Journal

[Alexis]

Good luck Alexis let us know how you get on with your new aquarium. Not many people using the Flora base in these Forums be interested to know how it goes! Maybe weve stumbled across something a little special. Not sure if everyone out there realises That RED SEA bought out DUPLA so there certainly some know how there! Thaks for the comment!

Yeah! The stuff's working really well for me right now! I haven't added CO2 or anything (mainly cause I can't afford it ) and my plants seem to be growing really well! In fact, I think I'm going to have to start trimming them kinda soon!

But yeah, so far the Red Sea stuff is good! I'm glad to have found someone else who uses it! I was a bit worried for a while, since, like you said, not many people on the forum seem to use it! But hey, as long as it does the job, all is good. And it's good to see that someone else seems to be having success with it!

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Ive had a play with your aqua-scape.
Please dont think im degrading your work, IM NOT, i think youv done a great job, i am going to point out a couple of things i can see, this doesnt make me right but its what i think, no offence intended at all.
Its hopefully constructive.



OK,starting at the front with the stones, like Goerge says they bring tension ( which is fine if thays what you want) but IMOH i think another stone is need to ballance them, so as you will see ive drawn one in. The posisioning of the stone is to create harmony with the triadic rule in mind.
When choosing stone go for deifferant sizes Large Medium and small.

I also think that your drift wood should be moved slightly to the right, only because my eye is drawn up into the middle of ther tank to the point of the drift wood and away from the lovely plants, moving it to the right will also bring it almost into the rule of thirds or golden rule which has been proven to be most pleasing to the human eye.




These are just my observations,

Happy aqua-scaping.

Graeme

 

[Gnatfish]

Sounds like a plan!

Thats actually quite a good idea. With those three stones and the Glosso carpet, that'll look great!

 

[planter]

Ive had a play with your aqua-scape.
Please dont think im degrading your work, IM NOT, i think youv done a great job, i am going to point out a couple of things i can see, this doesnt make me right but its what i think, no offence intended at all.
Its hopefully constructive.



OK,starting at the front with the stones, like Goerge says they bring tension ( which is fine if thays what you want) but IMOH i think another stone is need to ballance them, so as you will see ive drawn one in. The posisioning of the stone is to create harmony with the triadic rule in mind.
When choosing stone go for deifferant sizes Large Medium and small.

I also think that your drift wood should be moved slightly to the right, only because my eye is drawn up into the middle of ther tank to the point of the drift wood and away from the lovely plants, moving it to the right will also bring it almost into the rule of thirds or golden rule which has been proven to be most pleasing to the human eye.




These are just my observations,

Happy aqua-scaping.

Graeme

Moody!

If this didnt make perfect sense id be offended (lol) you obviously have a great understanding for the 'golden rule' and the whole concept of the 'Nature aquarium'. Its all very well reading as much as you can but understanding is something else. I have felt that something is not right about my aquascape but have not been expierienced enough to pin point these errors. Your drawing seems to make sense but do I have the Balls to start adjusting my aquascape at this stage? with little knowledge of 'golden rules' and all that stuff I do feel ive got close to getting it right with my own 'EYE' however the bogwood being so central has bugged me for a while. Im gonna sleep on this one before doing anything rash but i think you make some interesting points that your drawing made very clear as soon as i saw it.

Thank you moody

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Thanks for the compliment.

Like ive said its just my opinion based on what ive learned and what looks natural and balanced.

I don't see any problems in tweaking any aqua-scape whether its now , 3 months or 6 months down the line it doesn't matter, its a process of improvement and balance, we are all tweaking all of the time and it could be a year or two before you are entirely happy with your layout.
Keep taking pictures to document your progress and look back in time with nostalgia at where you started and where you are now.
You have made an excellent start in the planted tank hobby, keep going like this and you will be ready for the aqua-scape competitions.

Great job

Graeme.

 

[planter]

LATEST UPDATE!!

Ive moved the wood over a little to the right as moody suggested (think it may have moved backwards more than it did right) . I think it appears to be more a part of the aquascape now in this new position as it blends in with the planting better. May have trouble finding a third rock to suit my existing two but im on the look out! Have been doing some reading about composition and PHI recently (hence the signature) and even found myself hunting back through Dan Browns Da Vinci code to find a refernce to it (page 131). Im fascinated by this, call me thick but I never studied art so its all new to me! any ways heres a new pic taken today at 21.30 (any one bored yet?) your comments are always welcome, Just dont tell me what an anorak im becoming..... I KNOW!!!!

 

[RadaR]

Wow, looks amazing. Like you said it all blends in.

 

[Gnatfish]

It does look better with that wood to the right a bit more! You doing EI? (The thing i printed out for you)

Just dont tell me what an anorak im becoming..... I KNOW!!!!

Hahahaha, don't worry, practically everyone here is an anorak!

Have another link

Also heres a quote from Craynerd, i hope he doesnt mind.

------------------------Golden Ratio, Part 1 ---------------------------------

What is the golden ratio?

The first recorded use of the term golden ratio is thought to be by Martin Ohm in the 1835 2nd edition of his textbook Die Reine Elementar-Mathematik (Livio 2002, p. 6). The words he used directly translated from German means "golden section".
The first known use of this term in English is in James Sulley's 1875 article on aesthetics in the 9th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. However, the practical use of the golden ratio was used much longer ago, even dating back to the Greek sculptor Phidias (ca. 490-430 BC), who a number of art historians claim made extensive use of the golden ratio in his works (Livio 2002, pp. 5-6). Even in a recent science fiction novel, the character Robert Langdon in the “Da Vinci Codeâ€￾ makes a connection of the golden ratio to the historic pentagram and Fibonacci sequence.

Although we will briefly cover the math which denotes the formation of the golden ratio, the true theoretical understanding involves complex mathematical calculations. Due to the deep and limited need for this understanding, we shall steer away from this route and delve deeper into its practical implications and use in the aquarium.

The golden ratio is often represented by the Greek letter, phi, φ and in fact represents a irrational number. This number is often stated as 1.6180 (as erroneously labored on in the Da Vinci Code) however strictly speaking, this is not exactly true since the number is being rounded an approximation and can never be an exact quantity. We are now being far to precise, since our need for the golden ratio is well suited to this erroneous approximation and for our understanding and the remainder of this article we shall name it as that, 1.618.

So what is so special about the number and how can it be used in the aquarium? The number is also regularly referred to by artists as the divine number and it is the division of a given unit of length into two parts such that the ratio of the shorter to the longer equals the ratio of the longer part to the whole.

In more simple terms, it gives us a guide to the aesthetic positioning of décor in the aquarium. Let us take for example a simple tank in which we want to place one lone rock, where would we naturally place it? I doubt it if many of you would place it perfectly central in the tank, most of us would naturally place it just off center to disturb the symmetry for more relaxing feel.

Nathan

 

[planter]

Hi gnat,

No not adding any ferts YET! am planning to use Plant nutrition + (TMG). Read the EI thing which was very interesting however im worried about the 50% change weekly messing up water parameters! (KH etc) as my tap water is next to useless im having to use an R.O/Tap mix which in small quantites leaves a margin for error. I hear the "TMG" is a good alternative though (ref. GF) Maybe when I really get my head round it all and ive been doing the tank for a while ill make the BIG switch to EI.

 

[ridewake210]

wow nice lookin tank.
looks great

 

[planter]

My plants now need pruning But I dont want to ruin them, Does anyone know of any good sites where i can learn more about pruning/trimming different species of aquatic plants?

 

[planter]

Seems this thread has become a little slow so heres a new pic. As you can see im slways making minor adjustments here and there as well as sneaking in the odd new plant. Am on my second attempt at glossostigma now! Fingers crossed ill get it going this time have cranked up the Co2 in an effort to get it rooted. Apologise for the bad quality pic but had to take this one on the mobile! let me know what you think!

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Hi Planter,

Your tanks is looking good very healthy.
The plants could do with a good hard trimming back mind ( the stem plants that is ).
If your not sure about trimming, what i would do is make sure they are all growing well, if there not then wait until they are. When you trim a plant if its healthy you will normally get 2 shoots from where you cut ( not always though).Think about how they will grow back, think of them as a privet hedge, shape you trimming to give the aquascape shape and form. I would use the sharpest sciscors you have, i use fishvets (aquascape kit )made out of surgical steel.
If you can position your cut behind another plant/wood or rock that way you wont see the ugly trim mark on the stem only lush new growth apperaring from behind, you should beable to cut hard back and the plants will be fine, and also replant the stems that you have cut off adding to the more lushess look

As for your glosso, as long as you have good light, high C02 and some fertilization it should grow, you read the little artical craynard wrote about how to plant it so all should be good, thats all its missing is the carpet of glosso or even HC which i may beable to help with oh and another rock.

Top job though planter.

Graeme.

 

[planter]

Thanks moody!

I have been trimming the plants although maybe not be enough as im a bit scared of ruining it. Just been trimming ennough to stop the long stemmed plants blocking out too much light. I treated myself to a set of stainless long scissors and tweezers (JBL) so im ready for trimming just didnt want to jump in to something I dont understand fully without some advice. I quite like the look of the plants So why would I need to trim at this stage? I mean that in a curious way hoping maybe you can educate me a little further. Is it simply to help light penetrate to the lower plants/leaves? and to allow the further uptake of nutrients? or is it in an effort to give shape and form? The pic was a couple of days old and doesnt show the new planting of glosso ive done, I followed craynerd's instructions and have now started dosing with Plant nutrition+ (TMG). Im really enjoy using this forum many thanks to you, Craynerd, GF for all your comments and help.

P.s Still loving that nano cube!!

Nearly forgot ! 'the rock' I got another that matches but it made the foreground look al bit cramped. maybe ill put it in and post a pic see what you think!

 

[RadaR]

Looking brillaint. Soz if this has already been discussed but do you have any fish in there? Or planning on any fish?