Re: Aquascaping

[john wheeler <jcwheel76 at yahoo_com>]

Hey gang,


Kristian Anderson wrote:
>>Does it make sense to place the tall plants along
the centerline of the tank and the shorter plants in
the front and (what used to be) the back symetrically?
 Perhaps a "mountain" like setup with tall plants in
the center and shorter ones descending towards the
corners?  Has anyone ever tried this before?<<

Ha!...an aquascaping question. Finally something
interesting.

Yes, this kind of aquascape has been done and works
great...BUT, your tank is very shallow from front to
back, and you won't have much in the way of any depth
or perspective unless you plan *very* carefully.

You'll want to avoid a "wall" type effect, or a row of
plants right across the center line, or you'll have
two- 6" deep tanks instead of one 12" deep tank. Get
what I mean? By depth I mean front to back not top to
bottom (just to clarify;).

The first alternative that comes to mind is to use
alot of open space. Creating a mound in the center, or
just off center of the tank with hard decor, and then
using low, or carpeting plants to accent that. By hard
decor, I mean rocks and wood.(the foundation of an
engaging aquascape, IMHO) This would be the easiest
approach in your case with your tank specs.

The second alteranative would be to create 2 mounds.
One on each side of the tank. One should be slightly
larger than the other. Each mound should be
concentrated on one side of the viewable ends. In
other words, the smaller mound should be closer to the
tank face that you'll view most; the larger on the
opposite tank face. Amano uses this method with great
success, albeit on huge aquariums. I'm confident it
could work on a smaller scale.

Plant selection is critical, and *large* plants are
probably not going to help your cause. **If it was
me**, I would stick to moss, Riccia, ferns, the
smallest of stems, or small grassy foreground
types.....and an eye catcher if you wish. Basically
low plants, or plants that are easily controlled.

Your method **will** work, but it's gonna be a ton of
work, or just messy if you don't plan carefully. 

Hope this helps, and/or answers your question;)
John Wheeler 


p.s....I'd like to see pics when it's done!

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo!
http://sbc.yahoo.com