Critique my hardscape What do you think?

[Harry H]

Hi all,

Now I got my new EA600, I wanted to start on the hard scape and experiment. It is the first time I am scaping a tank with this dimensions, all my other tanks were nano cubes, and no need to say i am a newbie. The layout is not the final, I wanted to hear your opinions if anything stands out. Tank is to be viewed from Front and LH side corner.

So, what do you think of the layout so far?

Thank you!

Harry.

 

[Matt @ ScapeEasy]

Will the view not be better from the front LHS? Should be easy to flip it round at this stage. Otherwise I really like it! Make sure that the line of rock is not too uniform or neat else it will end up looking like a wall. Do you plan on having a different substrate behind it?

 

[Harry H]

I meant LH side. The tank is in the corner of the room, RH side is the wall side.

I tried to leave gaps between the rocks and they are staggered to allow planting between.

The substrate is temporary at the moment, behind the rocks I will have volcano mineral and jbl manado dark to plant in. Front will be decorative sand. Or at least that is the plan at the moment.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

Looks good , wood is a good fit for the tank. Jbl monado is super light and a pain to plant in, floaters will drive you crazy...

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Harry H]

Looks good , wood is a good fit for the tank. Jbl monado is super light and a pain to plant in, floaters will drive you crazy...

Thanks for the heads up. I did not know that about madano. Not sure where I can get ADA Amazonia, and LFS stocks madano. Maybe Dennerle Scapers Soil? Not sure yet.

 

[Keith GH]

Harry
I will use this photo as a reference.

It looks like a very nice tank. The DW has strong features not light and, twiggy, it will work great with all your well sculptured and, sized rocks.

I cannot say the same for your Aquascape, this is what I am seeing.

Flat sandy substrate uninteresting. I good slope from the back RH corner and levelling off at the front and viewing side.

The DW is sitting on the sand and pointing to the front corner. It might look better if it was laying on a few rocks and the long piece out of the water.

Rocks a good selection of various sizes very carefully placed in a semi circle around the base of the DW.

Your Aquascape would be a lot better and far more interesting if you had made a Mock Tank and perfected your Aquascape first.

Keith

 

[J@mes]

Great tank! I like the frosted backing.

 

[Harry H]

I made some adjustments, still experimenting, v5.0

Empty space in front and LH side will be sand, and I have smaller stones to go in front of the big stones, as if they have broken and fallen off the cliffs. I do like the DW higher up from other versions.

So, what do you think? Better or Worse?

 

[J@mes]

Looks good. What plants are you planning to use? You got lots of foreground & not much background, carpet perhaps?

 

[Harry H]

Looks good. What plants are you planning to use? You got lots of foreground & not much background, carpet perhaps?

One idea is to have a full on cuba carpet, the other is adding smaller stones in front and have bucas and anubia petits. Back Corner RH to have long grass (dont know the latin name of it), Back middle Rotala hra, planning to have 4 or 5 different types of cryptocoryne around the base of the wood, more bocas on some of the rocks, I always envied to have some flowering bocas, they look beautiful.

I think the rocks are too tightly together in this version...

View from my seat...

 

[Keith GH]

Harry

I think the rocks are too tightly together in this version.

Well that saved me from saying it.
I would remove the large rock LH side Red X, next move those two small rocks back and up the slope into the corner and see how it looks.

Keith

 

[Matt @ ScapeEasy]

You may want to bring the wood towards the fron of the tank a bit too as you don't have any space for planting behind it at the back of the tank currently...

 

[Keith GH]

Matt
Looking at this photo there is enough room for a few tall plants.

Keith

 

[J@mes]

It’s a lovely piece of wood, it’s throwing some large shadows though. Could that be an issue for a carpeting plant?

 

[Harry H]

It’s a lovely piece of wood, it’s throwing some large shadows though. Could that be an issue for a carpeting plant?

Yes, it is a nice piece, and also challenging as it is one big piece and bottom is sawed straight.

Waiting to get some different substrate, to continue experimenting.

 

[Harry H]

Completely different approach. I think it has potential but not happy with LH side. The slope would be much steeper towards the back, still waiting for the sand.

 

[Keith GH]

Harry

These are my suggestions the lines show the rocks are in curved lines as if very carefully placed in that position making it look totally un natural and makes it very uninteresting rock positioning.

I have selected your feature rock to work with.
The numbers are 1-5

Keith

 

[Lee iley]

I liked the first set up better. The wood really looks nice. It's how you feel about it that counts mate.

 

[Keith GH]

Harry
Time expired
1-5 rocks
Swap 5 with 3 this will give you height balance in that area .
Remove 4 & 2 at the moment.
LH side remove the 3 red X rocks.

This is far from finished as I would rather do a small step a time and get it perfect before moving forward.

Keith

 

[Iain Sutherland]

Hey Harry, the first one below is a good layout.
When there are no plants any layout will look a little forced with straight lines especially in smaller tanks so don't worry about that, just think how it will look grown in.
I wouldn't remove any larger rocks as suggested as they will likely be the only ones really visable once planted and mature but I would bring them forward to allow a bit more mid ground planting. Do bear in mind how close the wood is to the glass at the front though as cleaning will be a pain if you can't get your hand down the front.
Otherwise it's a strong layout with nice a nice piece of wood. Some of the best scapes out there look rubbish without planting but this looks good from the off.
Go with what you like as you have yo look at it every day.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk