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Tweaking a layout til you're ok with it

viktorlantos

viktorlantos

Aquascaper
Joined
25 Oct 2008
Messages
1,598
Location
Budapest, Hungary
I remember in the past we've seen so many nice CAU examples and other asian ones how they refined their layout to the contests.

Preparing tanks to the contest is not just about trimming and timing. Til you have time you can do almost any change to have a better appearance on your layout. Sometimes we miss this chance and just wait for the plants to do the work...

Here is what i've done in the last weeks preparing to the contest shot.

Had a nice healthy and breathtaking layout (in live) which was extremely overgrown and fallen out of control with all these mosses 🙂

14005537593_a7c4ecbe84_b.jpgGreen Aqua Showoom by viktorlantos, on Flickr

So i made a PS sketch what if i would fill in some sand to refine the layout.

14068609074_ef4d51b06d_b.jpgConceptual work - Final adjustments to the layout by viktorlantos, on Flickr

It was much easier to draw in PS and have the visual pleasing path. Much better than filling in sand and try to make it nice in real....

So i took the sand which i had in already...

14075570305_c8fc21b91a_b.jpgMaking the adjustments in real by viktorlantos, on Flickr

printed the sketch and based on the printout put some sticks to the tank, then started to fill in the sand to the marked areas...

13888976530_98799420c3_b.jpgMaking the adjustments in real by viktorlantos, on Flickr

partly done... 🙂

14075569795_592424feab_b.jpgMaking the adjustments in real by viktorlantos, on Flickr

And this is how it looked at the end. A bit cloudy but that's ok. We also added in some wood pieces

13890398460_e253322ed1_b.jpgMaking the adjustments in real - no backlight by viktorlantos, on Flickr

We had to put some stones on the new wood pieces to keep them down...

but after 2 weeks we removed them....

14006722667_e155f6d1c0_b.jpgGreen Aqua Showroom by viktorlantos, on Flickr

Deadline is coming and the plants grown so much. So probably need to trim it back again and fill in some sand where it is needed. But the change really helped on the overall look and feel.

So do not hesitate to make changes on your layout if you think this helps. :thumbup:
 
tim said:
our a genius viktor, been following you on flickr for a while now and I'm always gobsmacked at the quality of your scapes, superb.
Click to expand...

Agree, if you ever doubt that aquascaping is an artform, just check these images out.

Also, I really appreciate your willingness to share knowledge, Viktor. I learn something every time.

Thomas
 
i'm impressed not only by your beautiful layout, but the willingness to share your thought, knowledge and technique is very cool.
good luck in this year's contest.
 
Thank you for all of your comments. But i am not that brilliant, otherwise i would keep in silent and wait for my award at IAPLC 🙂 😀
Since i know i missed the hit this year again i am free to show this piece and hope this is inspirational or something we can learn about it.

For example this tank had Twinstar nano in it from the beginning (around 5 months now). I never had such a mossy crazyness without extra cleaning effort before.
On this scape i never cleaned, washed, vacumed any of the mosses. How cool is that? 🙂
On the other side i shoot it with 4x54W ATI in the past 2 weeks running with 6x54W ATI.

I had hoped at the beginning that weeping moss on the front will give a nice effect on the lava stones as its falling down, but this turned upward and act like spiky 🙂 The masterplan fallen at this moment 🙂
 
viktorlantos said:
Thank you for all of your comments. But i am not that brilliant, otherwise i would keep in silent and wait for my award at IAPLC 🙂 😀
Since i know i missed the hit this year again i am free to show this piece and hope this is inspirational or something we can learn about it.

For example this tank had Twinstar nano in it from the beginning (around 5 months now). I never had such a mossy crazyness without extra cleaning effort before.
On this scape i never cleaned, washed, vacumed any of the mosses. How cool is that? 🙂
On the other side i shoot it with 4x54W ATI in the past 2 weeks running with 6x54W ATI.

I had hoped at the beginning that weeping moss on the front will give a nice effect on the lava stones as its falling down, but this turned upward and act like spiky 🙂 The masterplan fallen at this moment 🙂
Click to expand...
A brilliant aquascaper is not necessarily someone that win contests 🙂
 
Today finally photographed the tank to the contest.

But before the photo shooting i made a few changes. 🙂

Since i am running the 6x54W over this tank more than 2 weeks ago plants grown a lot.
So had to do a trimming here and there. Fixed the red bushy Rotala sp on the back.

This is how the tank looked today after the maintenance this morning.

HD9A4638-lowres.jpg

I did not liked how the left weeping moss pushed to the front glass, but the trimming not really helped on the effect.
So i've checked the earlier phases in my photo library and an one of the earlier photo looked much better. This was before moss started to overgrown that part.

So in photoshop i made another sketch. Overlayed the old phase and i got this. Look at the left side on the bottom area.

HD9A4638-lowres2.jpg

Now this looked much better. 🙂 i jumped in the car and went to the showroom to fix this part and make the final photos on the tank.
After i removed the mosses and the original lava stone already looked good there. Fixed the sand, made a quick water change.... pipes out, skimmer out, twinstar out.
And shoot.....

HD9A4887-lowres.jpg

With lights in place, foreground fixed, moss trimmed, sand path fixed on the right.

Unfortunatelly a tiny Anubias left there after i removed the moss on the left..... but since i made the photos in a dark room and i was in rush i did not catched it. Well that's it 🙂

Story ends here 🙂
Thanks for your feedback guys. I hope you enjoyed this little tour 🙂
 
I thought it looked really good 'overgrown' but the little changes made a big difference, even the little spot on the left - looks stunning now!

Is there is little hobit doorway in the 'hill' about 1/3 in from the right?
 
Viktor, IMO you miss a very nice part of the tank if you trim the picture when taking the FTS (see the first picture to compare). A picture from above and probably a bit from the right (or left depending on the best looking side to see properly the sand tracks) in which the branches going out of the tank could be seen would be very beautiful: dark foreground, no equipment, soft light to show the texture of this wood, the contrast in the tank between the sand and the green moss. Awesome tank mate, no matter from where you take the picture!

Jordi
 
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