PLEASE critique my scape before I upgrade to a 60-p!

I have removed the blyxa. That is an old photo with young blyxa. As of now the blyxa obscured almost all of the largest rock.

I took the rocks out to add them to the aquasoil I'm cycling outside in plastic bins until y 60-p gets here (should be this Tuesday! So excited!) and while removing them I took note of how much were buried. The largest rock wasn't buried at all and wa just sitting on the substrate, but if I need to I can glue a few smaller rocks on the bottom to make a base. The glued rocks will be covered by aquasoil and the larger rock can become taller. The second rock from the left was not buried any at all either, but all the rest were buried about halfway.

I do have four more smaller gold ball sized rocks. They are unremarkable and don't have much character... Where exactly should I put them? I didn't understand your suggestion on these earlier.

As for the new pics, I like what you have done! But agree with the other poster that I need more mid ground, less foreground.

I would like to keep the pogostemon erectus, but in your pictures it looks like there is a TON of it... Way too much. I'd like to keep the amount I have, and I have very, very high light 150 watt HQI over a 15 gallon tank) so if I put some rotala, I'm thinking Rotala colorata or maybe some other small leaved species there, the stems would spread/fan out And gently creep over the rock (the second rock from the left).

I would like to incorporate Ammania sp. Bonsai since it is a small leaved plant, grows vertically (which is great since most vertical plants want to bend over in my high light) and has interesting colored leaves.

To replace the blyxa, I am thinking of moving the dwarf lobelia that was hastily placed in the middle to where the blyxa was, but it will require diligent trimming to keep it low. The blyxa had grown so large that it was really covering up all the rocks and shading out he downoi.

I could also replace all that blyxa with downoi instead of the dwarf lobelia.

In the pictures, how did you move the rocks on the left side of the tank? Or are they meant to look overgrown by plants in the pics? Wererocs added? I just don't know what's going on with the rock work on the left side.


Also, thanks for helping me again and thanks for the kind words. I was feeling pretty crappy about my scape lol. I saw the video before I read this post actually. I'm going to have to re watch it a few times to see how they manipulate the stones (pretty ugly hakkai stones though.. Hakkai stones are not my cup of tea.

The light was given to me... I can't get rid of an ADA Solar I that was free lol. Scoring that was like winning the lottery.

I wasn't upset or anything lol, don't worry I appreciate your help!

Not shooting you down for your statement, for the record.

I do believe there is an 'aquascaping eye,' but I think that that eye can be likened more to an 'extraordinary attention to detail / minutia.'

The rest I agree with - people inherently prefer specific styles and will prefer one over the other.

Anyway, I'll try to edit this with something thread specific.

Okay here's my post of usefulness to make up for the previous statement:

Less plants, less complications. Until you better know what you are doing, my advice would be to limit the species numbers to two or so. Pick two species that really jump out at you and you love, and try to master them. Master their growth patterns and their look and where they're best situated. So that way you can come back later and add more plants in different scapes and the task won't quite be so monumental (or easy to mess up). Focus on your rock arrangements. You want to emphasize the presence of the main stone by leading the eye to it through careful manipulation of secondary stones and plants.

There are two Lions in front of the New York City Public Library that sum up everything that this hobby is, their names are Patience and Fortitude. Patience and Fortitude.

As far as you not liking the Hakkai Stone - all I'm going to say is: patience. Their majesty will become apparent to you as you gain more experience with rock scapes (or if you ever get the chance to hold one). There is something supremely odd about those stones, you can feel some sort of a presence when you hold them, like they contain some kind of a spirit inside of them. I know saying as much is super super odd and probably laughable, but...there is something spiritual about those stones.

I am into some new age stuff and believe in chi and feng shui and the power of various minerals to an extent, so I know what you mean. Your description reminds me of boji stones.

After i got the tank from you today, Frank, and have started tearing down the old tank, it's very apparent that the rocks I was using are pretty small for this tan. I may need to look for new scaping materials.

My scape looked too two dimensional now that it's gone and i can look at a blank slate. I love the picture of m
mr. deki's scape... And I have a stone almost exactly like the ones he uses as a border for blyxa on the right.

But I see contradictions in the awesome scape above and what I have been reading and have been told. First, it looks like he just has four rocks. I thought you should always always always have odd numbers? Second. It looks like he has rocky out crops on both sides of the tank which is what I was specifically told not to do earlier in the thread, and the two accent stones make things look very symmetrical . It all just looks vey symmetrical. I love it, but it looks like the opposite of what everyone else is telling me to do? All that said, I am NOT trying to have an iwagumi aquascape at all. I just want something nice. I'm not planning on entering any contests, i just want to drop the jaws of guests whenever I entertain people at parties or get togethers plus it's my hobby and i need something to fiddle with besides trimming only two plants and arranging stoned (I know there is more to Iwaguma than that )

I do have a problem with trying to grow too many species... Plants I HAVE to have, I feel, are Staurpgyne repens, downoi, and I love my pogostemon erectus.

I absolutely love dwarf lobelia, too, but if I don't HAVE to have it, I am just very, very fond of it,

For carpeting plants, I will give HC one more shot and if it doesn't thrive for me this time in the aquasoil I'm getting rid of it and using Glosso or UG.

I feel that I need at least one or two plants that give color... See, look at me. Here I am saying how I need all these plants. Tk be honest with you,while I think setups with two or three species only are very pretty, if I had one personally I'd get bored. I am not trying tondo an iwagumi setup, just have a really once aquarium.

I





Please tell me which ones you like best, and which rocks should be tweaked around a slight bit. I think the small rock on the far right should be moved back a little bit. Any thoughts?

I know some of the pics are hard to see. I want to tweak the arrangement of the rocks, but keep the basic hardscape.

I am waiting to plant but want to get the hard scape right first. I am not very concerned with sloping since this tank will be moved back and forth between college and home a couple times per year, so slopes wont last anyway.

The pics are all slightly diffferent, even though they all look similar. Please suggest any adjustments. I tried to put the focal rocks at the sixteen inch mark on the aquarium, which is 2/3rds the length and should fit the golden ratio.

The people over at plantedtank.net are helping me (a lot more active than this forum for some reason....) and here it is as of now. Still tweaking before planting.

Any more advice on tweaking would be great. The hard scape keeps looking better and better!

Front:


Angle:


Top:


Left side:


Middle and right side:




If anyone has any more advice, I'd appreciate it!

I love it! I had read that with high light certain plants start crawling. Thus thinking a more colorful plant would thrive on your high light and be straight. Check out this Ammannia gracilis.

For more ideas check out Plant Finder.

some plants will start crawling under high light...my experience with this is with rotala indica. the lower buds have grown more horizontal than vertical, not helpful in my scape.

Larger stones would improve this scape, but if that isn't an option i prefer the first picture. Although, don't like to see smaller stones on the "outside" of larger ones. This occurs on the left and right sides of your hardscape.