Which wood layout is more better? Please have a look.

[Kashif314]

Hello everyone. I am setting up a 5 feet long (100 gallon) tank. Will house cichlids. Want the tank to have a minimalistic look. I got two kinds of driftwoods and below are the two kind of setups I have. Please suggest which wood layout looks more beautiful.

First pic doesn't have 3d background but consider the same 3d background in both pictures please. I just want to know which set of woods look more elegant picture 1 or picture 2?

Picture 1
__________



Picture 2
_________



Also any ideas what kind of woods are they? First picture looks chola wood right? Second one I don't know.

Please advise. Thanks.

 

[Zanzag]

What you're putting into the tank will help decide which layout is better, I'm partial to picture 1, but if the fish you choose are large it may leave you wanting for room.
Los the wood in picture 1 looks more like manzanita

 

[litigator666]

can you combine the two? the lower pic as trunks and the top wood as branches? then cover it with plants to appear like bonsai inside the tank? You can just have one tree like looking feature on one corner as to give more swimming space for the fish.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

I like the bottom one better. The top looks too regularly placed. Too staged.

 

[Nilsafeller]

Second pic for sure

 

[shaun_jon]

Definitely the second setup.

 

[adamsfishes]

Don't care much for either to be honest. It might look better if you mix some pieces from both and let them lay more naturally. In the first picture, the pieces are arranged uniformly in rows. Nature doesn't work that way. In the second picture, it looks like you tried to build structures with the pieces, which also doesn't look natural to my eye.

 

[adamsfishes]

Also, I would arrange one of the tall pieces against the 3D background to cover up the seam.

 

[Stanzzzz7]

I think the first tank could look good if it were a little less symmetrical looking.
If you moved a couple of the larger pieces more to one side it would give a more informal, less contrived look.
I also think if you changed the back ground to a plain black one it would create a feeling of depth and generally look a lot better.
If you do this, I think the first tank could look very good.
Enjoy experimenting with the scape and don't let it become a chore. It's actually one of my favourite aspects of fish keeping.

 

[neutrino]

Looks similar to my eye as the other comments. Bottom looks better mainly because it's less symmetrical. Either setup, or a combination of pieces from the two, could be improved by looking less formal and staged. Not just a question of looking random enough to emulate a wild habitat, it's also the proportions or flow. Bottom tank's not far off to my eye, the extra piece on the left side and the lateral length of the upper branch on the left is what's making it look better, less like ducks in a row vs the top. Top tank looks too evenly spaced and weighted, too much the same height and proportions on both sides.

It might not appeal to everyone, but Takashi Amano is famous for creating aquariums as art and sculpture-- a tank can look like a sculpture, or a landscape painting, more of a stylized or idealized version of nature than wild habitat, but still look good. Two different approaches, wild biotope looking vs. art and sculpture, but either way a key is getting the proportions right, not overly symmetrical or regular. I find for myself it takes some tinkering with a tank and sometimes several iterations before I like what I see.

Both have some great pieces in them. My thought is some minor repositioning in the bottom so everything's not on nearly the exact same horizontal plane might help, some moss or plants to change the symmetry a bit. Something else I'd try might be to point the right side pieces less directly at the left side piece, move them back a little and point them more forward or point them slightly more backward. Top one I'd try laying one or more of the driftwood pieces down. Not the left one, which looks great upright. Arrange the rocks to weight them more asymmetrically, less centered laterally and front to back.

Just my opinion.