Obsessing over hardscape again.

[Henry]

I'm after an opinion on my hardscape please. I've been obsessing over this empty tank for weeks now, and it's driving me up the wall.

I bought some small "offcuts" of manzanita from my local World of Water for a highly discounted price, so I put them to use. Ignore the differences in colour between the bits of wood, that will sort itself out eventually. What I am concerned with, however, is the placement of the darker piece. I find it impossible to trust my own judgement when it comes to these things.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[REDSTEVEO]

Hi I am hardly one to talk after the messing about I have had with my hardscape but...I would be tempted to bury the chunky part of the dark piece of wood right in the right hand corner and just leave the pointed bits sticking out at an angle and merge the other pieces in with it...

On another point, are you sure that wood is Manzanita wood? It looks very much like Redmoor Roots to me..

 

[Henry]

On another point, are you sure that wood is Manzanita wood? It looks very much like Redmoor Roots to me..

You're right

When you say "chunky part", do you mean the horizontal bit that sits almost level with the higher part of the substrate?

 

[REDSTEVEO]

You could do that but I was thinking more about the big chunky bit to the middle, when you flip the wood around you should see a natural angle to lean the wood so that the spiky bits merge with the other pieces of wood..definitely Redmoor Roots then...

 

[Julian]

Agreed, I think you should get the wood into the corner more. It's a little centred, needs more empty space on the left for a carpet of some description. Even after you've moved it, it might look a little bare, could probably do with some more wood poking upwards out of the tank.

 

[Ben C]

Agree on the above comments.
I'd also add that you've got those two golden coloured pieces 'crawling' over the substrate and the other piece bolt upright almost like horns or antlers. There's nothing in between. That looks a bit unnatural and harsh on the eyes.
Hope that makes sense. I'd want something midway up the water column as well, I think.

 

[Martin in Holland]

yep...a bit more into the corner 1/3 - 2/3

 

[Stu Worrall]

i really like it. I think in the future when your plants grow bushy it will hide that chunky piece of wood anyway. Bury it too much and it will get completely lost when the plant fills in.

 

[Chris Jackson]

I reckon in the corner more as well but also that the slender pointy branch parts are too vertical and that this primarily is what is giving you a sense of something amiss. It'd be great in a deep square tank but as it is now the eye is drawn to centre and up.
If you could angle it a little more horizontally out from the back right corner then I think it'd feel better and also flow more harmoniously with the horizontal roots around this central piece?