Aquascaping Tall/square Tanks

[kylealastairlove]

show me what ya got!!
im rescaping my juwel lido soon and as always its a pain in the bottom to find a layout that works being as its pretty tall, ive came up with a few cool ideas in the past but i would like to see what you people have done if you have tall or square shaped tanks, i need some ideas and am just curious as to what others have came up with  

i want to create something stunning, my best scape yet! (it probably wont turn out "stunning" cus im not exactly pro), so im just looking for inspiration really

 

[daizeUK]

The good thing about scaping tall tanks is that you can use tall pieces of wood and species of plants - I used mopani wood and needle leaf java fern.  My plan for the box-shaped Lido was an island centrepiece.
 
I think it's also a good idea to plan for top and bottom dwellers as otherwise half the tank will look empty.  I regret not using a substrate more suitable for cories but I do love using large-grain sand and I have livebearers and shrimp who occupy the lower levels.
 

 
Another idea that I was keen to try is a mountain-scene with rockwork rising steeply up the back of the tank - it might be tricky to balance the rocks and stop substrate sliding though but I'd like to try it someday.

 

[kylealastairlove]

thanks for the reply, your tank looks amazing  
i think what made me get a lido was i watched a vid on the "natures chaos" aquascape, if youve ever seen it then it really inspired me to do a mountain island type set up that and the lido fit perfectly in a little alcove in my room!! but i loved the look of the island aquascapes and thought lido would be perfect for it, got loads of wood, mostly driftwood and i have a few manzanita pieces too, ive brought some play sand to replace my current black gravel substrate as i wanted something more suitable for bottom dwelling species, also ordered some indian almond leaves which im going to litter the bottom with

i posted this pic in a previous topic but this is a previous scape of mine and i wanted to do something similar again only more heavily planted this time and perhaps some more wood in there too think itd be good for some kuhlis which ive wanted since i found out they existed lol 

 

[Chad]

I love both of those tanks. I have a 30 gallon cube waiting...I was going to do it as a marine tank but seeing these I'm now wondering...

 

[kylealastairlove]

fresh water is the way to go  

 

[Chad]

You know I love both. Right now I just have a 10 gallon fresh and I've got a 29 gallon standard and a 30 gallon cube just sitting around waiting for life...one of those at least needs to be FW. 

 

[kylealastairlove]

id love to have both, but i only have one tank haha
i just took a look at your youtube too, felt i had to since the link was there nice looking tanks (and fish) you get there! 

 

[Chad]

Thanks. I'm sort of embarrassingly obsessed with fish tanks. As long as I've been in the hobby I still find things that inspire me (like the above tanks) and they just keep my mind racing with what's possible. 

 

[Ch4rlie]

Thanks. I'm sort of embarrassingly obsessed with fish tanks. As long as I've been in the hobby I still find things that inspire me (like the above tanks) and they just keep my mind racing with what's possible. 

 
 
Isn't that the way its supposed to be?
 
I know I am kinda obessed with my tanks too, my GF will attest to that :x

 

[Chad]

I think it's perfectly normal. 

 

[daizeUK]

I look forward to reading journals from both of you when you decide how to set up your tanks!

 

[kylealastairlove]

spent like an hour washing sand today!

but at least its ready now also got my catappa leaves or indian almond leaves whatever you wanna call them, trying to think of a plan for emptying out the tank and moving the fish temporarily, ive got like a big plastic box outside i was thinking to empty as much of the water into there as i can so i can put it back in afterwards was going to temporarily house the fish in there and move my filter and heater in there too so i have time to rescape the tank and try get it how i want it, feel like i want a new piece of wood even though i got loads, but the pieces i have arent amazing but theyre use-able i guess itd just be nice to have something different but woods expensive so i dont know lol

also i cant make up my mind whether to go full on planted using the chunky bogwood for hard scape and hope it works or go with a more biotope kind of set up using manzanita branches (which i dont have that much of) and the leaves and a few plants too

decisions decisions!!   

 

[daizeUK]

Some of the best looking pieces of wood can actually be made from two or three lesser pieces tied together

 

[kylealastairlove]

sounds good to me i just realised that i have quite a lot of wood lying around lol! 
and people!? do you think its a good idea to layer different substrates, ive got like a fine black gravel atm, do you think itd be okay if i just cover it with play sand? as i wanted to get a bit more depth to the substrate this time so it makes things a bit easier ? i know it'll be near impossible to seperate if it goes wrong thats my only worry! 

 

[Chad]

I've done the layering thing, and it looks really cool, but in my case anyway it never staying that way, it always seemed to end up mixed up in the end.