I love the first setup. The large vertical pieces of wood make it look like a swamp with trees growing out of it. Although the final setup looks very nice, there's something about vertical wood that's just pleasing. Uhhhh, hope that doesn't sound too weird haha.
I may have finally found a setup I can live with
- Thread starter AirborneAquatic
- Start date
I feel the same way, in most cases. The way it was before, I thought made the tank look somewhat like a block. I was hoping that If I put them flat it would create a more linear feel to the tank. I'm not sure if it worked.
take this with a drink of something strong, it probably won't come out right and make sense but I'll try...
I like the first tank the most, it's the most balanced looking tank out of those pics. I didn't just happen this way though, you created it and balanced it with your eye. Now for the breakdown, the first tank you designed fell into the rules of visual balance very well, where the current tank you have feels 'full' in the middle to me even though it follows some of the guidelines. This may be the reason you like it, but you are questioning whether it's done or not. I have done this many times myself - I just redid the stuff in the 125 this past week because it was nice, but something was 'off'. You may want to try doodling it out too, I find that helps me a bit. For the sake of "visuals" and perhaps a different perspective on it, I pulled your two pics and then drew on them in Paint.
The orange is your main attention getter here, in the first tank it draws your eye through the tank more.
The yellow are your main areas of interest - they commonly fall into triangles (I could go on which a bunch of boring stuff regarding this but won't)
The blue is your secondary attention draw, in the first it was the plants and now it's the wood with a different texture and size.
The purple is flow space, in the first it overlapped and your eye was drawn through it. In the second it's broken up (which can work) but there's no link to allow the flow through.
You'll also notice the first tank had most of these points of interest spread out but joining eachother well, the second tank had them clumped together more and next to eachother rather than crossing eachother.
I like the first tank the most, it's the most balanced looking tank out of those pics. I didn't just happen this way though, you created it and balanced it with your eye. Now for the breakdown, the first tank you designed fell into the rules of visual balance very well, where the current tank you have feels 'full' in the middle to me even though it follows some of the guidelines. This may be the reason you like it, but you are questioning whether it's done or not. I have done this many times myself - I just redid the stuff in the 125 this past week because it was nice, but something was 'off'. You may want to try doodling it out too, I find that helps me a bit. For the sake of "visuals" and perhaps a different perspective on it, I pulled your two pics and then drew on them in Paint.
The orange is your main attention getter here, in the first tank it draws your eye through the tank more.
The yellow are your main areas of interest - they commonly fall into triangles (I could go on which a bunch of boring stuff regarding this but won't)
The blue is your secondary attention draw, in the first it was the plants and now it's the wood with a different texture and size.
The purple is flow space, in the first it overlapped and your eye was drawn through it. In the second it's broken up (which can work) but there's no link to allow the flow through.
You'll also notice the first tank had most of these points of interest spread out but joining eachother well, the second tank had them clumped together more and next to eachother rather than crossing eachother.
The first one I actually measured out and "designed" according to the golden rule, but it looked too structured, and didn't have anything going on in the background. Considering most of the fish in that tank are African, I kind of like the lack of vegetation. Maybe you could spit some ideas out about rearranging the 3rd picture?
"The first one I actually measured out and "designed" according to the golden rule, but it looked too structured, and didn't have anything going on in the background. Considering most of the fish in that tank are African, I kind of like the lack of vegetation. Maybe you could spit some ideas out about rearranging the 3rd picture?"
Doodled around a bit tonight, it's kind of hard to explain and easier to do but I hope it translates pretty well. Obviously it's color coded here, easiest way I could think of doing it.
Start with the easiest points here, some thing barely move in the tank.
light blue - stays where they are
light green - this branch moves from the front right corner to the back right corner
dark green - flips over and the single end rests in the right back corner behind the light green branch and leans across the back at an angle, resting within the light blue branches if needed
dark blue - moves forward almost to where the purple branch is now
purple - branch moves forward and more centered and leans against the base of the orange branch
yellow - moves from the right side to the left back side where it leans against the top corner at about the same angle it's at right now
red - this branch moves to an angle with the right front corner and goes diagonally towards the middle back as it slopes down.
orange - right side of the branch is lifted and rests across the red branch now so the bottom left end is in the front left of the tank and the right end points towards to right rear of the tank
black - round stones added for a change from plants. one is used as a end holder in the left front corner to help keep the orange branch where it needs to be, one used to brace the purple branch, and one used for balance (threes) keep in mind the approx size of stone I used here, there's a small, medium, and large, balanced in their location.
The tank now draws the eye across from the front left to the back right, across to the back left and back to the front again.
Doodled around a bit tonight, it's kind of hard to explain and easier to do but I hope it translates pretty well. Obviously it's color coded here, easiest way I could think of doing it.
Start with the easiest points here, some thing barely move in the tank.
light blue - stays where they are
light green - this branch moves from the front right corner to the back right corner
dark green - flips over and the single end rests in the right back corner behind the light green branch and leans across the back at an angle, resting within the light blue branches if needed
dark blue - moves forward almost to where the purple branch is now
purple - branch moves forward and more centered and leans against the base of the orange branch
yellow - moves from the right side to the left back side where it leans against the top corner at about the same angle it's at right now
red - this branch moves to an angle with the right front corner and goes diagonally towards the middle back as it slopes down.
orange - right side of the branch is lifted and rests across the red branch now so the bottom left end is in the front left of the tank and the right end points towards to right rear of the tank
black - round stones added for a change from plants. one is used as a end holder in the left front corner to help keep the orange branch where it needs to be, one used to brace the purple branch, and one used for balance (threes) keep in mind the approx size of stone I used here, there's a small, medium, and large, balanced in their location.
The tank now draws the eye across from the front left to the back right, across to the back left and back to the front again.
That makes total sense! I appreciate the reply. I'll probably rearrange it today, and let you know how it goes.
