Musings about scaping

I have been reading some sites that discuss layouts and strange mystical garbage about odd numbered stones(eg 3-5-7 etc) and what not.

Look at where really effect rock work is.
Yes, no monkey hooda spiritual baloney here, just basic observations.
Paths, bridges, walls, threshold stones and lines of flow and grain have much more meaning and use for an aquarist.

I often view a hardscape with a practical use in mind.
Rocks: shoring up a slope or gravel layer, making a path where I will not be tempted to plant more weeds. To maintain various species group integrity and divisions etc.
In larger tanks, I've used rocks as a place to stand/sit or place my hand on while I work and garden, many species of fish inhabit some of the stones I use.
I've very often used them to anchor driftwood.
In simpler tanks, I've use rocks or wood as threshold stones.

Amano uses sand like a path as well in many scapes, it has a very practical side as well, it's no work to trim or grow it!!

Many are taken by the beauty or babbling about the art, think about the practical issues, go out and look at what is really in nature.

Are there really only odd numbers in pretty stone placements in nature?
Heck no! It's random.

Are we really trying to replicate nature?
No, invoke the feeling perhaps, but it is still gardening.
Always use the same type of stones, from the same place/location etc.

Do you like edged layouts? (popular with Dutch scaping) or do you prefer when the plants are pushing and creeping up over the rocks a little?

These both have practical aspects associated with them.
Gardening can be artistic etc but it's still a practical hobby on many levels, even art is practical, like it or not.

One of the first articles I wrote was for scaping, cork aquascaping actually. I did not want to look at a glass wall in the back, so I added cork and added lots of ferns, and Anubias to it and made a wall of plants.

While a nice technique and artistic touch, I did it more out the desire to hide things, not to add "artistic" elements. In the end it was a practical matter for me.

Driftwood too, it is a neat hiding place for my fish and gives my plecos things to chew on. It also is a Java fern and Bolbitus "planter".

Every day task of the aquascaping appears more to me to stop nature rather than advancing it. think about it: we prune, hack, trim, clean, add ferts, etc, these things do not occur in nature and our tanks would rapidly degrade if they really where "natural".

There is no self regulation by any means.
To speak of nature aquariums would imply that such tanks require little maintenace. While non CO2 systems are nice to this effect, they still need trimming and pruning and good care to also look good.

We tend to reduce the larger impression of the natural scene in a scale that is more "aquaristic", more reducible to our scale. Thus reductionism and abstraction are your friends, use them to your advantage!

The aquascape is there for you and your enjoyment, just like your house.
Like practical matters, you clean the house so it looks nice and you keep out the bugs, mice and other vermin that would enter it, add electricity and so forth.

I think one the goals of many "nature" aquarist is really to make a simplified version of nature awe in a confirmed aquarium space.

My own impression seems that it never tries to copy directly from nature, rather it avoids the appearance of human intervention as though perfection and harmony have been achieved.

I have never had much like for mini ceramics, concrete lanterns Buddas, dragons etc, I read recently a reasoning that I had trouble putting my finger on as to why I had this seemingly irrational feeling about them. It suggested that these where not designed for the human scale. A small space need not feel small. We this very often in tanks that look much larger than they really are. Such ceramics ignore that generally. It does not invoke that sense of nature of a well groomed tank with no appearances of human intervention.

I see corney junk in folk's yards all the time, cheesy treasure chest and skeletons in tanks, what sets apart those from a planted scape? Do we see such items in fine examples of Japanese gardens? No.

The other issue is using the best materials for scaping you can get.
If you have this small 2x 4ft space, you may as well get the best rocks you can, or the best wood etc.

Why spend 2000$ for a system and then go cheap on these items?
I've seen many do just this.

Take the time to add things to hide the overflows and the piping.
While ADA takes these out just for photo's, this does not mean you have to do the same. Glass piping does not save you for long either, it gathers algae and needs cleaning as well. You may avoid this by adding cork bark, or building mounds of of wood/rock around these, or covering the pipe in various materials like needle point/cork etc and adding moss/ferns etc to these or Anubias.
Think about ways to hide that stuff and reduce the clutter inside the tank.

A well designed tank has no appearances of tubing inside the tank from all viewing angles. All you see is water flowing.

That goes with the idea about appearing like it is natural and why I do not like man made obvious elements in the tank. Some folks just have to have those things, that's up to them. I have a hard time justifying it personally.

Open top tanks also appear more natural as well, like you'd see looking into a planted stream full of weeds.

These are just some ideas to mull and muse upon.

regards,
Tom Barr

 

I'm not suggesting casting them aside, but they, like science, are easily misunderstood, misapplied and create many myths about gardening, whether it's in the aquarium, Japanese formals, European, wild hippy herb gardens etc.

I think simply looking at what looks, appears best to you, and try it and see, but do not hold yourself to those rules with zealotry. If it looks good, it is good.
Does not matter if it breaks every rule that many want to consider.

Simply toying with plants, rocks, wood, outside equipment, plumbing, etc, until you acheve something that's aesthetic in your eyes is a good simple method to start.

Some think like this:

"I like plants, but I do not want too many so I can still see my fish!"

So I came up with something like this:



Most of the view is pure wood.
Some plants along the bottom, and top back edge. Lots of swimming space.

This design was my first scape I did in fully planted tank back in 1991. There's no odds, there's no focal point really, there's no golden ratio etc.

I did not write up some gibberish about how I thought of a clear stream in spring as my inspiration. It's fine if that is your inspiration. I am not taking a thing away from that and someone else's process. Mine was something very different.

I see enough spring streams with weeds growing in them, got the pictures and evidence also I'm happy folks love those places! Maybe I just see the stuff a lot more than most, and it seems strange to read the comments?
Perhaps.........if you love them, go see them. I do.

You cannot see any equipment in the tank, Lots of hiding places for the fish. Easy to care for and nice contrast between plants and wood. The wood does not block the light because it is a vertical wall. Good hiding for more cryptic fish etc.

These where are practical considerations, not artistic ones.
However, the tank impressed all that saw it.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

Which is my point, there are trade offs with the scape vs the aesthetics and other components you might have.

Some things are much more important than just what a photo opt can do for them..............Every ADA tank is doctored up good as is any competition tank that is in the upper rankings.

I like ADA however, as they think outside the Glass box the aesthetics of the stand, equipment, lights etc, and it's relatively simple.

I think they'd be better off selling drilled tanks with bulk heads, heck, if you sell the stands, may as well

But careful not to follow too many rules about all this.
You can end up hindering your goals you started with.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

The article I wrote was based on a talk I had with a Japanese garden horticulture mag editor board. Western perception of these rules is much more the problem and a lot of the rules are not some mysterious Asian thing either, they are common sense when explained.

Which is a long the lines I went here in this topic.
Take a good look at the Japanese formal gardens.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

I just worry folks get too far away from sitting down, looking at natural scenes, or seeing and trying what they like to their eye, not just reading some text that says you should do the golden triangle or some other rule.

While many might agree on the aesthetics of a certain form, others will simply not care. I see some degree of rigid judging and aesthetics and rules being applied in the hobby.

I'm not so sure it's a good thing either.

What type of approach/es would help the hobby and further it?

"Experience" if I had to pick one.
So the focus IMO seems to be there.
The easiest way to do that is to give them a tank and let them have at it.
Ask them what is it they like and what they see?

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

The photographic part of planted tanks has come a very long way as well since the 1990's.

What is 35mm film?
Rare anyone uses that any more.

As this part evolved, the part of photography that is art and what the pic is really like has blurred as well, a picture is not reality, it is art.

Some think the pic means that is the tank, not, not always, seen some nice looking tanks but placed in the worst spot in the home, while I've seen some so so tanks
well placed.

Art Galleries are set up to highlight the art, as best as we can, doing to same for aquariums if scaping is the goal should also be considered along the same lines.

Regards,
Tom Barr