Snowstorm Aquascaping - 75P Workshopping

[Lush_Aqua]

With the snowstorm trapping me in my house for the last few days, I conveniently found extra time to myself to get some mockup scapes with a box of hardscape intended for setting up someone else's tank. I acquired this 40 gallon rimless tank in the past few weeks that I'd like to use as a contest-aquascape this year.

My goals for the exercise were to get used to maximizing volume with hardscape, drafting layouts & building quickly (under 2 hours), and overall get more used to working with unfamiliar material. I think I'm very weak at shaping with stone, so I made sure to emphasize at least one design with a focus on stonework. I ended up doing 3 scapes in this time.

I wouldn't consider these finished, but I figured it would be a great time to play around while having the material for 2 weeks!
Just sharing what I was up to in the last week. Figured everyone cooped up in their homes didn't keep their hands out of their own tanks either.

P.S. I did submit my entries to Aquashella in New Jersey during this time. Really wish I waited to include the last scape in my application, but hopefully I hear back with good news in the coming months! Let me know if any of you plan to go, and maybe we'll run into each other.

 

[Lush_Aqua]

@Jeff Miotke and you were right commenting about using a tank instead of a sandbox to get this practice in. I made far too many bumps on the glass, but visualizing was much more realistic in an empty tank

 

[Phish Tank]

@Lush_Aqua I really like that last one! The wood pieces have great left to right flow, and the rockwork across the bottom is very realistic

 

[Jeff Miotke]

Some interesting layouts.

 

[Lush_Aqua]

@Lush_Aqua I really like that last one! The wood pieces have great left to right flow, and the rockwork across the bottom is very realistic

Thanks! You could probably tell the wood structure had a lot of similarities to the other scape. Just the nature of the pieces of wood I had somewhat forced that shape when rotated in that direction. Most of the pieces were long and curved in some form.

I originally wanted to try and make a sort of X or crossing shape with that stone slanting across from right to left, but the wood curves ended up just forming back to a triangular shape. The curve of wood over the rock clicked and I realized it would flow well, but I'm not sure if judges would find the hardscape a bit too bland. I still think its also my favorite just because it's easy on the eyes! Would have loved to plant it.. but oh well!

 

[Art]

Hey great work!

I am by no means a talented aquascaper. I'm more of an interested and curious admirer. Therefore, please take what I share with the proverbial grain of salt.

Good aquascapes are borne from diligent practice of arranging plants, wood and stone. Great aquascapes are borne from imagining a story and then capturing that story within the confines of glass.

Did you have an idea of a scene in mind that you were trying to capture?