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Aquascaping for dummies

A joyous Easter to one and all. Idle hands lead to mischief and I wanted to utilize the unaccustomed free time, so out with the TGM 'frosty' film. I had initially ordered a tank with frosted glass in the back pane, but Graeme had suggested that the more cack-handed among us might scratch the front glass at some time and with frosted glass installed, there is no option to turn the tank around. Better to use a stick-on film. :idea:

Hmmm, I thought, this bloke's not daft, and so I changed the order to OptiWhite all round, and now I can scratch it to my heart's content. And i bought a roll of about 50 metres of film for my 80 cms tank... I told you he isn't daft. :crazy:

Anyway, here's what it looks like after application:

Foggy-cat.jpg


(Cue singing Siamese cats) 'There will be a head for you, maybe a tail for me...'

Actually it went on easily, and after judicious smoothing out with an M & S credit card (my wife said it would come in handy one day) it all looked very smart - and sort of frosty, in a diffuse kind of way.

So while the tank was parted from the cabinet, I thought I would implement part two of my master plan. I had bought a 60cm LED strip light from a local wholesaler, plus a plug.

Duff-LED.jpg


Now even my rudimentary skills can just about hack wiring a plug, but when I connected it up... Zip. Nada. Niente. :wideyed: How can something like this, fresh out of the box not work? P****d off doesn't even start to get there. This is meant to be my arty-crafty ethereal backlighting thingy, fixed at the back and to the top of the cabinet, shining up at 45°on to the wall behind. Fair idea - crap execution! First thing Tuesday morning I will be rapping upon said merchant's counter, and he'd better have one that works. Even then, I'm going to have to fiddle around behind the cabinet. Why?

Well, here's why...

First-try2.jpg


Just couldn't wait to unload 30-odd litres of ADA's finest cat litter into my new precious, and top it off with a few off-cuts from Mount Fuji. Mix gently and season to taste. Now that cabinet isn't going anywhere fast, and so fiddling around behind it will be the order of the day. :twisted:

OK, but I really enjoyed setting it all out, so I'll fiddle where necessary. But now we come to the 'Does my bum look big in this?' moment. This is where I implore you to say you like it, to find something positive, even if it's only that the Aquasoil is a pleasant dung shade. :shifty: Seriously, I need some feedback on the disposition of forces, bearing in mind the order of battle as described overleaf. Acres of pearling HC, interspersed with delicate stands of hair grass, leading to outbursts of Blyxa and Downoi, punctuated by outcrops of Fissidens and riccia, and vistas of Ambulia and Cyperus helferi stretching to the horizon, 15 centimetres beyond...

Back down to earth, are the lumps of rock in vaguely sensible places? Is the balance between heights OK? The theory is that there are two main areas of stone (main and supporting), with terracing (which may be largely hidden by the planting) of the Aquasoil to retain its depth, with a small stone (front left) complementing the larger ones.

What do you think? o_O
 
it looks much more like a stone arrangement now.

Think about the foreground stones maybe, think how in nature, they might be connected under ground? :D Think about the 'flow' of the stones.

your certainly on to something.

mark
 
Well I saw the name of this journal and thought that's the one for me! Am a complete novice and hoping to start my first aquascape very soon, once I have collected my stones. This is therefore really interesting to me and I will be following keenly.
Can't offer any advice as I know nothing - just encouragement to keep going as it's scary the first time! Especially on here where so many peeps know what they are doing.
This is indeed the place to gather info and I will be soaking up as much as possible over the next couple of weeks before embarking on my first attempt. Scareeeeeeeeeeey! :oops:

Good luck, and I look forward to seeing the finished product!

Becca :D
 
Becca said:
Well I saw the name of this journal and thought that's the one for me!

Becca, I think we could be kindred spirits - love the 'pinky' by the way. ;)

George Farmer said:
This has to be one of the most entertaining journals I've read!

Very kind, George, and for goodness sake, stick around! I'm sure I'll be crying out for help before very long...

saintly said:
Think about the foreground stones maybe, think how in nature, they might be connected under ground? Think about the 'flow'

Saintly, thanks for this advice. I think I know what you're getting at. I will experiment with aligning the stones to try to create a more natural appearance. The current layout is based on the perceived need to hold back the higher/deeper amounts of Aquasoil by forming a 'walling'. I will see if I can kill both birds with, er, several stones... :shifty:

Thanks all for looking - much appreciated.
 
Yep, same boat etc....

My pinky is legendery - no mocking! Cos I'm a posh old bird! :lol:

Becca
 
The layout of the rocks looks quite nice but I do agree with the others that perhaps you should try to line up some striata on the rocks.

The tank is looking good so far and the journal is v. fun to read. Keep up the good work :)
 
Another day, another chocolate overdose! :sick:

Convinced myself that battering 100 balls into the middle distance at the driving range constituted somthing close to exercise, and so I'm feeling fairly self-righteous now. Especially after taking my non-functioning LED straight back to the retailer this morning. Now I'm no expert on restorative surgery but I'm confident that with the right care and attention he's going to be back selling duff lights in - ooh - a matter of weeks, and in the meantime, I have a working backlight thingy. Will it be worth the grazed knuckles and the unsightly fluids on the wall? Only time will tell... 8)

In the meantime, I had focussed on sage words from Saintly and the lovely Lisa (although I'm pretty sure that striata is a type of Italian ice-cream, Lisa, but I knew instinctively what you meant ;) ). Cue some minor rejigging of the hardest bits of the hardscape...

Second-try3.jpg


Now this will be a bit like those puzzles in old school comics where there were two pictures next to each other and you had to spot the differences (although I'm afraid you would have to skip back to a previous post for comparison if you could raise the interest). I make it six. They're subtle, but they are there, and to just to give you some clues, here are a couple of Google Earth-type views:

Second-try2.jpg


and

Second-try1.jpg


The stones are now more aligned with each other but is there, we ask ourselves, a deep and meaningful bond between them...? The only point in boring you with these images is to seek your valued opinions on whether the changes constitute an improvement. If they do, or even if you can point out the error of my ways, in which case I will adopt, adapt and improve, I surely want to get some water playing around the nooks and crannies ASAP. So please, let me know if I am clear to launch. :bored:

As ever, thank you for your time.
 
forget the scape! I just love reading what you write.Very entertaining. :thumbup:

could we see a 'full frontal' please?...of the tank of course.
 
have to agree with mark.this is the most entertaining journal on here :clap: .
what plants are you using.some of the stones look quite low and may get lost.but i know nothing :lol: .
 
I second Nelson, as soon as your plants grow you will loose a lot of your rocks. As Saintly requested a "full frontal" would help.

Excellent journal by the way!
 
Thanks for your kind comments.

Andyh, nelson, I hope I understand what you're saying about losing the rocks when planted, that is that the stones are too low...?

But what do you mean by a full frontal? Should I post an eye-level shot? I'm just wondering what the existing posted photos don't show, apart from a decent hardscape :? Tell me, and I will provide. I appreciate your help.

If it is a question of lack of height, then I'm struggling because I 've given it my biggest bits. I did buy some special glue, but I don't actually want to go down the route of sticking one on top of t'other! I may have to send out the search-bots for larger lumps. :text-search:
 
You can combine rocks to make them look like one larger rock. You shouldn't need to glue them really (depending on what you're trying to achieve). Also, mounding your substrate to give more height to rocks, and make them look bigger can help :) That's something I tried to achieve with this scape:

08_final_front.jpg
 
Steve,

Thank you very much. Very interesting to view your creation and to compare.

I have also piled up the kitty-litter higher on the right hand side, hence my comments about trying to construct 'walling' with the stones at the forefront to hold it in place. It's not easy to judge whether my main formation (which is actually four stones) reaches the height of yours, which seems to get to roughly half the actual water depth. I drew some 'rule of thirds' lines on my original sketch and tried to conform to that in the layout. Although your photo is obviously of the tank in early growth stage, the stones don't seem overwhelmed as yet. I'd be interested to learn whether it was an issue at a later stage.

I shall await some other pearls of wisdom and judge what the consensus is. I do have even more litres of Amazonia II fretting away in the garage, with a good few unused kilos of rock, so there is scope for development through their employment. Just wish I'd had a couple of larger chunks initially... :mad:
 
Mawgan said:
Although your photo is obviously of the tank in early growth stage, the stones don't seem overwhelmed as yet. I'd be interested to learn whether it was an issue at a later stage.

I shall await some other pearls of wisdom and judge what the consensus is. I do have even more litres of Amazonia II fretting away in the garage, with a good few unused kilos of rock, so there is scope for development through their employment. Just wish I'd had a couple of larger chunks initially... :mad:
hi mawgan. Great thread that ive just read through. Very entertaining! :D

I thought id post some pictures of my tank development to highlight what steve and andy are saying.

In the first pic the HC is quite newly planted and very low.

4195426367_27b5b895b2_o.jpg


In this pic a few months later you can see that the HC has become quite deep and overwhelmed the front stone, probably about an inch higher than the base of the stone where it was buried in the soil. I did a heavy trim after this picture was taken to try an drop it down a bit.

4455101537_79da2f293a_o.jpg


The full frontal shot that saintly asked for is like pic no 1. People looking at your stones can get a better idea of their positioning from the front rather than the angled shot like no 2, plus the frontal shot is the preferred view for competitions should you enter any in the future.

Get the extra amazonia and rocks out of the garage and have a play, you can always put them back again later if not needed :)

Hope this helps :thumbup:
 
Stu,

Thanks so much for your explanation and the photos. Of course, I had swallowed your LlÅ·n Peninsula journal before and it's so helpful to be reminded of it. Your rocks (which are lovely, by the way, - where do they come from?) hit the rule of thirds intersections much more accurately than my efforts so far.

Your tank is, I believe, similar to mine in depth (45cms). I've measured the longest dimension of my right hand rock to be 22 cms. Therefore, in order to get it to the desirable 'rule of thirds' point (30 cms from the base) I would need the substrate to be approx 10 cms deep (allowing for a little settlement). Is that practically desirable? Can one build up the height, without adverse effects on the water, by using stones as invisible 'foundations' under the Aquasoil, upon which to site the crowning glory?

As the Irish would say "If I was trying to get there, I wouldn't start from here", and I said before, it would be preferable perhaps to just have a larger stone to play with. Yours is so BIG! :wideyed:
 
Mawgan said:
Thanks so much for your explanation and the photos. Of course, I had swallowed your LlÅ·n Peninsula journal before and it's so helpful to be reminded of it.
ta :thumbup:

Mawgan said:
Your rocks (which are lovely, by the way, - where do they come from?) hit the rule of thirds intersections much more accurately than my efforts so far.
Funnily enough they are actually from the LlÅ·n Peninsula. When out i pop into quarries now and again and was fortunate to find a spoil pile that was dug out for a sewage works extension. The guys there were more than happy for me to take a load of stone for a very cheap price as it was just going to be chipped down for hardcore.

Mawgan said:
Your tank is, I believe, similar to mine in depth (45cms). I've measured the longest dimension of my right hand rock to be 22 cms. Therefore, in order to get it to the desirable 'rule of thirds' point (30 cms from the base) I would need the substrate to be approx 10 cms deep (allowing for a little settlement). Is that practically desirable? Can one build up the height, without adverse effects on the water, by using stones as invisible 'foundations' under the Aquasoil, upon which to site the crowning glory?

10cm of AS is not a problem as youll want to get some height at the back anyway (maybe more than 10cm) to give a feeling of depth. ie, about 4-5cm deep at the front of the tank sloping up to 10-20cm at the back. I wouldnt get too hung up on the rule of thirds for the design though. It can help for placing main stones but its really what looks good to you that matters. Also piling the stones isnt a problem although you may squash some of the AS. I actually wanted the substrate in the back of mine higher but i ran out of aquasoil :lol:

Piling the stones (cheaper slate maybe?) under the AS is fine also but watch that the soil above then isnt too shallow that you cant plant in it.

Mawgan said:
As the Irish would say "If I was trying to get there, I wouldn't start from here", and I said before, it would be preferable perhaps to just have a larger stone to play with. Yours is so BIG! :wideyed:
as the actress said to the bishop! :lol:
 
Anxious to demonstrate that my Post a Reply page is fitted with a 'Receive' button as well as the 'Transmit' facility, I have been busy re-scaping. The box of rocks has actually gained weight, while the Aquasoil has been further depleted. I've got about enough for a pico now...

This is where it's got me (by the way, this is my rather naff interpretation of Saintly's request for a 'full frontal'. Lots of flash and reflections - I promise to try harder in future :oops: ):

Third-try1.jpg


I'm actually fairly pleased with this now, and submit it for your further comment and approval. I have raised the right rear corner significantly, and tried to make the rocks look part of the natural scene while raising them further above the substrate, to prevent their loss when (or if) the plants take over! I've also reduced their number. This I hope has defined the features more, giving more contrast to the rock scape, and justified all the money I spent at TGM! ;)

It was also quite therapeutic, as I had earlier left my bent CO2 regulator in the tender mercies of Parcel Force, as it started its long journey back to Taiwan, all for the small matter of £37-99p!!! :wideyed: :mad: They should be sending a replacement as soon as they can start tracking the despatch - it had better work this time!

Tomorrow, it's a toss-up between an afternoon's golf or setting up the filter. :bored:

Your comments will be gratefully received. Thanks again to Stu, Andy, Nelson et al...
 
i really like it :thumbup: .
leave the filter.you'll be waiting a while for your reg,so plenty of time.

happy putting :D .
 
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