Freshwater aquascaping...

[lovebuzz]

Recently I've been interested in beatiful planted tank. I've been messing around with it much, with my anacharis, twisted vallis, java fern, and amazon sword. I have tried many different layouts but I can't seem to get it right. All the moving around of plants and stuff is making all my vallis die

So how do you get your final idea? Do you just play around with it and see what looks best? I'm sure some people here draw it out. But where do you get your ideas from? What are different pruning and planting techniques I can use to achieve a certain look? I know I should be using my imagination but for some reason it's quite limited when it comes to this aquascaping. All I can think of is what other people tanks look like, and I try, but I really don't like it. I need something that is appealing to the eye.

I have dark gravel, different rocks, the plants I listed above, and a piece of malaysian driftwood. I plan to use the driftwood as a centerpiece but it's quite hard I've noticed to build around a focal point. Aquascaping is harder than I thought I've also got 4.6 wpg now on a 10 gallon tank so hopefully that will save my vallis

 

[Mr Miagi]

Builed around the focal point. And head out from there.

No one can tell you how really, because beaty is in the eye of the beholder.

But try and search for a few good books like Takashi Amano. Great designs should inspire you.

Goodluck Benny

 

[lovebuzz]

Any good sites? Anything that tells me about how to plant and trim a plant properly?

Thank you

 

[steelhealr]

Hi...here's a start. Have fun aquascaping. SH

http/www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/079...5258740-4599330

 

[Mr Miagi]

HI,

Here are a few links you could check out ive found quite helpful.

This is a link to some pcics someone posted not long ago of takashi amano's tanks.
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=81624&hl=

A site with quite few links on it too...
http/www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/articles.htm

And a site bout plants etc in general...
http/www.plantgeek.net/plantguide.php

 

[Fishy411]

I dont have any plants so i just move my stuff around until i like it

 

[rdd1952]

Check out the Plants and Planted Tanks Forum. It has a very good pinned thread with all sorts of links on planted tanks.

 

[Nospherith]

I used scalene triangles to design my aquascape. Everything in my tank is in odd numbers: 3 crypts, 1 red tiger lilly, 3 guppies, ect... A scalene triangle is that of which no angles or sides are the same. Basically that's what I went for: absolutely no presence of order. With no order, your eye isn't immediately drawn one thing and can abosorb the entire aquarium easily.

The method of setting up was quite simple, actually. First was substrate and terracing. Then hardscape, rocks and driftwood. The hardscape was the foundation for the entire layout so I spent the most time with this just looking at rock placement from different angles, ect. After hardscape was foreground/midground plants. I had three crypts and set them up in another scalene triangle horizontally inverse to the scalene rock triangle, sortof like this: (* == rock, & == plant)

..............*......&.......
..&..........................
.........&............*.....
.....*.........................

Since I was just starting out, I didn't have much other plants to work with besides a few aponogetons, some twisted val, ludwigia repens and an amazon sword. I threw together the remaining plants, this time based upon how they looked with the central theme of absence of order. This is where I moved plants around the most. In the end, it looked like this:

This picture was taken a few months ago and the aquarium has changed/filled up much since then. Anyway, it depends on what style you go for, but in general the word and philosophy of "centerpiece" is a detriment to creating a well plotted, balanced aquarium. This link talks about the golden ratio. It's a really informative, good link. Check it: Aquabotanic Principles of Aquascaping