SuperColey1
Planted Section
I have been talking about minimalist, abstract design within the aquarium for a while now. Maybe just over a year and the Portinho scape I have just broken down was put together midway between my tastes in decor as well as other things moving from the normal modern style of room to a completely retro seventies/eighties style.
By this I mean moving from the standard of neutral walls and finished wood furniture to full on gloss sideboards / units and the obligatory corner sofa
Just as I had made Portinho mid transition between styles I also did the same with the lounge and of course that means I have a lounge that is half way between where my taste was and where it is now. My wife doesn't care about what I do in the aquarium but there is of course a lot of eye rolling going on now as she contemplates yet another change of decor in the lounge and more tools / mess everywhere. but needs must and I'm the boss.
So I'll not go on about the lounge and concentrate on the scape here.
What I like to do with scapes is use them as decor to complement the surroundings that the tank finds itself in. With the decor I have in mind for my lounge that means I want something clean, crisp, very modern looking and also I want to ignore rules. There will be no golden ratio in this scape. There will be no sloped substrate and symmetry will be key to the aesthetic. Think Mondrian vs Titian and you get the picture <-----pun. lol
I also want to completely go against the current craze of minutely detailing a scape. To me that removes any viewer interaction. It dictates what the scape is and removes any viewer interpretation of the scape. A comparison I make is that if you read a book you imagine how people look, how their surroundings look, everything. The story guides you but your imagination makes it incredible, then the film comes out, dictates what people look like, dictates everything and more often than not someone who read the book first is left disappointed because no film or director can match the human imagination.
So below is a first draft of what I want to do hardscape wise and the original sketch I made about a year ago.
I plan to make the hardscape myself from Apoxie Sculpt and incorporate caves within it for Zebra plecs. The fish will of course be nigh on invisible most of the time but the scape will also be home to a colony of Crystal Red Shrimp.
Still in the planning stage at the minute. This will be an Optiwhite L80cm, D35cm, H46cm affair and probably be a couple of months until I get it going. A few changes may be made to the hardscape or other plans in that time but thought you might be interested in my madness. lol. Ian already thinks I am crazy on this one, He saw my ideas a while back he, he.
Opinions positive or negative are very welcome. I know this will not be to most people's tastes but really I think once you see it in situ and how it looks with it's surroundings and furniture some opinions may warm slightly.
This is the original sketch:
And this is my first draft of trying to work out the dimensions and proportions:
Thanks for reading
Andy
By this I mean moving from the standard of neutral walls and finished wood furniture to full on gloss sideboards / units and the obligatory corner sofa
Just as I had made Portinho mid transition between styles I also did the same with the lounge and of course that means I have a lounge that is half way between where my taste was and where it is now. My wife doesn't care about what I do in the aquarium but there is of course a lot of eye rolling going on now as she contemplates yet another change of decor in the lounge and more tools / mess everywhere.
but needs must and I'm the boss.So I'll not go on about the lounge and concentrate on the scape here.
What I like to do with scapes is use them as decor to complement the surroundings that the tank finds itself in. With the decor I have in mind for my lounge that means I want something clean, crisp, very modern looking and also I want to ignore rules. There will be no golden ratio in this scape. There will be no sloped substrate and symmetry will be key to the aesthetic. Think Mondrian vs Titian and you get the picture <-----pun. lol
I also want to completely go against the current craze of minutely detailing a scape. To me that removes any viewer interaction. It dictates what the scape is and removes any viewer interpretation of the scape. A comparison I make is that if you read a book you imagine how people look, how their surroundings look, everything. The story guides you but your imagination makes it incredible, then the film comes out, dictates what people look like, dictates everything and more often than not someone who read the book first is left disappointed because no film or director can match the human imagination.
So below is a first draft of what I want to do hardscape wise and the original sketch I made about a year ago.
I plan to make the hardscape myself from Apoxie Sculpt and incorporate caves within it for Zebra plecs. The fish will of course be nigh on invisible most of the time but the scape will also be home to a colony of Crystal Red Shrimp.
Still in the planning stage at the minute. This will be an Optiwhite L80cm, D35cm, H46cm affair and probably be a couple of months until I get it going. A few changes may be made to the hardscape or other plans in that time but thought you might be interested in my madness. lol. Ian already thinks I am crazy on this one, He saw my ideas a while back he, he.
Opinions positive or negative are very welcome. I know this will not be to most people's tastes but really I think once you see it in situ and how it looks with it's surroundings and furniture some opinions may warm slightly.
This is the original sketch:
And this is my first draft of trying to work out the dimensions and proportions:
Thanks for reading
Andy
/www.zebrapleco.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2533
