Little monsters: Have you ever tried to make your tank look bigger?

[qterry22]

Scaling and using multi tiers front to back. Divided islands and create as many channels as you can

I am in awe of your tank and the colors. I am also impressed by your camera and/or picture taking skills. I really need to learn how to capture what my tank looks like in person...

 

[PeterC99]

Don’t the laws of physics limit those optical illesions?

 

[Reef and Dive]

Don’t the laws of physics limit those optical illesions?

Not at all . Our brain gives us such a processed sense of sight that is pretty far from the actual results from the laws of physics.

Let me try some examples:

When our tank is very blue we have tbe perception that some corals are incredibly bright. There is fluorescence of course, but taking a picture shows an image too far from what “we think we see” in front of the tank. So far we need to use filters to try some “correction”.

When there is too much from some specific frequency, our retina starts a process that is inhibitory for that same type of cones (visual photoreceptor cell on the retina) creating an artificial enhancement of contrast for other colors.

In a much more complex but very studied pattern, involving secondary and tertiary process, our brain tries to identify many patterns, eg lines.

We we place smaller objects in front with bigger objects on the back we create an optical illusion of depth with an overall impression that the object is bigger.

Practical example shown on my first post, this simple lines are intentional, to create illusion of depth:

The same tank, some months ago, I had an elegance that was getting way to big and overlaping the idea, I also had to change the SPS, some growers were too close to the front. It was getting a “strange” look, more crouded with smaller corals (they grew a lot before this previous picture):

It is not easy but I always try to rearrange things to keep it interesting.

My next step will probably be to remove the entire left island and move the right island to the left and create more empty space…

 

[MrGisonni]

Creating a three-dimensional layout with a pronounced sense of depth - | Aquasabi

Hints and tips

www.aquasabi.com

In order to create a sense of great depth in a layout you will basically need to follow just three simple rules:

1. Strongly increase the substrate thickness
2. Place large objects in the front and small objects in the back
3. Divide the layout in layers during the planning phase

 

[mike89t]

I created the illusion of depth by painting the back of the tank Black and keeping it clean. Also have multiple layers of rock formations. So that when you look into the tank you have rocks in front, and rocks behind that and then the darkness of the black background behind that makes it look even deeper than it is:

 

[Scott's reef]

I definitely don't have to try to make my tank bigger. It's plenty big for me. The dimensions are 96×30×25. All starfire glass on all 4 sides of my @glasscages peninsula.

 

[Pelagikos]

I voted "other". I tried to use negative space to make the peninsula see more open.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

I always sloped the sand in my freshwater planted tanks, and did the same with my reef tank (though as you can see in the pic, all that goes out the window when you have a diamond goby... he flattened it pretty fast, lol!) Also I use the "rule of 3rds" when placing rockwork.

When I upgraded to a larger reef tank, the thing that made the biggest difference however, is install the Current USA Serene backlighting. It's a frosted vinyl that adheres to the back glass, that's not hazy water, lol. I wanted the tank to look like a slice of the ocean as you're diving in a shallow reef or something, kind of a sunny blue in the distance. A dark background can make things pop, but the light filtering through the back just looks so cool to me. I haven't even used the light that goes with the Serene kit - the tank is in front of a window so just a little natural light comes through. Yeah, not helping algae... but it's a tradeoff I'll manage because I love how the tank turned out.
(Pic is a little old, from when the tank was newly set up. I need to update my build thread! Looks quite different now.)

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

how to make your tank bigger in 5 easy steps:

1. get chloroform

2.abduct your SO/FAMILY, use chloroform to sedate them, while they are sedated, wipe their memories with a labotomy.

3. Go to your Lfs or an online store, find a tank you like, order the tank

4. wait for the tank to come, make sure you erase all evidence of the purchase in case your abductees become suspicous

5. set up the tank, make sure its extra dirty because that will make them not focus on the size difference of the tank.


Alternative method (if you do not have access to Chloroform)


1. silently chip a hole behind your aquarium, make sure nobody notices, make sure you also have a background on your aquarium.

2. every time you use glass tableware, keep a peice of sandpaper under the table. while you are eating, pretend ot drop the glass then pick it up, sand it one stroke under the table, make sure the dust lands in your shoe. shatter one glass so you can use it to magnify the sun in a later step

3. once you have enough dust, start collecting dust to start a fire, use the peice of glass you made to light the fire.

4. cast the glass into panels and construct aquariums in progressive increments, make sure you hide them well.

5, every night, replace the aquariums slowly until you get the right size, destroy the previous aquariums to cast new panels.

This made my day, lol, thank you! Now I have a gameplan for when I plan my next upgrade.

 

[inland_reef]

Little monsters: Have you ever tried to make your tank look bigger?

There are aquascaping techniques that can make our tanks look bigger. Growing mangroves out of the tank, sloping the sand from shallow in the front to deeper in the back to add more perceived depth to the tank, and maybe even trying out Bonsai techniques with the corals – there are many ways that aquarium keepers have tried to make their tanks look bigger. Maybe you have added fish and inverts with big personalities to make the tank take on a monster-sized feel of its own. Have you ever tried to make your tank look bigger? Tell us about it in the discussion below!

Photo by @inland_reef; check out this link for more details about this tank.

Love this question and the techniques you addressed. Recently did a rescape on this system to rescale the corals and allow the rock work to not block the front pane of the peninsula view.

 

[Hemmdog]

I created the illusion of depth by painting the back of the tank Black and keeping it clean. Also have multiple layers of rock formations. So that when you look into the tank you have rocks in front, and rocks behind that and then the darkness of the black background behind that makes it look even deeper than it is:

You win, it looks very big, well done

 

[beastium]

Smaller grain substrate

 

[MrGisonni]

30 gallon mixed reef. My wife thought I was crazy talking about The Golden Ratio and The Rule of Thirds when I was aquascaping this aquarium. Lol
How did I do??? Pardon the aptasia ;(

 

[Sean Clark]

Is this thread soposed to encourage creativity or deception? Why would you try to make your tank look like something that it is not? Why would one be ok with that deception?

 

[Sharkbait19]

30 gallon mixed reef. My wife thought I was crazy talking about The Golden Ratio and The Rule of Thirds when I was aquascaping this aquarium. Lol
How did I do??? Pardon the aptasia ;(

Looks great!

 

[billyocean]

....they say the pictures add 5 gallons.

 

[MrGisonni]

....they say the pictures add 5 gallons.

Lol

 

[Katrina71]

I always sloped the sand in my freshwater planted tanks, and did the same with my reef tank (though as you can see in the pic, all that goes out the window when you have a diamond goby... he flattened it pretty fast, lol!) Also I use the "rule of 3rds" when placing rockwork.

When I upgraded to a larger reef tank, the thing that made the biggest difference however, is install the Current USA Serene backlighting. It's a frosted vinyl that adheres to the back glass, that's not hazy water, lol. I wanted the tank to look like a slice of the ocean as you're diving in a shallow reef or something, kind of a sunny blue in the distance. A dark background can make things pop, but the light filtering through the back just looks so cool to me. I haven't even used the light that goes with the Serene kit - the tank is in front of a window so just a little natural light comes through. Yeah, not helping algae... but it's a tradeoff I'll manage because I love how the tank turned out.
(Pic is a little old, from when the tank was newly set up. I need to update my build thread! Looks quite different now.)

Seriously looking forward to using this in our new tank!

 

[Reef and Dive]

Not at all . Our brain gives us such a processed sense of sight that is pretty far from the actual results from the laws of physics.

Let me try some examples:

When our tank is very blue we have tbe perception that some corals are incredibly bright. There is fluorescence of course, but taking a picture shows an image too far from what “we think we see” in front of the tank. So far we need to use filters to try some “correction”.

When there is too much from some specific frequency, our retina starts a process that is inhibitory for that same type of cones (visual photoreceptor cell on the retina) creating an artificial enhancement of contrast for other colors.

In a much more complex but very studied pattern, involving secondary and tertiary process, our brain tries to identify many patterns, eg lines.

We we place smaller objects in front with bigger objects on the back we create an optical illusion of depth with an overall impression that the object is bigger.

Practical example shown on my first post, this simple lines are intentional, to create illusion of depth:

The same tank, some months ago, I had an elegance that was getting way to big and overlaping the idea, I also had to change the SPS, some growers were too close to the front. It was getting a “strange” look, more crouded with smaller corals (they grew a lot before this previous picture):

It is not easy but I always try to rearrange things to keep it interesting.

My next step will probably be to remove the entire left island and move the right island to the left and create more empty space…

Update on the same tank