some advice on aquascaping?

[baobeiiiiiiii]

Here's the tank (my first one) and some rocks i have to work with, plus two pieces of driftwood. Tank dimensions make it kind of 'nano' its only about 58cm x 24cm x24cm.

I'm not sure how to make it all 'coalesce' together so it looks like a natural habitat, like an amazon river or something. Perhaps my soil substrate would have been better off black than dark brown, but I can't really change that now. I am growing some dwarf hair grass to put in too.

Any ideas? Also the driftwood would tint the water a bit, but perhaps it would look cool? I was thinking about making a kind of 'mound' of soil to the left, placing the driftwood so it sticks out of the tank a few inches, then some rocks also in that area to make maybe like a cave area, then the right side of the tank, a field of low lying dwarf grass. That big heater is going to be replaced by a tiny 10cm long one, which would stick to the side, so the back of the tank is all free space to work with.

 

[Cammywammy]

Have Rivercats give you advice on the hard scape she defiantly knows what she's talking about!

 

[baobeiiiiiiii]

All advice is welcome and appreciated! I'm not even sure if 'rocks' plus driftwood goes well together. Although the rocks look much much darker when they are wet.

I won't use the lava rocks you see in that pic. Not sure how to remove the silicon 'lines' on the back of the tank, this tank came with some tacky additions (probably should have just got a bare tank) but i have to work with what I have lol.

 

[Billbug68]

I'd start by placing the driftwood about 1/3 of the way from the left or right side of the tank. Try arranging some if the stones around the front of the driftwood or the base of where it touches the substrate, arrange some of the stones on the other side and see how it looks. Also adding slopes towards the back corners helps to please the eye when looking at an aquarium, rather than it just being flat.

Take a look at the tips and tricks section of thegreenmachine.com. They have some good explanations of how hardscape should be laid out. Or look up the "golden ratio rule" or the "rule of 2/3rds."

 

[DanTheGuppyMan]

Awesome tank first of all! Also, a user on here named Brian_Nano12g has made a rimless 6g with rocks and driftwood and it won TOTM so you could definitely pull that off his tank also inspired me to get a rimless 6g and go with more of a "river" iwagumi scape sort of like you described-

That's my tank right now, it is kinda hard to scape a tank without being there to see all of the angles each rock and dw have and what looks best in the tank, so I will look at your rocks and see what I come up with....but yeah some of the best tanks on here are Rivercats, Brian's, oh and Billbug68 has a pretty awesome iwagumi too! So many people haha. Hopefully some can help you out

Edit- Billbug already replied before I could hah.

 

[Billbug68]

Also, you should be able to remove the silicon lines with a little bit of elbow grease and a flat blade razor.

 

[Rivercats]

Not sure of the type style you like but here are a couple ideas...

Go down the page on this link to the Hong Kong sytle. I find this very attractive with the use of rock and DW. I've got a 20L that's empty and have been seriously considering setting it up using this style. Freshwater Aquariums: Get to Know the Different Types of Aquatic Gardens — Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

Here are some other good ideas for rock and wood scapes.... The Grandfather of Freshwater Aquariums: Takashi Amano - Okeanos Aquascaping

All you have to do in a small tank is scale things down, plants included so they are in scale to the actual size of the tank. Also in a small tank you can easily do something like the picture of the Hong Kong style but with only one side with rock and wood and the flat side with the DHG your growing. You have alot of options!

As for the DW leaching tannins, you can keep them for the effect of a blackwater look or if you decide you don't like them you can pop some Purgen into the filter to remove them. One thing to remember is if your going to have DHG you don't want to tint the water too dark as this could cut down too much light that the DHG needs. Just some things to think about.