# I am aquascaping challenged



## mightyoak (Mar 10, 2010)

I went up the Poudre Canyon a couple of weeks ago to go fishing. The River is very low right now and I ended up spending most of my time looking for rocks and driftwood to add to a tank. 

I have a 20L and have spent the better part of my Friday night and have come up with these pics but am not 100% satified. The driftwood and the two larger rocks came right from the river and the smaller rocks came from a different portion of the same river about 50 miles down stream. I will plant the tank fairly heavily to provide plenty of room for shrimp to hide and it will be a shrimp only tank.

Do you like the positioning?
What should I do differently?
Is the wood cool or should I toss it? It does still have a small amount of bark but I boiled it for about 30 minutes and it was in the water and sunk when I found it. I have a bunch of branch type wood I found which is still soaking but could use it as well to create a different look and I could ditch the rocks....

Give me some thoughts please!


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## Eden Marel (Jan 28, 2010)

The wood looks good, but I personally don't like the smoothness or squareness of the rocks


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Cmon, fill er up, lets rock this Friday night partay!!!


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## ReefkprZ (Aug 21, 2010)

I think it looks great!

I
the only advice I would offer would be to move the wood just a little to the right so the tip wasnt touching or doesnt look like its touching the side of the tank. just an inch or so

oh and put a brace under that tank the plywood is already bowing!~


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## HouseofZoo (Sep 12, 2010)

I agree with ReefkprZ. It looks good as is, but the wood would look a little better if you could see the tip IMO.


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## TeamTeal (Mar 31, 2010)

or maybe mix the rocks and wood?


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## mightyoak (Mar 10, 2010)

What about these? I started thinking about the focal point needing to be to one side or the other so moved all of it to one side and am thinking with tons of plants on the left side it may look good. Or I may just start over. 
Thanks for the replies and keep them coming.

The tank is not where it will be permanently so the bowing plywood is just temporary.


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## Eden Marel (Jan 28, 2010)

I like #1 and #2, but I think #1 would look better if the wood was behind the rocks at the right back corner or to the rightish front where there is the space.


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## HouseofZoo (Sep 12, 2010)

I like the first one out of those three.


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## Deltad (Aug 22, 2007)

Eden Marel said:


> I think #1 would look better if the wood was behind the rocks at the right back corner or to the rightish front where there is the space.


+1 rocks always go better in front


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## TeamTeal (Mar 31, 2010)

#3 but point the long piece of wood out to the left?


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## Eden Marel (Jan 28, 2010)

I just noticed that you have the Aqueon sticker residue on the tank, aren't you gonna get rid of that? xD


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## DANIELSON (Jul 15, 2010)

LOL i had that sticker on my tank for a while too.


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Id try to find a 2/3rds balance with the wood and place the rocks to even it out and go from there.


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## kingfisherfleshy (Jun 4, 2010)

I would advise against having the wood angled towards the front...makes it hard to clean, and it just never feels right after awhile. 

My personal favorite is picture # 5


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## mightyoak (Mar 10, 2010)

Eden Marel said:


> I just noticed that you have the Aqueon sticker residue on the tank, aren't you gonna get rid of that? xD


Too funny you noticed this. Yea, I will clean it off before I finish setting it up.


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## mightyoak (Mar 10, 2010)

Deltad said:


> +1 rocks always go better in front


Maybe move the rocks to the far left side of tank and place the wood behind the rocks?


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## mightyoak (Mar 10, 2010)

chad320 said:


> Id try to find a 2/3rds balance with the wood and place the rocks to even it out and go from there.


Agreed.
And it is filled now :thumbsup: but just to keep the wood wet. I will continue to mess with it until I find something that looks balanced. I am thinking if I place the wood at 2/3 to the left and kind of hanging over the rocks which would be in front of the wood it may look better. I may grab more wood and use less rocks also.


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## ReefkprZ (Aug 21, 2010)

I gotta be honest here I like almost every layout there, the last one is my least favorite but, its not unattractive.


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## mightyoak (Mar 10, 2010)

Hmmm.
I think I like this the best. Don't mind the peat, I will clean it out. This seems to look more natural than the others, except maybe the wood on the left should point to the left too? Not sure.

Thanks for all the input as it has really helped I think. More thoughts?


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## kingfisherfleshy (Jun 4, 2010)

You are tempting/convincing me to get another larger tank.

Heading to petco now! 

Looks good though.


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Yep, looks good to me too.


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## mightyoak (Mar 10, 2010)

kingfisherfleshy said:


> You are tempting/convincing me to get another larger tank.
> 
> Heading to petco now!
> 
> Looks good though.


$1/ gallon is hard to beat. Bought two 40breeders and 1 20L. This is the first and the others will be soon to follow:icon_mrgr

Now to decide on the plants....I will move this to a journal once I get the plants started.


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## mightyoak (Mar 10, 2010)

chad320 said:


> Yep, looks good to me too.


Thanks Chad!

And how do I put two quotes in the same posting so I don't have to post twice?


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## Eden Marel (Jan 28, 2010)

Push the button to the right of the quote button on each post you want to quote.


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## deleted_user_9 (Feb 28, 2009)

Not to overly complicate things, but I'd have to know if and how you will use plants to suggest wood placement. Now that my driftwood is covered in thriving java moss, I've tweaked the placement several times because of how the angles filled in. 

I also moved the whole thing to the center a bit when I realized one piece was too close to the glass to fit the MagFloat past it.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

I like it better when the woods are pointing in somewhat the same direction...

Right now they're pointing to a point at the surface and it's creating a weird uneasy tension. People would ask, what is it pointing to?

the rocks are nice.


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## mightyoak (Mar 10, 2010)

birmansandbettas said:


> Not to overly complicate things, but I'd have to know if and how you will use plants to suggest wood placement. Now that my driftwood is covered in thriving java moss, I've tweaked the placement several times because of how the angles filled in.
> 
> I also moved the whole thing to the center a bit when I realized one piece was too close to the glass to fit the MagFloat past it.


I am thinking java moss and java fern on the wood Crypt wendtii green as a background on the left, some echinodorus vesuvius for the background on the right, some sort of Erio I have in between the rocks, and maybe some blyxa japonica in the open area to the left. I will have to see as I go how it all looks and know I will probably move stuff around as I do all of the time anyway as things grow out. :thumbsup:



mistergreen said:


> I like it better when the woods are pointing in somewhat the same direction...
> 
> Right now they're pointing to a point at the surface and it's creating a weird uneasy tension. People would ask, what is it pointing to?
> 
> the rocks are nice.


I think I agree with this so will try to change the left wood some or maybe even change it our or remove it altogether. 



Eden Marel said:


> Push the button to the right of the quote button on each post you want to quote.


Dooooh!


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

Another piece of wood will help. Odd number things are more interesting.


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## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

Nice start!
How about an update pic?
Interesting stand. Is there a brace in the middle of the length?


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## zelilaa (Nov 26, 2010)

Definitley # 1, but not touching the side of the aquarium!


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## reetblak (Jan 24, 2011)

I think of Java moss and Java fern on wood as a background crypt wendtii green on the left, some echinodorus Vesuvius in the background right is between a rock Erio me, and maybe some open areas left blyxa japonica.


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