My First Rock Layout

[davemonkey]

A little flip here, a nudge there...

PA280001.jpg

[Complexity]

Here's another idea. I've seen this done where all the rocks are angled the same direction. I tried to show this with a photoshop mock up. The idea is supposed to prevent the jumbled look while adding emphasis on the focal point. Or something like that. Maybe this can spark some more ideas.

[barrettsline]

Any way it goes you can control in my opinion. Plants will grow just scape them how you want it to look. But knowing what your gonna put in it will help. It's all scattered until it comes together..... Even if it's still scattered.

[aquabee]

Here's another idea. I've seen this done where all the rocks are angled the same direction. I tried to show this with a photoshop mock up. The idea is supposed to prevent the jumbled look while adding emphasis on the focal point. Or something like that. Maybe this can spark some more ideas.

Whoa. Nice photoshop job Vicki! :)

I do like the angled look, esp if you direct your water flow in the same direction. That way you could have kinduva feng shui thing going on, with all the energy flow moving in one loop. )

[davemonkey]

...feng shui )

Gesundheit! :)

Vicki, I'm QUITE impressed with the photoshop work. I can barely use "Paint" to draw in pretend plants over a picture so I can see what it would look like planted. Can yo photoshop in some HC with a few specimens of a misc. background plant...and maybe a little something in between the rocks here and there?

[davemonkey]

Some more I played with today.

PA280005.jpgPA280001.jpgPA280002.jpgPA280003.jpg

[aquabee]

I like the first one!

[davemonkey]

I like the first one!

That was my favorite as well! I buried the larger one 1/3 into the substrate and leaned it forward a bit to make it look more edgy. The rock behind it got flipped around to remove the straight-line appearance and I nudged it as far over to the LFT as I could.

I think I'm done with the rocks now. When I get plants in it I'll post pics. :) (But don't be in too much a hurry...it may be a couple weeks or more before this gets planted. )

[armthehomeless]

First one is my favorite too!

[Complexity]

Vicki, I'm QUITE impressed with the photoshop work. I can barely use "Paint" to draw in pretend plants over a picture so I can see what it would look like planted. Can yo photoshop in some HC with a few specimens of a misc. background plant...and maybe a little something in between the rocks here and there?

I'm in agreement with everyone else in liking the first one.

I'd love to do a mock up like you're suggesting, but in all honesty, what it would look like in a photoshop mock up won't be anything like the real thing. It's one thing to cut and paste some rocks around, but to add plants in a way that looks realistic is a whole different ballgame. If a tank already had plants and someone wanted to see how changing one thing would work, I can sometimes do that, but even then, the way plants grow in a tank looks much different than what a cut and paste job looks like from photoshop.

Planted tanks evolve all the time no matter what design you try to do. Part of the fun is changing stuff around. Most plants are easily moved around so when you plant it, you'll naturally change things as you go. Some plants just won't grow as you had hoped while others will grow better than you had expected. Sometimes you'll find a plant you never planned on that just happens to work out. And even when you do have a design, the actual growth of the plants changes the design from week to week. I think that's part of the fun of a planted tank. It's always changing and evolving.

There are two things I can offer that might be helpful. One is that no matter how you place the rocks, they will get swallowed up by the plants so that they'll be much less noticeable once the tank grows out. Think about how the rocks will look with a 3" plant in front of it. Place the rocks as tall as and as far forward in the tank as you can if you want them to be seen when the plants grow. Leave room behind the rocks for taller plants as a background.

As far as what plants to grow, what works for me is to grab a bunch of plants you like that you think might work. Plant them and see what happens. The ones that die out, oh well. The ones that grow well, enjoy! It's funny how some plants will flourish in some settings while others simply wither away and die. The more plants you try, the more chances you have of finding which ones like your particular setup. Then move those plants around the tank until you figure out where you like them. And that'll be your design. At least for the time being, until you discover something new and move things around again.

[eklikewhoa]

Im with the others the new scape is much nicer! Pick the right plants and it'll accentuate the layout greatly.

[wesleydnunder]

Add me to the list... I like the first one, too. I also liked #3 and think with the right plants could look really good.

Mark

[davemonkey]

Well, I finally settled on a layout (it will be hard to discern right now because of misc rubble in there that is holding doen other stuff right now).
Anyway, a month or so ago I found a cool little Elatine sp. I wanted to try it out so I put about 1" of water in this tank. Then, HAAPS did a rescape of a member's tank and there was a ton of Anubias 'petite' about to get tossed. SOOOOOOO, as of May 7th, this tank went "amphibian"...and as of this afternoon:



Hard water or not, here it is. 2 x t5HO (Geissman Midday) for 4.5 hrs per day for at least the next 4 weeks (will gradually increase), pressurized CO2, Eheim 2211.

All the littered-looking rubble will not remian, it's holding down my other experiment for a few weeks. Probably will be ready to come out in 5 weeks or so.

I'm trying out the 'petite' Anubias as a ground cover. If it doesn't work, I have the Elatine brachysperma placed here and there and by the time I realize the Anubias is a failure, the Elatine should be in a position to start filling in.

There are also some Blyxa seedlings popping up that I can move around later on (thanks to Kevin's aquasoil that I'm using...which sat in a garage for 1 or 2 years..kinda amazing that these plants are sprouting now).

A couple stems of local Persicaria hydropiperoides in the back with a couple test-stems of Ludwigia octovalvis (which I do not expect to make it submersed...we'll see) finish off the scape for the most part. If these don't do what I want them to, they'll be replaced with 'Trident' Java Fern.

[Darbex]

Cant wait to see it filled out.

[Dan]

Ditto! It should fill in very nicely.