Suiseki

[balt]

Suiseki is the Japanese art of stone appreciation. I'm researching this topic as I plan my new 55 gallon tank. I found a great website this morning and wanted to share: Iwagumi Aquascape. You may be more familiar with the term Iwagumi as it applies to a style of aquascaping that emphasizes rocks. Enjoy!

[MandyK]

Cool, I like that.

[Goes to 11!]

As a long time Bonsai aficionado/practitioner I know of Suiseki , A friend of mine In NH makes his own stands for his collection.

I like Iwagumi tanks as well although they are more about the arrangement of the stones vs the stones themselves. It can get surprisingly complicated 'scaping something that looks so simple.

[balt]

Here's a thread showing a dry iwagumi competition with many, many examples.
http://aquaforum.lviv.ua
I'm going to see if I can find rocks tomorrow to do something similar.

[jeffs99dime]

I'd like to see those people aquascape tanks. That would be cool.

[balt]

Here is my first attempt at arranging rocks in a 55 gallon tank.
Any suggestions?

[mermaidwannabe]

The two large pieces at the far ends draw the eye toward the center. This is a bit formal, and not usually what happens spontaneously in nature. I think it would be more interesting if the balance was asymetric, that is, one of the large pieces in an unexpected spot, but not right in the middle. This can be offset by a more random arrangement of the smaller pieces, which could be more varied in color, shape, size and texture.

Visual variety is usually quite appealing. At least to me ...

Then again, if you are following a special stylistic formula, you might not wish to deviate from that.

Do you plan to plant this tank? If so, the plants might fill up some of the spaces in an interesting way, especially if they, too, are visually varied.

Do you plan to put a background on this tank? That could offer additional creative opportunities.

-- mermaid