hard scape further back with some room for some plants behind and then a nice carpet in the fore ground, using all the space behind for planting taler plants would dominate the scape.
 
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