Opinion Please

Hi All,
this is a somewhat unorthodox way of asking for advice with out these sitting in the tank.Tank is not here yet.

The cardboard the rocks and vine are on are a template of my tank bottom 980mm x 470mm.

In the right corner is a Gold Vine this takes up a fair area of the corner and as it sits in the pic it is 550mm high,the tank depth is 700mm.

In the right corner are the rock formation,these sit at 380 mm high.

Substrate will be sand about 50mm deep.

My main worry is the size of the vine in relation to the rocks,originally the rocks where my main piece and the rest of the tank with small driftwood some smaller rocks etc.

The rocks are petrified wood so there is a fair bit of investment in those,the vine I purchased as it was too good a price to say no to.

In between the rock and vine will be driftwood with Anubias on and a medium sized Emerald Heart also on driftwood,at the back of the tank I intend to have some Java Fern on small rocks along with some Wisteria along the back wall and behind the vine.

I would like to keep both of them in the tank,so I am hoping someone could give me some advice or the nod to say just keep on keeping on,I know in the end it is my choice,but this is the first time I have tried doing a tank like this.

Thank you for your time.

Do a Google search on 'golden triangle' in relation to aquascaping.

This will give you some pointers when it comes to setting out decor. You'll find that having two large focal points (the vine and the 'rocks') will confuse the eye slightly and might give you the feeling that something's 'not right' all the time.

I would maybe place the 'rocks' as you have them but behind the vine, with the vine base backing onto the 'rocks' and the tip pointing away from them along the tank floor to create one large focal point towards one side.

Thanks Aquascaper,
I have done some looking at what you suggested,hence what prompted me to ask the question,as by looking at it as I have it,it looked all out of place,new pic attached,do you mean something like this.

No, can not show pic as I have used up my 100k global upload quota?So I only have 2.52k left.

I pretty sure what you mean lay the vine down run the piece that was up in the air along the floor of the tank.

That actually works to some degree,if i get more upload bytes I will get the pic on here,do i get more bytes at a later date or do I have to have x amounts of posts?

Thanks Aquascaper.

Well here we go the pic I was trying for before,something like this you mean Aquascaper.

Also does it matter what side of the tank I would put this,if this is the way to go,I always tend to look from left to right.

That to me looks a lot more appealing and when planted will really look good

Doesn't matter which side it is, personal preference, but you could maybe shuffle it towards the middle slightly (maybe 2" - 3") to allow planting on the side where the 'rocks' are?

I like the second layout too. It also looks like it gives the fish options to choose hiding or swimming in the open.

Thanks Aquascaper and Bugdozer,
Aquascaper,when you say shuffle towards the centre,could you elaborate a bit more on that please.

Thank you

Aquascaper pic is attached with a shot from the top as you can see rocks are in the corner,as it was much like in my other pic,hope that might help for you to elaborate on what you suggested.

I do agree that with the vine as you suggested is a much better way to go,when I tried it last night it really did become far more appealing to the eye than the rock and vine in different ends.

Thanks again.

Aquascaper.
that pic above was not the best so a few more of you could have a look and tell me which would be better and what I would need to move.

Also going back in afew posts I was asking about egg crate,finding that here is like finding hens teeth,so another option was the pic of a tray that bread is delivered in,local baker kindly donated one to me,so hopefully that will do.

Thank you.



View attachment 68164

Okay trying again I may have to add pics one per post untill I work this adding pics out.







hooray I think I may have got it,apologies for the messing about.So from these pics could you come up with what may look better or an idea from what you first said about shuffling it along some.

Thank you so much.

The plastic grid is fine as long as there's no painted logo or anything.

With regards to the vine placement, I like the orientation in picture 3 with the gap between it and the 'rocks' in picture 2

According to the golden triangle rule you should be aiming for the main bulk of the focal point to be in line with an imaginary vertical line 1/3 of the length of the tank from one end (if that makes sense). This was what I meant by shuffling it away from the end and towards the center a little.

You need to keep in mind plants as they will help soften the focal point so leave areas for plants to go in amongst the focal point.

Thank you Aquascaper.
Please correct me if I have this picture wrong on how I think what you meant to set it up.

I would imagine if this is right,then plants between the driftwood and rocky towers,I would be more than likely putting Anubias,jave fern and maybe some moss on the driftwood,though I have not got around to posting suggestions for that as to yet.

If it is out of whack just say,many thanks again Aquascaper,your help has been very informative,as you can see I have no real idea of aquascaping,maybe thats why my backyard is just lawn and a huge tree which is in the wrong place Just reading what you wrote I might have even messed this set up as well.

Maybe just move the vine back so it's against the rear glass but keep the orientation, to make cleaning the front glass easier, and that looks very good

Thank you very much Aquascaper.