reefermike1
New member
Please critique this aquascape. I like it but not sure I love it.
Tips and Tricks on Creating Amazing Aquascapes
- Thread starter Veganbrian
- Start date
Please critique this aquascape. I like it but not sure I love it.
aleithol
New member
Please critique this aquascape. I like it but not sure I love it.
Love the stand. Good start on the aquascape. IMHO, the two sections are very "horizontal". Is it possible for you to add some height to one side or the other for contrast? Also consider when you do that, the whole "rule of thirds" approach trying to draw the eye to where those lines intersect.
DjScRiBbLe
In Memoriam
What are you guys doing to scape 12" wide tanks?
troubadour11
Member
So here we go... I've been following this thread since the first post. It's been a great thread and thanks to the original poster for starting up a great conversation on aquascape design!
I'll try to keep this short and to the point so I don't ramble on and bore everyone. But I'd like to add that I feel that the basic design principles and concepts that are talked about here are spot on in my opinion. I work in art and design and it was a GREAT refresher to read through this when it started. I was already familiar with the principles from other areas of my work, but for whatever reason had not made the connection of it so obviously to working on my aquascape. And the fact this thread started up back when I was ordering my dry rock to get going on my rockscape, it was a perfect read before getting started followed by lots of great conversation and inspirational pictures of others designs! So thanks to all who have contributed. :beer:
Now, onto me chipping in here... I'll include a couple shots for Fishyoga since they asked about sculpting a few posts back.
So my rockscape has been done completed and set up in my current build since the end of August 2013. So far I am pretty thrilled with how it came out! I JUST completed building my new custom LED fixtures to go over the tank this past week. I can't wait to see what the rockwork looks like once I get corals growing and filling in some of the negative spaces!
- Here is the majority of my rock when in originally got delivered and just randomly unpacked into the tank just to see how much was there. I picked up an order of 120 pounds of dry rock that I planned to sculpt into a design. The order was for my standard 90 gallon DT, 75 gallon refugium, and sump.
- So I set up a table in our front hallway with a drop cloth and got to work playing some mini-bolder sized Jenga with the rocks to get an idea of a basic layout and a starting point to sculpt from. Here are a few randomly selected shots of the work in progress balancing act...
- I started to get some things figured out... you'll see some of this in the final design.
- Here's what I used to shape the rocks. But I will say that I wasn't SUPER concerned with getting EXACT cuts. After the balancing, pre-design layout. I went into the sculpting hoping that I could get close to the shape I was planning. But assumed I would be doing a lot of design modifications as I went. Just needed to chill and roll with the shapes I could make.
- Nothing special for me to shape them... just a super old/big flathead screw driver and a hammer. I discovered I could tap it about 1 inch into the rock, pull it out, move over, and repeat. This way I could chip a small "fracture line" through where I wanted the cut to be. Then I could choose 1 to 3 spots to drive the screwdriver in about 1/2 of the way through the rock. Typically, depending on the rock size, after 1 or 2 deep drills, the rock would crack and split pretty close to the line I had made.
- This is that same rock after I tried to split off a couple little mini-shelf type pieces to attach elsewhere and leave one big chunk left.
- I decided to not use acrylic rods and drill the rocks and use epoxy. Instead I went with the mortar and liquid acrylic mix from Marco Rocks. I'm SUPER happy with how that stuff has worked. It was easy to work with, once I got the hang of mixing very small batches at a time and only making one small joint, things came together quickly.
Next are a couple work in progress shots as I used the mortar to start joining the general layout I had made with the pieces as I chiseled and sculpted them with the hammer/screwdriver.
- I attempted to make a kind of pistol shrimp condo with one of the rocks. The base of a short piece (which ended up in front of my overflow) is designed about 2 and a half inches elevated with a couple rock feet. This gap sits just below my sand bed level. The thought and hope was that my eventual stocking choices might like a burrow with a solid roof. And this way, I knew that the rock was stable and wouldn't tip due to burrowing. I only did this on the 1 rock piece, all the rest were chiseled as flat/level as I could easily make them and sit on the tank bottom.
- And one last cementing in progress picture for you all. Here are a couple bigger pieces starting to come together.
- Here's a shot from a little bit ago of how the DT turned out once the rock was all sculpted and sand/water added in.
- There are a couple island pieces you don't see in this shot. There is a small island in the very back left corner. You can see it in the reflection in the left side glass. And then a large island chunk in the back that you can see through the archway or between the arch and center tower. Sorry for the refraction and tough angle. That island is in a tough spot to take pictures of.
Well, I just wanted to chip in my work to the conversation. It's been fun watching what everyone comes up with and the different approaches we all take! In the end, we decided to shoot for as much rockwork as I could use in the DT, but still end up with a good amount of open sand and water space. We are planning a mixed reef but with as much focus on the fish, shrimp, etc. as on the corals. So the goal was to be almost minimalistic, with open sand and water for the animals. But as much possible space to add corals and let them grow in as we could fit in a design like that.
I would say I used between 80-100 pounds in the DT, of the 120 pounds dry rock I ordered. The leftover rock is piled on egg crate platforms with pvc pipe legs elevating the egg crate and rock above my DSB in the 75 gallon refugium. I added approximately 30 additional pounds of cherry picked Live Rock from LFS's to the system once it was cycling to kick off the biological seeding of the system.
In the end, I think it came out pretty well and I am REALLY excited to have my new LED fixtures built and running. Now it's time to start filling in all that negative space with coral growth!
I'll try to keep this short and to the point so I don't ramble on and bore everyone. But I'd like to add that I feel that the basic design principles and concepts that are talked about here are spot on in my opinion. I work in art and design and it was a GREAT refresher to read through this when it started. I was already familiar with the principles from other areas of my work, but for whatever reason had not made the connection of it so obviously to working on my aquascape. And the fact this thread started up back when I was ordering my dry rock to get going on my rockscape, it was a perfect read before getting started followed by lots of great conversation and inspirational pictures of others designs! So thanks to all who have contributed. :beer:
Now, onto me chipping in here... I'll include a couple shots for Fishyoga since they asked about sculpting a few posts back.
So my rockscape has been done completed and set up in my current build since the end of August 2013. So far I am pretty thrilled with how it came out! I JUST completed building my new custom LED fixtures to go over the tank this past week. I can't wait to see what the rockwork looks like once I get corals growing and filling in some of the negative spaces!
- Here is the majority of my rock when in originally got delivered and just randomly unpacked into the tank just to see how much was there. I picked up an order of 120 pounds of dry rock that I planned to sculpt into a design. The order was for my standard 90 gallon DT, 75 gallon refugium, and sump.
- So I set up a table in our front hallway with a drop cloth and got to work playing some mini-bolder sized Jenga with the rocks to get an idea of a basic layout and a starting point to sculpt from. Here are a few randomly selected shots of the work in progress balancing act...
- I started to get some things figured out... you'll see some of this in the final design.
- Here's what I used to shape the rocks. But I will say that I wasn't SUPER concerned with getting EXACT cuts. After the balancing, pre-design layout. I went into the sculpting hoping that I could get close to the shape I was planning. But assumed I would be doing a lot of design modifications as I went. Just needed to chill and roll with the shapes I could make.
- Nothing special for me to shape them... just a super old/big flathead screw driver and a hammer. I discovered I could tap it about 1 inch into the rock, pull it out, move over, and repeat. This way I could chip a small "fracture line" through where I wanted the cut to be. Then I could choose 1 to 3 spots to drive the screwdriver in about 1/2 of the way through the rock. Typically, depending on the rock size, after 1 or 2 deep drills, the rock would crack and split pretty close to the line I had made.
- This is that same rock after I tried to split off a couple little mini-shelf type pieces to attach elsewhere and leave one big chunk left.
- I decided to not use acrylic rods and drill the rocks and use epoxy. Instead I went with the mortar and liquid acrylic mix from Marco Rocks. I'm SUPER happy with how that stuff has worked. It was easy to work with, once I got the hang of mixing very small batches at a time and only making one small joint, things came together quickly.
Next are a couple work in progress shots as I used the mortar to start joining the general layout I had made with the pieces as I chiseled and sculpted them with the hammer/screwdriver.
- I attempted to make a kind of pistol shrimp condo with one of the rocks. The base of a short piece (which ended up in front of my overflow) is designed about 2 and a half inches elevated with a couple rock feet. This gap sits just below my sand bed level. The thought and hope was that my eventual stocking choices might like a burrow with a solid roof. And this way, I knew that the rock was stable and wouldn't tip due to burrowing. I only did this on the 1 rock piece, all the rest were chiseled as flat/level as I could easily make them and sit on the tank bottom.
- And one last cementing in progress picture for you all. Here are a couple bigger pieces starting to come together.
- Here's a shot from a little bit ago of how the DT turned out once the rock was all sculpted and sand/water added in.
- There are a couple island pieces you don't see in this shot. There is a small island in the very back left corner. You can see it in the reflection in the left side glass. And then a large island chunk in the back that you can see through the archway or between the arch and center tower. Sorry for the refraction and tough angle. That island is in a tough spot to take pictures of.
Well, I just wanted to chip in my work to the conversation. It's been fun watching what everyone comes up with and the different approaches we all take! In the end, we decided to shoot for as much rockwork as I could use in the DT, but still end up with a good amount of open sand and water space. We are planning a mixed reef but with as much focus on the fish, shrimp, etc. as on the corals. So the goal was to be almost minimalistic, with open sand and water for the animals. But as much possible space to add corals and let them grow in as we could fit in a design like that.
I would say I used between 80-100 pounds in the DT, of the 120 pounds dry rock I ordered. The leftover rock is piled on egg crate platforms with pvc pipe legs elevating the egg crate and rock above my DSB in the 75 gallon refugium. I added approximately 30 additional pounds of cherry picked Live Rock from LFS's to the system once it was cycling to kick off the biological seeding of the system.
In the end, I think it came out pretty well and I am REALLY excited to have my new LED fixtures built and running. Now it's time to start filling in all that negative space with coral growth!
NatureNerd
New member
This is a great thread. Thank you all for such a wealth of information. I am just starting to design a custom 90g. I am moving much of the rock from my 75 and will be looking for ideas for a pleasing design.
My first question: I have to pick either center or corner overflow. Any consensus as to what allows for better rockwork or appearance?
My first question: I have to pick either center or corner overflow. Any consensus as to what allows for better rockwork or appearance?
troubadour11
Member
I thought about the same thing when I was looking for my 90 DT. I ended up with one with the overflow on the middle left 3rd of the tank. But that was because I got a steel of a deal on the price for it. It's worked out just fine so far.
As for the location and a pleasing design. I think an awesome design can be done with any overflow layout position. Be careful not to do to much of a mirrored design if you go with a center overflow. More what I might think about is the typical, or primary viewing angle at the tank once it's up. For instance... if you'll typically be viewing it more from a certain direction, I'd put the overflow at the opposite end so more life is pushed front towards the primary view. I hope that makes sense.
If I was doing it all over again, I would consider a shallow, floating, coast-to-coast style overflow. When it comes to the function of the overflow, depth to the bottom of the tank doesn't do much other then take up aquascaping space in my opinion. It's actually the amount of water and rate at which the teeth of the overflow allow the water through that makes it efficient.
Or another way to think of it... the amount of the surface of the water the overflow can skim.
I feel that would allow more space to build rockwork at the bottom of the tank. Provide more play area to scape caves and such at the base of your rock designs because you have more depth front-to-back at the bottom of the tank. I could have put about 10-15 more pounds of dry rock into my design had the overflow not gone all the way to the bottom. But still had the same basic shape and design to the layout. Just more caves and rockwork on the bottom left of the tank and stuff. Plus better filtering capacity in the DT and more coral/animal space. I don't feel the coast-to-coast looks bad because once the corals grow and fill in, it's in front of the overflow box just like a vertical one in the center or corner.
But as I said, in the end, I feel a good design can be done with any overflow layout in a 90g. There's plenty of space to play with things and come up with something good. I hope that gives you some helpful thoughts and not a complete waste
NatureNerd
New member
... I'd put the overflow at the opposite end so more life is pushed front towards the primary view. I hope that makes sense...
If I was doing it all over again, I would consider a shallow, floating, coast-to-coast style overflow.
Good advice. Thanks. My 75g has the overflow on the left side. This is the angle of view most have of my tank. It is sort of a visual stop that makes it hard to appreciate the rest of the tank. I had already thought about using the right side but, now I understand a little better why that would look nicer.
I will have to see if LeeMar does coast-to-coast style overflows. This might also be a good option. It really would make the aquascaping easier.
Hi
i am trying to get the best aquascape. i hve the rocks curing. and i need help.
i did some layouts but i am with some dificulties with what do i choose
can you help please?
my forum that i have opened a thread is , you can see pics there
http://www.aquariofilia.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=228041
Thanks
i am trying to get the best aquascape. i hve the rocks curing. and i need help.
i did some layouts but i am with some dificulties with what do i choose
can you help please?
my forum that i have opened a thread is , you can see pics there
http://www.aquariofilia.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=228041
Thanks
Aquascapping
Aquascapping
HI
can you help me with this aquascape? i already mounted the "puzzle" many times and i still did not get a final one.
i want very flow in all the aqua, with a non artificial design ... as much as i can put not artificial better.
the ideias are here .
the thank is 120 x 60 x 52.
thanks
Aquascapping
HI
can you help me with this aquascape? i already mounted the "puzzle" many times and i still did not get a final one.
i want very flow in all the aqua, with a non artificial design ... as much as i can put not artificial better.
the ideias are here .
the thank is 120 x 60 x 52.
thanks
Vadafallon
New member
I know this probably looks like a blob compared to the minimum aqua scapes you have going on, but i wanted something where i had the maximum amount of rock i could get, but with lots of caves etc. for lots of fish and swimming. I think its kinda like castle grey skull and when everything starts come out better and i add more fish, it should look good. Kinda dirty right now too.
I know this probably looks like a blob compared to the minimum aqua scapes you have going on, but i wanted something where i had the maximum amount of rock i could get, but with lots of caves etc. for lots of fish and swimming. I think its kinda like castle grey skull and when everything starts come out better and i add more fish, it should look good. Kinda dirty right now too.
I think it looks fine. Cubes can be challenging to aquascape. I'm in the process of trying to figure out how to set up my cube
