Planted tanks have many styles. Why not reef tanks.

[reefwiser]

Wow we need a Takashi Amano of saltwater.

It would be great for sure. Because he not only inspired a lot of aquarist to think more about how the arrangement of the wood, rock and plants. But he also worked on the chemistry and fertilization of plants. Developing soil and additives based on research into why the plants where having issues and then developing methods to combat the issues. It was a very sad day when he died of Cancer.

 

[norfolkgarden]

Is the reef tank community behind the times with aquascape design. Looks like there are many schools of planted tank styles. The link below shows the Taiwanese style but also has links to Dutch, Iwagumi, Jungle, and Nature.

Why does it always seem that reef tanks are multicolored hedgerows.

https://www.theaquariumguide.com/articles/taiwanese-aquascaping-style

Well, the beautiful planted tanks often desire to use miniature leaves to represent a vast panorama of topside nature. Mountains, valleys and teeny, tiny fish representing birds in the distance. Beautiful, but not for everyone.
Most salt water people would prefer to avoid using BCP in a similar way.

While some planted tanks are done in a natural biotope format where 1 square foot represents 1 square foot, many are done similar to a beautiful bonsai style that only references nature.

Bypassing beautiful large leaved bold exotic plants that only do well in a large tank for a representation scheme on a grand scale could be considered a waste of resources by some.

When cost is always an issue the "value" of some creations is often debated.


Another aspect is the salt water tanks are often meant to represent actual nature. Maybe even your last scuba dive if you are that fortunate.
Which can be kind of boring to some people unless you treasure the uniqueness of what already exists.

Just like the difference between a beautiful forest and a parterre garden, Salt water is still mostly at the "enjoying nature for what it is" stage in terms of concept tanks.

Lol, We are definitely at "garden of bright colors" stage in terms of plants (corals).
Lol, Maybe you can think of most current tanks as the salt water equivalent of Victorian bedding schemes.

As a designer you know that scale is one of the most important aspects to any good design.

Very curious to see which direction you take your tanks in.[emoji846]

Are you more interested in the the visual style where nothing is what it seems and merely a living beautiful representation of a topside photograph?

Are you interested in reducing a full scale tank to a visual miniature version by using the tiniest zoas and other corals that have a wide range of individual sized polyps/coralites that will scale down nicely?

Are you simply intrested in using design rules to make a prettier tank?

Regards,
Matt

 

[KrisReef]

@chefjpaul has posted some nice work on here. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/stax-of-rocks-in-a-glass-box.376687/

i probably should have asked his permission before I outted him, sorry about that.

 

[Hemmdog]

That looks great !!! Wow !

@chefjpaul has posted some nice work on here. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/stax-of-rocks-in-a-glass-box.376687/

i probably should have asked his permission before I outted him, sorry about that.

 

[Waters]

I like these freshwater threads....it isn't often I get to post my planted tanks lol........

 

[reefwiser]

Nice tanks. I am waiting for my plant order to come in. That is the problem with the holidays. [emoji3] my wife’s new planted tank is being held up by a plant order. [emoji51]

 

[vetteguy53081]

There is a planted tank concept also called weed tank comprised of macroalgaes and xenia and soft coral.
I had one up to a year ago and received an offer from someone local I could not refuse and in turn purchased my lg cube tank.

here is a pic. unfortunately, it shows only some of weed/macro:

 

[norfolkgarden]

There is a planted tank concept also called weed tank comprised of macroalgaes and xenia and soft coral.
I had one up to a year ago and received an offer from someone local I could not refuse and in turn purchased my lg cube tank.

here is a pic. unfortunately, it shows only some of weed/macro:

Nice colors!

 

[daftwazzock]

Is the reef tank community behind the times with aquascape design. Looks like there are many schools of planted tank styles. The link below shows the Taiwanese style but also has links to Dutch, Iwagumi, Jungle, and Nature.

Why does it always seem that reef tanks are multicolored hedgerows.

https://www.theaquariumguide.com/articles/taiwanese-aquascaping-style

I was just thinking about this. Good reef tanks definitely look stunning, but hardly any of them look unique. There is definitely beauty in wild growing nature (or the illusion of it in reef tanks, at least) but there is also beauty in carefully curated gardens and aquascapes.

The aquascaping scene is blowing up right now with so many unique and eye catching designs, contests at conventions etc, it's a real shame that this school hasn't caught on with the reef community yet.

I think that perhaps the lower barrier to entry with freshwater has a lot to do with it since the hobby is more accessible, but other than that I'm not really sure what the reason is that reefers are so behind on the times. Maybe being preoccupied so much with technical details like water quality keeps reefers from thinking outside the box? I don't know.

That being said, I've been thinking about how to bring some ideas from the aquascaping scene into my reef tank that I'm planning but at the moment I haven't decided on a tank yet so it's just ideas.

I mean look at this aquascape, this two gallon cube has the presence of a tank 10x its size.

 

[reefwiser]

The issue with doing the same thing as Planted tanks is that plants are way more forgiving than corals. Plants can be handled and moved and chopped and they bounce right back. They developed in a quickly changing environment and allows us to create interesting aquarium layouts. Corals developed in the ocean for the most part an unchanging environment and so they do not react as well to a changing parameters that such small sizes.
I love my planted tanks I couple for water changes and fert's and the plants grow like crazy.

 

[Paul B]

There are some plants we can use. In the summer I collect this Codium at the shore in the Atlantic. It only grows near the shore but tons of it grows. It lives a few months and I haven't seen anything eat it. I think it looks very natural and I wish it would live all year.

 

[daftwazzock]

There are some plants we can use. In the summer I collect this Codium at the shore in the Atlantic. It only grows near the shore but tons of it grows. It lives a few months and I haven't seen anything eat it. I think it looks very natural and I wish it would live all year.

What a great idea! Unfortunately I live on the North Sea so the plants here would not do well in Reef temps (or would they?)

 

[Paul B]

I don't know. I can onlycollect them in the summer but the water gets pretty cold here in the winter and they seem to make it through

 

[themcnertney]

I tend to tell people not to stress about aquascaping. My advice is to just pile rock in a tank. As you add coral and they grow, the coral will evolve and change the rock scape.

 

[themcnertney]

Also reef tanks do have there own style. LPS, SPS, mixed, etc.

 

[daftwazzock]

I tend to tell people not to stress about aquascaping. My advice is to just pile rock in a tank. As you add coral and they grow, the coral will evolve and change the rock scape.

There's definitely nothing wrong with that approach if what you want is the simulacrum of a wild reef, however what we're talking about is bringing some of the principles used in auqascaped planted tanks into the reefing hobby.

There's also nothing wrong with wanting reef aquarium that is designed with certain aesthetic principles like the golden ratio or terracing in mind. I'd argue that the best looking reef tanks are the ones that do this even if by accident.

Also reef tanks do have there own style. LPS, SPS, mixed, etc.

Respectfully, I would disagree with saying those are styles, and that I see those as technical parameters referring to the tank inhabitants/water quality needed etc.

 

[Nami]

I think the main problem with reef aquascaping is corals - they sting the crap out of each other, release toxins, digest neighbours, RTN, etc.

You cannot get away with arranging/grouping them as easily as freshwater plants.

 

[DaSurfa]

Here's my 20g peninsula Iwagumi style planted tank. I only one type of plant for the substrate and overall I'm pretty happen with the outcome.
But when it came to my 75g reef I was really limited with the rockwork from the liverock.

 

[vlangel]

2019-02-01_06-06-56 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr

Perhaps my reef is not quite like a FW planted tank but it does feature the rock in a unique way. The right side is tiered with a 6" retaining wall of rock forming a plateau where a rock structure with coral sits. The tank is 24" high so that takes up some of that height.

On the left are 2 dead coral skeletons epoxied to form a magestic tree like structure. There are 9 different macro algaes along with coral adorning the rock. This particular scape is fairly young (1 year old) so has a long way to go before my vision for it is realized.

 

[Claire Austin]

Whatever happened to 'scaping the back wall of a tank? About 10-12 years ago, it was a thing to zip-tie rock to eggcrate, and either cut away the crate between rocks to create the illusion of a deep crevice, or fill in the spaces with pond foam, and cover it with sand?

I'm setting up a 56 gal tall for my seahorses, and was thinking of sticking slices of Marco Rock base rock onto the back glass with lumps of reef putty/aquarium silicone to hold it 1/4-1/2" off the glass for flow.

Feedback, please?