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Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal Finished.

Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

Most of the guys on here have told me previously o chuck as many plants in as possible at the same time as cycling :) If you want the process to go faster I personally believe in the Sera product called BioNitrivec. My cycle was complete in 14 days WITH a soil that leaches ammonia too. Lots of 50% water changes in the first couple of weeks too and remember you dont really need ferts to start with with the ADA soils :)
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

Ady34 said:
milwaukee042.jpg



Ady.


Great Scaping, can see what you are looking to achieve. The Main Arch reminds me of the scene in the latest King Kong.

Is it just me, or in this shot does toe foremost rock look like the baby dinosaur "Baby Sinclair"out of dinosaurs.
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

Gill said:
Ady34 said:


Great Scaping, can see what you are looking to achieve. The Main Arch reminds me of the scene in the latest King Kong.

Is it just me, or in this shot does toe foremost rock look like the baby dinosaur "Baby Sinclair"out of dinosaurs.

babysinclair.gif


....i think it may just be you Gill :lol:
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

Hi, I'm new to this lark but living on the west coast of Scotland I am very familiar with the type of landscape you are trying to create. The rock at the front/right doesn't feel right, too big or too triangular? Feel free to ignore, I'm sure it will look amazing. Just thought I'd say....
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

I like the rock that ldc mentions about but I think it would be better if it were another 5 or 8cms or so to the right so you can see more of the arch. Or maybe its the big bit on the left being a bit too big ? But I do agree it seems a little out of balance. When its planted though, the whole dynamic will probably change. :thumbup: LOVE the idea of it though.
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

Now that it's been mentioned I think I agree, it just slightly blocks the view of the arch. Other than that it's a really great scape!
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

I used to have a rock arch in my last tank setup. Fish seemed to love it, clown loaches "parked" themselves at funny angles under the arch and other fish passed the day swimming loops round the arch.

One issue I found was that you obviously get very little flow under the arch and it collects lots of detritus and fish poo, compared to the rest of the tank. In my case I had to lean the arch forward at water change time to get the gravel vacuum in to remove the mess.

My current setup has an arch made with 3 rocks, the top peice being removable to get in to clean and push out the substrate that the clown loaches tend to fill the arch with. The clown loaches also hide under it adapting all sorts angles, on their sides, upside down etc.
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

I completely disagree with the rock at the front being detrimental to the construction of the hardscape.

I like the fact that it is forward and its shape, as when the plants fill in behind that very rock, the depth it will give the scape will, I think be massive, and completely in keeping what Ady is tryig to achieve. It will create a fantastic plateau of green, which in turn will back up onto the feature rock.

Keep it up mate, i particularly love this hardscape layout. The definition and shaddows cast from the crevices in the left hand side rocks will look amazing :thumbup:
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

ldcgroomer said:
Hi, I'm new to this lark but living on the west coast of Scotland I am very familiar with the type of landscape you are trying to create. The rock at the front/right doesn't feel right, too big or too triangular? Feel free to ignore, I'm sure it will look amazing. Just thought I'd say....

Antipofish said:
I like the rock that ldc mentions about but I think it would be better if it were another 5 or 8cms or so to the right so you can see more of the arch. Or maybe its the big bit on the left being a bit too big ? But I do agree it seems a little out of balance. When its planted though, the whole dynamic will probably change. :thumbup: LOVE the idea of it though.

Morgan Freeman said:
Now that it's been mentioned I think I agree, it just slightly blocks the view of the arch. Other than that it's a really great scape!

Thanks for the input guys,
yeah i tend to agree that there's something not quite right, but i made a rod for my own back buying such big rocks as they offer less options regards scaping. I was thinking that they would offer a better sense of scale, a statement, but maybe in hindsight.... :rolleyes:
I thought the left most largest rock was detailed enough to stand almost alone as a rock face, but perhaps more transition was needed between that and the sand to make it look more natural. Unfortunately i dont have enough room (or rocks) to do it so it may be that it is in fact too big for the tank :( . Perhaps the right 'triangle' rock is a little too flat in appearance in comparison. I do have some planting ideas to detract from this though ;) I wanted quite a large rock in this foreground area to give a sense of depth and scale, but perhaps again its just too flat and more smaller more intricate pieces would have been a better choice. With regards moving it to the right a little, i cant really as i wanted to create a raised hollow behind it for more planting area as they are quite limited anyway. If id moved the rock to the right id have lost this option and lessened the available planting areas. This rock does also obscure the archway slightly, however i didnt really want to reveal it too much as although the arch is one of the main features, i didnt want to make it so obvious that its all your eye was drawn too. When viewing the tank from different angles rather than straight on you can see right through the arch :)
All in all it probably looks a little contrived, more detailing and perhaps some more intricate pieces would certainly have helped but im stuck with these now. In all honesty it looks better in person as the camera setting i used was dark to reduce over brightening the pictures, and the tank lighting was at the rear of the tank which caused shadowing at the front which lost some detail of the rocks. (its going to stay like this too as plant mass is towards the rear)
That being said, it is just a representation with ideas taken from nature, the overall feel is supposed to be one of a coastal rock face with features taken from erosion processes, but in no way is it going to be exact. Because of this im also unsure whether to try and represent coastal planting too or to contrast totally. Coastal cliff tops tend to look like a mass of grass from distance so i was considering simply using elecharis ecicularis, cut at different heights to accent the rockwork. However im also considering other grass like plants such as tenellus, lilaeopsis, maybe even blyxa or cyperus to add interest. Riccia and marsilea are also considerations to give a more natural feel, but ive also thought about ammania sp bonsai, staurogyne, rotala green and hygrophila araguaia as stems to change the look and steer away from traditional coastal plant schemes. I like the idea of something on the rocks but unsure about mosses which tend to be much darker than the grasses. Utricularia looks like a good plant to use on the rocks if im trying to represent the coastal planting as its a lighter green colour more like the grasses, but ive heard its notoriously tricky and best suited to mature set ups with low fertilisation. .... but i suppose again it depends on what im trying to achieve which im clearly still confused about :lol:
Cheerio and thanks for your thoughts.
Ady
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

ian_m said:
I used to have a rock arch in my last tank setup. Fish seemed to love it, clown loaches "parked" themselves at funny angles under the arch and other fish passed the day swimming loops round the arch.

One issue I found was that you obviously get very little flow under the arch and it collects lots of detritus and fish poo, compared to the rest of the tank. In my case I had to lean the arch forward at water change time to get the gravel vacuum in to remove the mess.

My current setup has an arch made with 3 rocks, the top peice being removable to get in to clean and push out the substrate that the clown loaches tend to fill the arch with. The clown loaches also hide under it adapting all sorts angles, on their sides, upside down etc.

Cheers Ian, i wont be having anything as big as clown loach, although if detrius does accumulate here ill see it as a good thing as itll be easy to remove :) It slopes from heigh at the rear to shallow at the front so hopefully itll all just collect in a nice little area for simple removal ;)

Whitey89 said:
I completely disagree with the rock at the front being detrimental to the construction of the hardscape.

I like the fact that it is forward and its shape, as when the plants fill in behind that very rock, the depth it will give the scape will, I think be massive, and completely in keeping what Ady is tryig to achieve. It will create a fantastic plateau of green, which in turn will back up onto the feature rock.

Keep it up mate, i particularly love this hardscape layout. The definition and shaddows cast from the crevices in the left hand side rocks will look amazing :thumbup:

Thanks Nath, it was added to try to create more depth but i do take on board what the others have mentioned as at the moment it does look a bit too triangular and unnatural and its something i have thought myself....infact the angle of the right most rear rock may only exaggerate this as it seems to flow a little too perfectly, maybe the angle that sits at needs tweaking? The planting behind it will alter the look as you mention so fingers crossed.
Cheers,
Ady
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

eleocharis acicularis is a great pond plant, 3 pounds for a 3 litre pot. really good for baby goldfish. i got 50 of em, homegrown.
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

Up here a lot of the cliffs have bushes and trees growing up to the edge. Culzean castle is one of these places, might be worth a look...
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

Ady34 said:
Gill said:
Ady34 said:


Great Scaping, can see what you are looking to achieve. The Main Arch reminds me of the scene in the latest King Kong.

Is it just me, or in this shot does toe foremost rock look like the baby dinosaur "Baby Sinclair"out of dinosaurs.

babysinclair.gif


....i think it may just be you Gill :lol:

i like the ayout but the front stone to the right seems to hide the view of the arch to much. maybe open it up a bit or make it a smaller stone as my attentions is drawn to it.
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

really love the look of your hard scape puts mine to shame
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

tim said:
i like it ady with the right planting this will look stunning plants wise look in the pond section for elocharis got a pond pot about 6 times the size of a normal pot for £3 this weekend :thumbup:

darren636 said:
eleocharis acicularis is a great pond plant, 3 pounds for a 3 litre pot. really good for baby goldfish. i got 50 of em, homegrown.

Sounds like a good idea, just dont know about pesticides etc as ill be having shrimp.

ldcgroomer said:
Up here a lot of the cliffs have bushes and trees growing up to the edge. Culzean castle is one of these places, might be worth a look...

Thanks ldc, yeah ive been doing a bit more research and it theres a lot of variety.

gouldy149 said:
really love the look of your hard scape puts mine to shame

Thanks Gouldy, keep playing around until your happy.
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

Seems this sort of thing has been done before by one of our very own with much greater effect!

4dc3b4e58882a.jpg


heres the link to the article in PFK:

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/c ... p?sid=3901

Great little scape which feels much bigger than it is, the sense of scale is impressive.
I had myself been thinking about my scape, and was alredy considering removing the existing hardscape and trying for a similar look to the one i found above. To get a better perspective and feeling by moving the archway to the far right of the tank and having only planting on the left side and along the foreground with the beach to the right. Thats why I was researching online and came across this beaut by James. May well have been a bit too arty for me to be able to re-create, i must admit though to already be thinking of changing may not be a good sign :rolleyes: Plus the algae issues that James had in week 5 make me slightly nervous of the lower plant mass!
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

Tbh I prefer yours as there is alot more depth and the rock is more detailed. You may want to look at mini hairgrass or HC cuba or something smaller than eleocharis acicularis as I have a feeling it would throw off the sense of scale. What I like about yours aswell is as its a bigger tank and more of an ariel view you get to see more of the ' landscape/coastline '. If you wanted to be really cool on the far left hand side where the two substrates meet you should try and add in some steps like these http://www.easyart.com/canvas-prints/Da ... 54207.html . In my opinion it is things like that that really turn a fish tank into a work of art.
 
Re: Fluval Studio 900. 'Coastal Erosion' Journal.

Palm Tree said:
Tbh I prefer yours as there is alot more depth and the rock is more detailed. You may want to look at mini hairgrass or HC cuba or something smaller than eleocharis acicularis as I have a feeling it would throw off the sense of scale. What I like about yours aswell is as its a bigger tank and more of an ariel view you get to see more of the ' landscape/coastline '. If you wanted to be really cool on the far left hand side where the two substrates meet you should try and add in some steps like these http://www.easyart.com/canvas-prints/Da ... 54207.html . In my opinion it is things like that that really turn a fish tank into a work of art.
Thanks for that, yeah i know what you mean regards the grasses, tbh i dont think im going to go all hairgrass now, but my thinking was if i just used ecicularis i could trim it high and low where needed and change the look by allowing different growth in different areas as i needed to. Plus i know it grows like a good un!

Made a few changes in an attempt to bring the tank together. The foreground right/centre rock wasnt doing it for me and reduced the depth of the scape for me. I prefer the more open sand bed and cleaner lines at the base of the left rock, i think it probably has enough detail and intricacy to stand alone and gives a better feel to the flow of the sand bed under the arch. Also the right rear most rock seemed a little at odds so ive changed that to a more subtle angle which will blend better with the plants and the peak of the main rock. The plants will hopefully soften the edges at the substrate and make it sit more naturally.
Im sticking with this hardscape as when im sat infront of the tank i like it and i want to see if my vision is achieved with planting.
Think ive nearly got a plant list so hopefully wont be too long until i can place an order :D

couple of pics of the alterations:

58325330.jpg


83780466.jpg



Cheerio,
Ady.
 
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