A
Antipofish
Guest
Hope the title piqued your interest 
I have two lots of Colombo Florabase x 10L. One is brown and the other is black. Hmmm... well its all they had in the shop and having driven 30 miles I didnt want to have wasted the petrol so I took it like that.
So
What I have come up with as a scaping idea is to have the brown as a river bed that flows through from front to back following the lines of the the Golden Ratio from front left to back right with a curve to it rather than linear to make it look like a natural flow. Before the 'river' hits the front of the tank it will span outwards so that the brown extends all the way out to both sides and about 5 to 8cm back from the front, a bit like an estuary. Then I will use the black to the left and right of the 'river' to create a mound sloping from the 'riverbed' up towards the outer and back edge of the tank.
Is this making sense so far ? I will try and draw it later if I can work out how to in photoshop.
Another way to describe it is... From the right and left sides, about 4 to 8cm back from the front, coming in towards the middle but further to the right than to the left, the brown will sweep in to an unjoined width of about 10cm, whereupon it will become a 'riverbed' that curves backwards towards the back of the tank with a gentle incline from front to back. Flanked either side by a large (on the left) and smaller (on the right) mound of black. These mounds will raise up from front to back and centre to sides, forming a highest point at rear sides (although I think I will flatten it out before actually reaching that point).
Maybe that sounds better.
Please can all you experienced scapers comment on the merits or disadvantages of doing this ? I may end up having carpet planting on the 'riverbed' in the long run, but understand that most carpetting plants dont grow that well in lower light aquaria. (Although I will be dosing liquid ferts and carbon, then moving on to pressurised and EI in a few months time).
Hope this doesn't sound TOO daft, but please say so if you don't think it will work.
Alternatively I can mix it all up to have a two tone substrate of just have the brown underneath the black ???
I have two lots of Colombo Florabase x 10L. One is brown and the other is black. Hmmm... well its all they had in the shop and having driven 30 miles I didnt want to have wasted the petrol so I took it like that.
So
What I have come up with as a scaping idea is to have the brown as a river bed that flows through from front to back following the lines of the the Golden Ratio from front left to back right with a curve to it rather than linear to make it look like a natural flow. Before the 'river' hits the front of the tank it will span outwards so that the brown extends all the way out to both sides and about 5 to 8cm back from the front, a bit like an estuary. Then I will use the black to the left and right of the 'river' to create a mound sloping from the 'riverbed' up towards the outer and back edge of the tank.
Is this making sense so far ? I will try and draw it later if I can work out how to in photoshop.
Another way to describe it is... From the right and left sides, about 4 to 8cm back from the front, coming in towards the middle but further to the right than to the left, the brown will sweep in to an unjoined width of about 10cm, whereupon it will become a 'riverbed' that curves backwards towards the back of the tank with a gentle incline from front to back. Flanked either side by a large (on the left) and smaller (on the right) mound of black. These mounds will raise up from front to back and centre to sides, forming a highest point at rear sides (although I think I will flatten it out before actually reaching that point).
Maybe that sounds better.
Please can all you experienced scapers comment on the merits or disadvantages of doing this ? I may end up having carpet planting on the 'riverbed' in the long run, but understand that most carpetting plants dont grow that well in lower light aquaria. (Although I will be dosing liquid ferts and carbon, then moving on to pressurised and EI in a few months time).
Hope this doesn't sound TOO daft, but please say so if you don't think it will work.
Alternatively I can mix it all up to have a two tone substrate of just have the brown underneath the black ???
