Opinions on hardscape

[Dork Fish]

I am on a budget and only had 40lbs of med-small stone to work with.

What do you think of the skeleton of the hardscape? Keep in mind that I have not added the wood, plants, or sand yet. But I am definitely stoked about the little arch LOL

For Wood:
I will add wood so that it looks like a root system is draped down the side of the rock into the substrate

For Plants:
I will be adding moss to the cracks in the stone, Anubis to the areas with gaps, some carpeting plants to the base of the stone and under the archway, some mid ground plants on the side glass panel, and some tall background plants to the background.

For Substrate:
I will fit in the rest of the bio-stratum, then blend in some sand toward the center (Filipe Olivera style). I will then have the darker seiryu stone spikes (seen in the picture) sticking out of the sand.

I will then repeat on the other corner, but a smaller feature. 🙂

I was also able to add two caves that connect under the rock (the 2 big gaps seen in the stone):

Any other suggestions?

[lefty o]

doesnt look bad. the most important thing with aquascaping is that it looks good to you.

[Dork Fish]

@lefty o For sure, I am pretty happy with it for what I have to work with. Would have preferred big stone but those are crazy expensive LOL

Mostly just looking for ideas, and maybe things I have not considered, this is my first hardscape so I am still learning cool tricks and techniques 🙂

[Stef]

I like it a lot!  Especially the smaller spikier rocks on the right. They compliment the bigger structure. What color sand are you capping with?  If you plan to stock with a Pleco beware of them digging up your black substrate. My female BN Pleco made a mess of my tank. I’ve got dirt balls everywhere mixed with my light sand. 
 

[Dork Fish]

@Stef Thank you 🙂 I plan on using 'CaribSea torpedo beach sand' a lighter off-white sand. The Sieryu darkens up quiet a bit when went so the contrast against the sand should be nice. Was thinking about not capping and just making a transition between the soil and sand with small rocks/gravel. This will allow me to carpet the front in short foreground plants.

Kinda like Filipe Olivera did here:

@Stef Also what kind of snail is that? Looks cool 🙂

For reference this is what his tank looked like before adding plants, sand, gravel, etc.

[Stef]

That Filipe Olivera tank is really pretty. I’d say you’ve done a nice job in matching up the look. 
 

The snail is an Assassin Snail. 

[nabokovfan87]

This might be a bit confusing, but let's give it a shot.

P = primary stones
S = secondary stones
A = accent stones



I believe he discuses the method in this video below, I'll try to triple check it's there, but I will try to elaborate a bit as well with a quote as well as a sort of visual sketch.

I've tried to "queue up" every video so it starts right when the rocks are placed.

Example of placement of the "primary stone" (basically 1:3 or slightly off-center is the common "placement" used)

Quote

Oyaishi

Typically the largest or most aesthetic of the entire design, Oyaishi is always used as the centerpiece of your Iwagumi aquascape.

As the main focal point of the aquarium, the Oyaishi is often angled with the flow of water to mimic a natural river stone.

Fukuishi

As in Futatsu (二つ) or 2, the Fukuishi is the second largest stone in your aquascape and should be similar to Oyaishi in regards to color, gradient, and tone.

Traditionally, it is placed to the left or right of Oyaishi. Fukuishi should serve as a balancing piece to the Oyaishi.

Soeishi

The third-largest stone, its primary purpose is to accentuate the beauty of the primary stone counterparts.

Now......

I am not going to say "follow these rules!" or anything like that.  It's just a note about visually what is the most interesting stone for me and placement of the "primary stone" in the tank, then building around that.  You can see videos by Tomas / Filipe about placing that first stone (primary stone) and then how everything flows off of that in the layout. 
 

 I would try a layout just to see what it looks like where you place that primary stone in "the right spot" in a direction you enjoy seeing it.   Then I would take those two secondary stones and see if there is a place for them that looks good. Then try the accent stones.  You can see all of the remaining ones as "detail stones" and as pieces you may or may not end up using.  Here' another example in various hardscapes of Filipe's work.
 

Another....

Primary stone in place


Primary stone in location / secure:


Secondary stones in place:

Detail stones added:

Detail stones / final adjustments


Planted:

On 7/10/2023 at 7:26 PM, Dork Fish said:

What do you think of the skeleton of the hardscape? Keep in mind that I have not added the wood, plants, or sand yet. But I am definitely stoked about the little arch LOL

I love that too.  I wish it was more of a focal visually from sitting in front of the tank!

[Lennie]

On 7/11/2023 at 6:21 AM, Stef said:

My female BN Pleco made a mess of my tank. I’ve got dirt balls everywhere mixed with my light sand. 

Cories do the same %100 🙂 

 

To be fair any bottom dweller that sift through around will ruin these sort of scape

[Tanked]

I think you are off to a good start.  I especially like the small separate outcrop.  For me rocks rock!  I would try to insure that the rock remain a key feature in the scape.

[mynameisnobody]

This is usually how it goes with me, no matter what. Once scape is complete and tank is full, the more you stare at it, the more changes come to you based on what your eye prefers. This is why I spend basically no time in scape prep. Toss it together and move stuff around as time goes by. I’ve perfected the art of never getting it right the first time around, ever. The inhabitants will jostle stuff around, algae will grow where you didn’t plan or didn’t want it to, and that moss will grow and cover a ton of stuff if left to do so. Don’t forget there are competition style scapes and then there are practical hobbyist scapes, there’s a huge difference. As for the stones, larger stones make a bigger impact if you will, but if you can’t buy em then don’t even bother thinking about it. Just work with what you got. 

[Dork Fish]

@nabokovfan87 Thanks for all the info 🙂 That last tank is almost exactly what I had in my head, didn't even know that video existed LOL. I will definitely take a look at the vids. The biggest problem I run into is only having 40lbs (25ish lbs in the pic) of stone to work with in a 75 gallon tank and 85% of the stone are also 3-4ish inches. The single primary stone in his vid is probably about as big as all mine combined LOL

@mynameisnobody Very true. Definitely not going for a competition scape on a budget LOL plus a wanted an arch and a small cave structure for baby shrimp, etc. to hide in 🙂 Like I was telling @nabokovfan87 the stones I have to work with are not super great for the style scape I had in mind, so I just did what I could lol

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/11/2023 at 9:21 PM, Dork Fish said:

The biggest problem I run into is only having 40lbs (25ish lbs in the pic) of stone to work with in a 75 gallon tank and 85% of the stone are also 3-4ish inches. The single primary stone in his vid is probably about as big as all mine combined LOL

I'm right there with you.  I think I have 10-20lbs?  no idea.... but not nearly enough.   The acid washing also really shrunk the rocks down a little.

[Dork Fish]

@nabokovfan87 Yeah mine is "blue" seiryu stone. No blue to be found in it though, just looks a lot like black seiryu when it is wet though, so not really sure what the difference is LOL

[Dork Fish]

So I got my wood in and came up with the scape below. I actually changed some stone placement, but I will send more pics once I 'finalize' this side. Not 100% sure where my intake is going to go for my canister filter though, or my spray bar outlet for that matter LOL Will have to come up with something clever.

@nabokovfan87 Took your advice and made the arch much more noticeable from the front:

[nabokovfan87]

That looks awesome so far!  I'm going to have to find something for you just for the sake of showing some cool stuff to you.  I wish I could show you my tank and how I move the wood. It's like.... the stone is there and then the wood is a claw growing over the crevices.

 

Are you intending the section behind the stove to be a cave or full of soil?

[Dork Fish]

@nabokovfan87 The crevasse in the stone is a cave 🙂 I have actually made a few changes. Once I get it to a point that I am happy with it, I will send some update pics.

Always interested to see some cool aquascapes 🙂

[nabokovfan87]

Two different methods with similar technique.
 

 

 

[Dork Fish]

@nabokovfan87 @Pepere @mynameisnobody @Fish Folk @mountaintoppufferkeeper @Tanked @Stef @Lennie @lefty o

Well here is the tank's mostly final form (will add small stones to the sand over time and add plants also) 🙂

Before sand:

 

After Sand:

 

Misc pics:

[nabokovfan87]

Looks great! Nice work. 🙂

[Fish Folk]

Looks nice! I am no aquascaper. Keep going so that I can enjoy this vicariously... 

[Tanked]

Intertwining the root through the rocks instead of just going around the rocks is a nice touch.

[Stef]

Nice!  I like it a lot. Is that front rock a little too close to the glass?  Can you get a gravel vac in there. It’s seems like the stone is a little squared off to look like it naturally tumbled there. But that just me. I can agonize over placement of stuff endlessly. Love the color of the wood and how it “grows” out of the rock. 

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

Looks awesome from here 

[Dork Fish]

@Stef Yeah that rock was not playing along LOL

I plan to get 10lbs stone in the future to place around the tank as plants grow and I feel like plopping them in LOL

Also going to get some more ghost wood, but about half as thick, to fill out the "root structure" more.

Ended up only using 20lbs of sand though so now I have 60 lbs laying around LOL

[Schuyler]

What do you have for that filter intake?

I like your setup, I wish I had done a little island on the right rather than a second bank.