Introduction

Planted freshwater tanks have developed into an art form on their own, whereas salt water tanks aesthetics have remained very much undeveloped. Most salt water tanks still look like fruit stands with corals on display.

I believe the main reason for not paying much attention to the layouts of salt water tanks is that it’s really hard to make a salt water tank ugly. There hasn’t been such a need to study ways of making it look better as there were for freshwater tanks.

Further more, any saltwater tank deals with a tremendous amount of rock, usually around 20% of its total volume. Add the corals and you normally get a tremendous lack of space.

So, for me the art of creating a layout for a salt water tank lays in first instance in the definition of empty spaces. In the long run it’ requires a tremendous effort to keep this empty spaces as they should be: empty. There’s always a coral or a rock that would look great in that space.

When I speak about empty spaces I’m thinking mainly about the bottom and the back of the tank. There should be open spaces in the sand and there should be open spaces in the back of the tank. The open space in the sand is place of purity, where your eyes can rest. The open space in the back gives depth to the tank.

The main thing here is contrast. Contrast between areas filled with interesting stuff and areas completely void. Contrast between shapes. Contrast between colours. Contrast in light. Contrast in size. Contrast in height.

What about the health of the tank? What about the well being of the corals and their placement according the their requirements of light, current, etc? Ah, when you manage to marry those requirements with all these aesthetic “rules” the results are true poetry. No one said it was easy. Some are born with it, others have to struggle to get it, but everyone can get there, one way or the other

I will not address too much the health and technical requirements here, that’s a huge piece of the puzzle you will have to research for yourself and combine with aesthetics. By the way, I’m not a native English speaker, so please forgive some wild use of the language.

Empty space

Sometimes, less is more. Sometimes? Most of the times.

When you follow the evolution of most reef tanks, they seem to achieve a point where they seem to look at their best early on, and from that moment on, it’s down the hill. The main reason that causes the tanks to loose their “freshness” is that empty space shrinks. Not only corals grow, but we also keep putting more corals and or rock inside. We also get tired of looking at the same layout, but I won’t get into that issue.

Aquariums need open space. This empty space is needed aesthetically and the fish will thank you too.

So, let’s say your tank is in its early ages and you only have half a dozen corals. Don’t spread them all over the tank. The same goes with rock. Take the opportunity and create contrasts: areas filled with corals and areas completely empty.

Empty spaces also make your tank look clean, whether those spaces are sand or uncovered back glass.

Corals that most of the times are placed on the sand shouldn’t be placed like islands. They should always be placed right next to a rock, so they are an extension of the rockwork. This helps to preserve open spaces in the sand.

And rules are meant to be broken. You should have a good reason break them, though.

Animal aesthetics

Our aesthetic sense can be educated as most of our human senses. Nevertheless I guess most of you will agree with me that the mechanisms that support our ability to feel if something is beautiful or not runs very deep. There’s something very basic like “beautiful is good” that I believe we share with animals. So, in my opinion, odds are that we do not have the exclusivity on perceiving beauty. This perception was most likely invented long before we were and it’s here as a sexual aid at the very least.

And it is an educational process for animals too. A baby duck raised by another duck species will court a female of his mother’s species instead of his own.

The studies on color show that different colors / color combinations cause different emotions on humans. We all know that. But the same is true for animals. Black and yellow is a sign of poison/danger for many animals for example. I read on a forum about a guy that was doing some maintenance in his tank and he placed a school of cardinal tetras inside a red tin. The fish immediately started jumping out of the water, one after the other at a faster rate than the rate he could put them back in the tin. He lost many of them and he had to put the remaining ones in a tin with another color.

So from this point on, I will not be ashamed to state that fish have an aesthetic sense.

Therefore, we should try to not only please our senses, but also the animal’s senses when establishing a layout in a tank. But how can we get inside the mind of a fish? Or the mind of any other animal for that matter? Well, just look at the case of Dr Temple Grandin's (http://www.grandin.com/):

“Using her unique ability to observe the world through an animal's eye she has fundamentally redesigned the equipment and buildings where they are held and slaughtered. Today her advice is sought from around the world and half the cattle in the US go to their deaths in humane equipment designed by her.” – BBC – Science and Nature – Horizon.

Her ability is unique in what concerns the degree to which she takes it, but don’t forget that we (humans and other animals) are not that different. It’s much easier to point similarities between a human being and any other animal than differences. It just depends on what you’re looking for: similarities or differences.

Some of you might be wondering: when we try to imagine how an animal feels, we just project our own feelings on that animal in that specific situation. In doing so, we may be right or wrong, just as we can be right or wrong when we go through the same process with another person. Some situations are easier to figure out than others, in what concerns projection of our emotions on others. How much more painful will be for a person to watch a son being killed than for an animal who looks after their descendence? (Sorry for that).

Now back to aquarium layouts. What we like is the same that a fish likes? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Not very helpful, but hopeful. It’s hopeful because almost every time you look at a landscape or any natural scene, you will find it beautiful. Nature is beautiful, no matter how the colors are mixed. We are “programmed” to find Nature beautiful. Why shouldn’t animals be too?

So all this to arrive to the brilliant conclusion that when we try to make a beautiful tank we should follow natural examples.

But beware: natural examples can really be farfetched. Look at what Takashi Amano has done with “Nature Aquarium” concept. He is not recreating natural aquatic landscapes. Most of the times it looks like he’s recreating dry land natural landscaped, like mountains, rivers or prairies. Most of us who have seen his tanks fall in love with them. I have a feeling that his fish love them too.

But home is home; “Home is where the heart is”. Fish will likely find beautiful a place that looked like home. And you may ask: where is a fish’s home? Is it where he was born? Where he grew? Anywhere, as long as he’s in love? (This is not as silly as it looks, because many people believe their fish to be happy as long as they breed).

I’ll tell you… I don’t know. It’s not an easy subject to understand mainly because we (living creatures) are extremely adaptable to a huge variety of conditions and the way we percept beauty changes in time and space.

In Nature, the results are complex, but the rules are simple. And these are the rules that we must find and then practice and experiment.

And many rules of beauty seem to be universal. We change our perception of beauty through life,

You may think that if everybody follows the same rules the creativity is lost. But just look at a symphony. It’s full of rules and yet there are so many different. These rules are there to add another layer in the creation of any art piece and enrich the creation process. And very important: rules are there to be broken too. But when you break a rule, be aware of why that rule exists and why you will not apply it.

The tank, the room and the people

Have you ever seen a tv series called Nip Tuck? It’s about the life of a couple of cosmetic surgeons. They’re very stylish, very cool, cold in the outside but always involved in tempestuous relationships. And they have a fish tank in the office: a kind of tank usually called as a “false marine”.

The tank decoration is made of white, dead corals under a sterile looking actinic light and a curtain of bubbles along the whole length of the tank. No plants. The fauna? African cichlids. The person who designed the tank for that show really knew what he/she was doing. The layout is cold and sterile while the inhabitants are fierce and passionate.

If you have a very stylish decoration, why shouldn’t your tank be stylish too? If it’s nice and cozy, why shouldn’t that feeling be in the tank too?

When planning for the tank, you can take in account the shapes, the textures, the lighting, the color schemes and the overall feeling of the room.

Ultimately, your tank is your canvas and you can and should use it as a way of artistic, intellectual, emotional and even spiritual expression. Vastu Shastra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vastu_Shastra) or Feng shui (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_shui) can be used in the room where the aquarium is placed or even inside of the aquarium.

Here are some tips about the use of an aquarium to bring luck and money: http://www.fastfengshui.com/feng_shui_tips_83.htm

Rocks

Smaller tanks are easier to arrange than larger ones. Just half a dozen rocks and you’re ready to go.

Larger tanks require that you define rock structures with rock pieces that are very small compared to the tank. This is not easy. Each of those structures must look coherent in the first place. So, whenever possible, in large tanks, use large rocks.

You can create an area mainly with larger rocks and another area with smaller rocks.

Here’s an example of a rocky layout by Ralf Lindberg for Tanganyika cichlids where this technique is very apparent. He has large rocks on the right and smaller rocks on the left:

I still think those smaller rocks on the left should be removed, creating a nice, open, large, bright, white sand beach.

If you look at most marine landscapes, you normally don’t see much rubble, you mostly see large pieces of rock or huge mountains.

Avoid mixing rocks with different textures and types in the same structure. You can even get away with two types of rock. With three you’re already creating a mess.

Salt water layouts are usually very heavy looking and this heavy look propagates this feeling to the room where the tank is located.

Nowadays we have access to many types of live rock from different parts of the world and even man made rock. You can find normal rocks, reef branches and reef plates. Reef branches and plates come very handy to create lighter looking layouts.

Reef plates project themselves into the water like shelves, very handy to place corals. Just beware and don’t treat them like shelves putting the corals very tidy on top of them, pointing to the surface. Try to place the corals tilted on reef plates as a continuation of the plate itself.

If you want a lighter looking layout, you can try to use reef branches to support the rock layout. This will create a kind of suspended layout, full of caves.

About bridges, it’s very hard to make them look natural in a tank and you don’t often see them in the sea. Bridges usually look better when they fall, they turn into “arms” that extent from the main rock structure.

Finally, you should take into account the space that corals will fill when you build your layout. Don’t try to have a completely defined layout just with the rock.

Lines and numbers

The golden number.

The number 1,6180339887… was known and used in the Renaissance as the Divine Proportion and even before by the Greeks.

Here's a geometric calculation:

To me, to make a long story short, it means that when I have to find the right place for something important, I’ll find the middle section and then move a bit to the right or to the left. This something important can be a rock, a coral or, most important of all, empty space. If I have to divide a rock layout in two structures, I normally avoid dividing right in the middle, but instead make the split a bit to one side.

You will find this number in the proportions of the human body and of many other animals, plants, DNA, the solar system, art, population growth and stock market, just to name a few examples.

We seem to find its presence pleasing to the eye. In this example by Ralf Lindberg we can see that the large rock in the back, which is the centerpiece of the tank, is no exactly in the middle but a bit to the right side

Once again, this is just a starting point. There are many other circumstances to take into account when deciding where exactly to make the section cut and in the end it will be your eyes that will tell you where’s the best

Corals

You have to place corals according to their needs concerning light, current and neighbors. In what concerns the layout there are requirements such are color, shape and texture.

If you have a plan to begin with, it’s not difficult to satisfy the corals’ needs and the aesthetics of the layout.

As with anything that deals with color, a basic understanding of the use of the color wheel helps to create color schemes with an orderly progression of color, color balance and harmony.

When you want to create an area with corals, and you want to avoid the “everyone showed up” look, you should try to find corals in the same color or neighbor colors. So an area with orange, browns, yellow and red corals will go very well together. Red, purple and blue will work fine too or green, yellow and orange.

It’s as simple as picking a color in the color wheel and finding its neighbors. It’s worth noting that each slice of the color wheel has different saturations and brightness. You can have a light or dark orange, more or less vivid, more grayish, etc. Even an area only in orange can be very interesting if you try to play with different tones of orange.

Very vivid colors are like people with strong, intense personalities: they can achieve great things together, but it’s much more difficult to make them work together.

Other possibility to combine colors e through an opposite strategy: instead of finding similar colors, choose a complementary color. This is an obvious way to create contrast, but if you choose pale tones, instead of creating a very contrasting area you will get a rich background against which you can place a more striking color.

You can enrich your layout by combining both this techniques: create a background with corals of 3 neighbor colors and then place a single coral with a contrasting color in the same area. This coral will immediately stand out.

Ideally, your tank will have 1 or at most 2 of these very special areas. These are the places where your eyes will be drawn.

The creation of contrast is most obvious with the use of color but it can also be created with shape or texture. In an area filled with soft corals, a hard coral will stand out.

In the same area you can play with contrast and similarity at the same time. For example, imagine this sequence from left to right: blue zoanthus, orange zoanthus and orange montipora digitata. The blue zoanthus are similar in shape and contrasting in color with the neighbor orange zoanthus. The orange montipora does exactly the opposite: it has a very different shape but the same color. Normally it isn’t a good idea to change everything at once. Two neighbors should have something in common. One exception to this is those very special areas where you place the pieces you want to draw attention. In those areas you can attack with full contrast in color, shape, etc.

If you have a valley you already created a great contrast: it’s the division between two areas. It’s normally a great idea to make the two sides of the valley similar at least in one way, whether it is color, shape or texture.

Fish and other animals

Yes, fish are also part of the layout and among all the other factors that influence your decision concerning the fish and other marine life, the aquarium layout can be taken in account too.

About size: no matter how big is your tank, a big fish will always make it look small.

Another factor that influences our perspection of size is behaviour. A fish that is all over the place, that within 3 ou 4 seconds gets from one side of the tank to the other, will always make your tank look small - and worse than small, it will make your tank look like a prison.

So, in my opinion, small fish that don't swim contantly randomly through the tank, that hang mostly in a specific area of the tank are the best choices. They also allow you to take to the extreme this option of taking in account the fish's appearance in the tanks layout.

Lets take a look at clownfish for example.

A clownfish in a bubbletip anemone will look good because what you get is a picture of warm colors. The darker and brighter areas of the clownfish provide a rich contrast.

A clownfish in a blue anemone provides a stronger contrast and it still looks great, but more dramatic:

If your tank is a mainly a coral tank and you want to call attention to the corals, then the fish should not have contrasting colors and or white or black.

If you want to call attention to the fish, then the coral should have mainly contrasting colors.

Once again, the colors of the fish can be in harmony among themselves. For example, you can have one or two very special fish, and choose the other fish so that their colors provide a "background" for your main fish to shine. Ideally they will have contrasting colors with low saturation - less bright.

If your "show" fish is mainly bright yellow or orange, a group of blue chromis will look great. A red fish will look great with a group of green chromis. Contrast is size and shape can also be taken in account.

I've been talking about fish, but the same goes for other animals.