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Rock choice, so indecisive! Show me your hardscape?

5678

5678

Member
Joined
27 May 2015
Messages
332
Location
South Oxfordshire
Struggling so much with deciding what to chose hardscape wise for my new tank!

I'm going with a corner/island layout in a 45cm cube. Some redmoor branches out from the island spreading out in all directions and some light sand surrounding.

I am torn between going for some more typical grey rock, Seriyu/TGM blue stone/etc. Or, going for something in a slightly different colour such as ADA Kei stone or ADA Sado Akadama.

Plant wise I want to use plants such as Microsorum mini and Microsorum trident, weeping moss, christmas moss, Echinodorus tenellus some Anubias and some bucce.

I'd be keen to hear peoples thoughts on what sort of rocks would go well with this plant choice and show me a few examples?
 
Well, you have a lot of plants and moss there that I don't think you will even see that much rock. I find I spend way too much time thinking about hard scape, when in the end it doesn't really matter because it all gets covered in plants anyway.
 
I am definitely aiming for something like you have in the first scape there, just with it being a cube I will only have one island.

I struggle with my local area being mostly chalk and Flint so not much for foraging!
 
One of my main aims is to use something that does not raise ph or gh/kh (hoping ive got the correct terms there!)

My water is naturally hard as it is and with RO not being an option I do not want to make things any worse than they already are. From what I have read this rules out Seriyu and Dragon stone?
 
Granite cobbles, Welsh walling slate often available in garden centres ,Builders merchants both inert
 
For a cube shaped tank, i'd personally go for a steep slope from the back of your aquarium using aquatic soil then use slate as paraguay suggested to be stuck into the soil and cover that in a sand or fine gravel to cap it off. You could glue java moss to the slate sticking out. Sounds kind of stupid but the idea in my head feels awesome! 😉
I cant find a picture to illustrate my idea, but on the contrary your island idea sounds pretty cool, seems like you've got it planned out, the TGM blue stone could look really if you pick one with characteristic, like deep groves and flat slopes to emphasis the size making it look bigger.
The Microsorum trident and some other bushy plants could be switched for ludwigia repens or another plant with a darker reddish hint as it would contrast against the stone well and would further increase the height of the scape. the weeping moss would look awesome mixed into the ridges of the stone or glued to the face of it to grow. Also see what you think of a Hygrophila polysperma to sit at the bak of the tank to grow above the rock like a backdrop of trees behind a mountain.
I do really like your idea, and the TGM blue stone would look cool, went a bit overboard perhaps sorry. :what:
 
Ha, good reply!

I'm planning to try and reuse some limnophila hippuroides that I have in my current tank. They seem quite fussy but I think I have the hang of them now.

Going to call Jim @ TGM tomorrow and have an chat then stick an order in.
 
Dragon stone is fine to use. It doesn't mess with you water parameters (at least not too much that it becomes an issue). I really like it, you can use pliers to break it up and shape rocks the way you want them. Then lock them in place like a jigsaw puzzle.

However, for island layouts with rocks at the base creating a quasi boarder, i think darker stones looks better. The twin islands scape shown by Martin is an excellent example (in fact my lfs has a very similar display).
 
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