Aquascaping aesthetics by John Ciotti

[jedimasterben]

Just in time for the new subforum, BRS has recently released more of the talks from MACNA 2014, including this one on aquascaping by John Ciotti.

 

[tibbsy07]

Dang, wish I had seen this before I set my rock up!

[hey]

This video is long as the movie titanic... my thoughts incoming once I finish the video.

 

first thought, finally someone who takes coral shape and size into consideration when laying out an aquascape...

 

I like how he compares collector reefing to pizza... I lol'd a bit.

 

He explains rule of thirds well, I prefer this method for aquascaping vs the golden ratio... its just easier.

 

His color section is great... really while it sounds boring and awful to collectors 2-3 corals in an entire aquarium could leave you with a very dramatic aquascape.

 

fav point was at the end, just because you have some emotional attachment to a coral or fish does not mean the audience of the tank will get it.

 

 

All in all a very insightful presentation, good way of describing some things I already knew but in an obviously more refined way... any time you can hear old information portrayed in a new light is great for solidifying that knowledge. I think I'm going to get started on a thread for coral location based on shape size motion and color... not sure how I am going to do that but I am going to get a start on it.

[Neill.w]

Great video, thanks for sharing it!

[Dramad1]

Cool video. Some things I need to still understand is the golden ratio as well as the thirds.

I too chuckled about the pizza bit, but it makes sense

Thanks for sharing

[Spiderguardnano]

Yes I wish he went more into depth of the rule of thirds being a non award wining aquascaper I don't understand

 

But awesome video

[hey]

Yes I wish he went more into depth of the rule of thirds being a non award wining aquascaper I don't understand

 

But awesome video

 

rule of thirds is pretty simple... I will either write a post on it or find a good link to one here some time tonight... most articles on it are for FW aquascape but I think one depicting a reef tank would be cool.

[CatfishSoupFTW]

.His color section is great... really while it sounds boring and awful to collectors 2-3 corals in an entire aquarium could leave you with a very dramatic aquascape.

This gets covered a lot in the FW aquascaping stuff. I used to have TONS of different plant species, but the more you add, the tougher things can get. Though some of those wild builds can look great, skill is needed.

 

Most people (and i converted to try it out) is just to use one to two species of plants. I find it works out great imo. if you can pull it off - it almost seems more natural. Like staring at a perfectly green lawn. Not one with different colored patches, or dandelions etc.

 

In SW, I cant say I have seen this though. :s I feel a variety of them (maybe of just the same type, i.e. zoas?) would look pretty cool. But at the same time, naturally the coral reefs can be a mix mash of things.

 

I think someone should try it here. I havent seen it... and I wont do it myself, at least not yet. Too many dope ass psychedelic colors in corals to ignore. haha.

[CatfishSoupFTW]

Yes I wish he went more into depth of the rule of thirds being a non award wining aquascaper I don't understand

 

But awesome video

 

 

If you look up Rules of third for photography it basically covers the same idea. Start looking at billboards, ads in magazines etc, and for those well done ads, you will notice this go into play. A lot of things are generally not centered unless otherwise the environment around it suites well for it. I.e. For portraits, the eyes are not in the middle, they are pushed up near the middle row, top square. Generally how they are shot.

 

however, in contrast - if you shoot a portrait with the head smack in the middle, the negative space around it must play around it well. Having it in the middle with equal ratios on both sides is super important.

 

simple things to try as well would be, try shooting a photograph of your coral. put the coral smack in the middle of the frame. Now shoot it again, but push a bit to the left and down a bit. Now compare the two, and generally the latter shot should look visually stronger.

 

Hope this helps. (photo student here, Rules of third is more than embedded in my head) Once its understood, then breaking the rule is obviously an option. Hence why i said going smack in the middle isnt wrong either. It just needs other supporting elements.

[hey]

This gets covered a lot in the FW aquascaping stuff. I used to have TONS of different plant species, but the more you add, the tougher things can get. Though some of those wild builds can look great, skill is needed.

 

Most people (and i converted to try it out) is just to use one to two species of plants. I find it works out great imo. if you can pull it off - it almost seems more natural. Like staring at a perfectly green lawn. Not one with different colored patches, or dandelions etc.

 

In SW, I cant say I have seen this though. :s I feel a variety of them (maybe of just the same type, i.e. zoas?) would look pretty cool. But at the same time, naturally the coral reefs can be a mix mash of things.

 

I think someone should try it here. I havent seen it... and I wont do it myself, at least not yet. Too many dope ass psychedelic colors in corals to ignore. haha.

 

While I strayed a good bit past having 2-3 types of coral... I am staying well within coloration limits used by FW in mine limiting it to really 2-3 different colors but with variations of the shades... colors being red purple and ofc green. I feel like the red is necessary to complement the green and really let you see some pop in the scape. The purple comes on a lot of green corals so adding a purple gorg or purple scoly in there didn't seem to stray from the color scheme. The only oddball thing in my tank right now is the yellow polyps... but ofc they do come in close to the greens on the tertiary scale.

 

Yes I wish he went more into depth of the rule of thirds being a non award wining aquascaper I don't understand

 

But awesome video

 

heres an easier way to understand it... look at my aquascape... tell me what the centerpiece is. I'll explain further once you identify it.

[CatfishSoupFTW]

While I strayed a good bit past having 2-3 types of coral... I am staying well within coloration limits used by FW in mine limiting it to really 2-3 different colors but with variations of the shades... colors being red purple and ofc green. I feel like the red is necessary to complement the green and really let you see some pop in the scape. The purple comes on a lot of green corals so adding a purple gorg or purple scoly in there didn't seem to stray from the color scheme. The only oddball thing in my tank right now is the yellow polyps... but ofc they do come in close to the greens on the tertiary scale.

 

 

heres an easier way to understand it... look at my aquascape... tell me what the centerpiece is. I'll explain further once you identify it.

 

 

yeah I love your build. Super jelly. I spent a very long time debating whether to matte the tank, go mame etc, but then i decided for the cube tank, blacked out back, with ghost overflow was my best route. For a longer tank I wouldnt mind going mame and matte.

 

anyway, yes your coral selection and colors looks great. You probably have one of my personal top 5 tanks that I have seen around here.

 

I find that the way I have bought corals atm, most of them tend to fall under the same color pallet, with the exception of pink hippos. XD I also accidentally noticed my live stock is all orange. Orange oscillaris, Naked osc. and a neon dotty back. Even my sleeper goby has similar colors. then again - the exception of the whitespotted pygmy filefish.

[hey]

yeah I love your build. Super jelly. I spent a very long time debating whether to matte the tank, go mame etc, but then i decided for the cube tank, blacked out back, with ghost overflow was my best route. For a longer tank I wouldnt mind going mame and matte.

 

anyway, yes your coral selection and colors looks great. You probably have one of my personal top 5 tanks that I have seen around here.

 

I find that the way I have bought corals atm, most of them tend to fall under the same color pallet, with the exception of pink hippos. XD I also accidentally noticed my live stock is all orange. Orange oscillaris, Naked osc. and a neon dotty back. Even my sleeper goby has similar colors. then again - the exception of the whitespotted pygmy filefish.

 

yeh I could really speed up my process by adding more frags of the same polyps but that gets way too expensive imo. I am trying to wait to where growth accounts for a lot of the filling in needed to really make the scape look "right". My livestock unfortunately was not my choice... wife wanted all of them except the chromis. Which if I had my way would be all chromis in the tank. Theey carry very little visual weight in a tank from their color but aren't a tiny tiny fish.

[CatfishSoupFTW]

yeh I could really speed up my process by adding more frags of the same polyps but that gets way too expensive imo. I am trying to wait to where growth accounts for a lot of the filling in needed to really make the scape look "right". My livestock unfortunately was not my choice... wife wanted all of them except the chromis. Which if I had my way would be all chromis in the tank. Theey carry very little visual weight in a tank from their color but aren't a tiny tiny fish.

yeah I feel yeah. my girlfriend approved every single fish I bought. -__- even the cutest clownfish out of the group of very similar clownfish. hahaha

[Dramad1]

I have already began creating a rock scape for my new build and plan to add this with all the rock from my cad tank, after seeing that video, I'm wondering if I should try a different approach. My cad tank is packed with rock, more than I have seen in 75% of the build here.

I planned to put my newly created rock scape on the left of my tank and then transfer the cad34 rock the same way it lays in the cad tank, on the right.

After seeing the video, I'm thinking outside the box now and thinking of creating a multi level sand scape similar to the 2nd fw scape he showed in the vid.

Maybe create some different level sand boxes out of egg crate, scape some rock in front and behind or in the mid and then fill in the valleys with smaller pieces of rock and sand and make it all flow together.... the idea is in my head but not sure if I can reproduce it with out making a drastic change to the original scape I started gluing up and altering the cads scape. Sorry if I'm rambling..lol, going to play with it on paper.

So I'm thinking about creating a multi level sand scape with maybe half as much rock as originally planned. Not sure how well this will turn out cause my new tanks depth/width is only 18"??

Thoughts? Am I sounding lime a crazy person ha ha..I've had a few drinks

[Dramad1]

This is the scape I was referring to with an awesome sand scape mixed into the rock work..screen shot

[hey]

multi level could work, I like what brad did with his mangrove tank by hiding the glass wall with rocks to give 2 levels to the substrate

[CatfishSoupFTW]

This is the scape I was referring to with an awesome sand scape mixed into the rock work..screen shot

 

 

What i did in the past for large gradients was to get a pair of pantyhose and fill it up with gravel then tie the ends. (they look like giant sausages) then put it on the bare glass, and start putting your substrate on top. It saves you TONS of extra substrate, especially because its not cheap. I have been using this technique for a few years, even with the same pantyhoses, and they dont wear down or have shown any ill effects. Something I should have done though, is you use cards and insert them inbetween sharp gradients, that way when you add the water it doesnt collapse and slope down like an avalanche. This has happened to me quite a bit, and so in turn i just patted it down (but i wouldnt recommend it, it still stays unstable.

 

My only question though, and I dont see how FW is an exception from this, but I have done deep substrate beds in 7 gallon tanks (with a few inches) to deep substrates in my 55 but it seems like in the SW world this is really frowned upon unless its a larrrrrggeee tank. I was gonna feel risky and try DSB with y 21 cube but decided not to.... at least not yet. And i would imagine this could be frowned upon even with a multilevel tank in a 34 cad? because even though yes you are using a filler, technically the space is still occupied.

 

DSB discussion im sure can start hell fire, but for the sake of playing with depth, I always find at one point you need lost of substrate somewhere in the tank to slope er down. :s Thoughts ? I mean, I dont really clean my substrates, regardless of the thickness. Half assly but.... and some people do it religiously, but then never clean the sump so its all rather conflicting

[Dramad1]

 

 

What i did in the past for large gradients was to get a pair of pantyhose and fill it up with gravel then tie the ends. (they look like giant sausages) then put it on the bare glass, and start putting your substrate on top. It saves you TONS of extra substrate, especially because its not cheap. I have been using this technique for a few years, even with the same pantyhoses, and they dont wear down or have shown any ill effects. Something I should have done though, is you use cards and insert them inbetween sharp gradients, that way when you add the water it doesnt collapse and slope down like an avalanche. This has happened to me quite a bit, and so in turn i just patted it down (but i wouldnt recommend it, it still stays unstable.

 

My only question though, and I dont see how FW is an exception from this, but I have done deep substrate beds in 7 gallon tanks (with a few inches) to deep substrates in my 55 but it seems like in the SW world this is really frowned upon unless its a larrrrrggeee tank. I was gonna feel risky and try DSB with y 21 cube but decided not to.... at least not yet. And i would imagine this could be frowned upon even with a multilevel tank in a 34 cad? because even though yes you are using a filler, technically the space is still occupied.

 

DSB discussion im sure can start hell fire, but for the sake of playing with depth, I always find at one point you need lost of substrate somewhere in the tank to slope er down. :s Thoughts ? I mean, I dont really clean my substrates, regardless of the thickness. Half assly but.... and some people do it religiously, but then never clean the sump so its all rather conflicting

Awesome idea, do you think that instead of rubble in a nylon, stacking up some egg crate inside of some different size small acrylic boxes and then covering would work okay.

I'm a Lil concerned about deterious building up over time, so the crate my not be a good idea. In a 125g tank, I don't see how having a few different depths of sand could cause an issue, but I don't know....maybe, need to read up more on dsb's. Like you where saying, how is fw an exception to this, why would it be frowned upon in sw?

I'm liking what Hey said Brad did and silicone some verious height panes of glass and fill with sand to create a few shelfs and hide the glass with rock work, then just have a typical 1-2" sand bed in the front of the tank.

Just ideas at this point, the 125g will be back on the table this weekend to resume work. Just a few Lil things to finish up and then a leak test,if all goes well then I'll need to figure out scape options and if I will attempt a multi layer sand bed or not. I already glued and epoxy ed up a shelf like scape.

[hey]

Awesome idea, do you think that instead of rubble in a nylon, stacking up some egg crate inside of some different size small acrylic boxes and then covering would work okay.

I'm a Lil concerned about deterious building up over time, so the crate my not be a good idea. In a 125g tank, I don't see how having a few different depths of sand could cause an issue, but I don't know....maybe, need to read up more on dsb's. Like you where saying, how is fw an exception to this, why would it be frowned upon in sw?

I'm liking what Hey said Brad did and silicone some verious height panes of glass and fill with sand to create a few shelfs and hide the glass with rock work, then just have a typical 1-2" sand bed in the front of the tank.

Just ideas at this point, the 125g will be back on the table this weekend to resume work. Just a few Lil things to finish up and then a leak test,if all goes well then I'll need to figure out scape options and if I will attempt a multi layer sand bed or not. I already glued and epoxy ed up a shelf like scape.

 

DSB's aren't the devil as some reefers would lead you to believe. It's pretty hard to find a story of a tank crash caused by a dsb that wasn't fooled with way too much.

 

Also I regret not doing a dsb... but I woulda wanted a 26 inch tank depth to maintain 18 inches of water

[CatfishSoupFTW]

DSB looks beautiful in my opinion. It just adds so much more... umpf. Maybe when I set up a longer marine tank some day ill give it a whirl. in a cube, maybe not so much. symmetry works well in cubes I feel. and that is true. a DSB couldnt possibly be the only factor prior to a crash. Tons of variables im sure.

 

I am somewhat tempted to dick around with my tank, since its still so young but at the same time, I rather have a longer tank. not a cube for that. Soon - when I recover from the financial woes of this tank. haha.

[Smithjm5]

Really enjoyed that, thanks for posting Ben!

[HeyLookItsCaps]

aquascaping this week, can't wait to sit down with this one

[Nightstar]

video is bad. Ciotti seems to believe that reefkeeping is conducted solely for online presentation. Perhaps this is the wrong forum for dissent but I've been doing this since before the web, please forgive my beligerence

 

1:1.618 may have been revolutionary at some point in the distant past, but it was old hat by the time my highschool art teacher lectured my dumb ass.

 

Juxtaposition of contrasting colors... yawn.

 

Negative space, who would have thought?

[hey]

video is bad. Ciotti seems to believe that reefkeeping is conducted solely for online presentation. Perhaps this is the wrong forum for dissent but I've been doing this since before the web, please forgive my beligerence

 

1:1.618 may have been revolutionary at some point in the distant past, but it was old hat by the time my highschool art teacher lectured my dumb ass.

 

Juxtaposition of contrasting colors... yawn.

 

Negative space, who would have thought?

 

aquascaping is done for an audience in many cases

[RonLarimer]

I am building my 1st tank and thankfully I'm already incorporating much of this... down to keeping the coral selection limited and leaving some good notice space. Actually I've already deleted many corals I wanted because I didn't think they would add to the look.