how small is to small?

[Low]

ok so for a art fair for college i have to enter art work and my teacher says aquascapeing is art after showing her my takashi amano book.
so im going to make nano tanks from plexi glass and plant them and since are art work is for sale i was planing on maken them small so they could be put on desk and low tech now im planing on makeing some semi big ones like 1 gallon and 5 gallon the small ones will jus be strickly plants but the 1g and 5g will have some shrimp and snails
i no for aquascaping you need 3" of substrate so how small can i go with them?

[Michael Milligan]

Nice project! I think the limiting factor might be the lighting. You'll need to find out how small a lighting setup you can make that will work to grow plants. Then make the tank so it looks good under it.

Perhaps also finding out some very small plants to give you sense of how small you want to go. No sense in planting a tank where one leaf is going to block out all the light from the other plants.

I would really suggest that you use glass. Plexi has poor clarity and will scratch very, very easily.

[dbosman]

Pictures are usually flat. ;-)
Takashi Amano doesn't take his creations with him on his world tours.
Also, he doesn't take pictures of the tank with filters, tubes, thermometers, etc.

My suggestion is talking to your adviser about documenting your work in a series of photographs, unless there is a safe from art chemical contamination place to build your final project. Good luck.

[Low]

well i wanted to do photos of my tanks but she said to do one better and bring it in and i no he takes them out for photos but with my gallon up tanks i use tall plants to hide the fitlers and stuff (like comba) but for the small ones i want low tech like basicly low light plants that u can sit in your window seal and they thrive with hardly any work needed now i no ull still have to do water changes and maybe add some ferts to it

[dbosman]

Okee dokee. Since "that's what she said", that's what you need to do.

I still suggest reading Amano's site and process, and backing up your work with start to finish photos. A sculpture or painting stands alone. People are used to that kind of art. A planted tank, no matter how good looking might not strike some as art. I, of course, disagree.

[Tigerbarb]

That sounds like a very neat project. However, I'm sure more people would reply if you wrote more legibly. :22:

[Low]

lol ya i no spelling is my weak point i blame it on my school system. i graduated with people who couldent read. mind you my school was maybe 500 students in the middle of no where if you stood on the roof and looked around all you would see is feild and it wasent nothen but a bunch of rednecks lol this is why im in college to get a higher degree and hopefuly get better grammer skills. thank you both for your help

[Michael Milligan]

lol! another victim of American public education!

I'm dyslexic, which is almost as bad, so I find the time to proof read before I post. Just an idea.

[Low]

ok ya ill try proof read more i guess. but ya its horrible my jr. and sr. year in high school i did a tech school so i went to high school college and a tech school all at the same time just cuz it sounded better then jus my high school. so when i grad from high school i had half a degree in engineering will i ever get the rest of the degree or use what i learned prolly not but it was a heck of a lot better then being stuck with a binch of backward hicks talken about there feilds and tractors all day lol

[Lady Hobbs]

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