yo what's up reefers queen of reef here
so i want to talk today about something that has been bothering me for a long time now okay
saltwater aquariums are never approached from an angle of design
you know we all want a beautiful reef tank that is aesthetically pleasing
we all want a sexy reef tank so why don't we ever talk about this
you know there are a million and one resources about how to physically construct your aquascape
but we never talk about the aesthetics the design of what makes these aquascapes great-looking
we've never really involved past this conversation
and you know what my dear reefers right now i think it is time
i think it is time to have this discussion
i know we oftentimes get kind of a bit overwhelmed with you know
trying to make sure that our reef tanks are set up for long-term success
that they are thriving that they are healthy
that we may sometimes neglect some of these things
but it's okay because we are now going to have this conversation
how can we make our reef tanks look more aesthetically pleasing
how can we make our reef tanks look more harmonious and look balanced to the eye
in this aquascaping and coral placement 2.0 series
i'm going to go through the five major guiding principles of design
and how you can apply those principles to your reef tank
I've touched on a few of these principles in recent videos
where i talked about how strategically placing your corals can make them look artificially brighter
and how using depth in the fibonacci sequence can make your aquascape look better to the eye
however i feel that we need to go more in depth and focus on the theory behind these principles individually
and the reason why they can make your reef tank look beautiful
these five principles are the basic components of what makes any kind of design aesthetically pleasing
they are the foundation rules architects graphic designers interior designers and so on so forth
rely upon to make their masterpieces
but just like designers the creativity and logistics of how you implement these rules is up to you
because these principles are just a viewpoint or you know a way of perceiving your aquarium's design
the logistics of if and how you can incorporate them is up to your discretion
however as a disclaimer never sacrifice the health of your aquarium for the sake of tank design
your livestock's health, needs, growth patterns, and aggressivity always
always comes first
these are not hardline rules that i'm about to share with you
and they may not always be viable in reality because of those considerations you need to make
but with that being said because these concepts are abstract
there are endless ways that they can be incorporated
my goal with this video series is just to simply apply these principles of design in a way that hopefully inspires you guys
when you're forming your decisions and judgments based on the practical factors of your tank
and in part one of this series we're going to talk about
balance
have you ever looked at your aquascape and think it's nice but something about it just feels
off or incomplete even y
ou may be subconsciously responding to a lack of balance in the structure
a balanced aquascape just feels right
it feels visually stable and aesthetically pleasing
while some components of the rock structure may be focal points that attract your eye
no one area of the aquascape draws your eyes so much that you can't see other areas
balancing an aquascape involves arranging both rock and negative space
in a way that no one area of the aquascape overpowers other areas
each component of the aquascape works together and fits together as a seamless whole
balance is easy to understand outside of the reefing world because we experience it all of the time
when something is imbalanced it falls over
just like a seesaw with one person on one side and another person on the other
if the two people on either side were about the same size they can easily balance on the seesaw
this seesaw here is balanced
the two people here are equally distant from the seesaw center
if the person on the left makes the seesaw rotate counter-clockwise
the person on the right makes the rotate counter-clockwise by an equal amount
but if one person on the seesaw was a lot bigger the balance would be thrown off completely
see how this picture here just doesn't feel right
we know the person on the left isn't big enough to balance the person on the right
however if the larger person slid towards the center then the seesaw would be balanced
visual balance is just like this
physical weight is just replaced by visual weight
rather than the actual weight of an object
visual weight is how much attention an object draws to it in comparison to other objects
visual weight can be altered by size color contrast or the density of an object
for example a larger square draws more attention to the eye than a smaller square
a square that is highly contrasted draws your attention more than one that is not
a bolder or brighter colored square draws more attention than a pale or dull colored square
and a square like the one on the right draws your eye more because of its perceived density using negative space
now the goal of creating balance then is to make sure that there is an even distribution of visual weight
either through size color contrast or density
in designing our aquascape this would mean that we want to make sure that one area of
the rock work doesn't get too visually heavy on one side
to make sure that the rock structure is balanced we must strategically use
size and density or negative space in our favor
there are three ways that we can approach achieving a balanced aquascape
the most common way is to create balance over two sides of an invisible axis
either vertically horizontally or diagonally
this axis is the visual direction of your design
in terms of aquascaping each rock structure must have at least one axis
whether it's vertically balanced horizontally balanced diagonally balanced or has multiple axes does not matter
but it must have at least one
in the event that you have multiple rock structures in your tank you need to assess
both the balance of each individual rock structure on its own and then how the two rock structures balance
against each other when placed in the tank
so say i have this rock structure here that is diagonally balanced and then this rock structure
that is horizontally balanced when placed together they must also be balanced against each other
in this case they're balanced diagonally
are you still with me guys okay good because we're gonna dive in even deeper
there are also three types of balance that you can create
symmetrical balance asymmetrical balance and radial balance
symmetrical balance is commonly seen around us like on butterflies human faces or those little snowflake
things that we used to cut out as kids
symmetrical balance is created by placing objects that are the same visual weight and the
same kind of visual weight on each side of an axis each of the subject on one side corresponds
the same visual weight on the other side
just like this aquascape where the rock formations mirror each other across a horizontal axis
try not to overuse symmetry when designing an aquascape though too much symmetrical balance can easily
become a bit dry and a bit boring
while incorporating some symmetrical elements may make sense real reefs nature are never truly
symmetrical so keep that in mind when designing your aquascape
asymmetrical balance is commonly seen around us as well like in trees or natural rock formations
like symmetry it is also balanced on both sides of the axis however asymmetrical balance takes
into account the total visual weight of the objects rather than one object directly
corresponding with another on the other side of the center
take the seesaw example from earlier asymmetrical balance would be like a man
sitting on one side of the seesaw while five small children sit on the other side the see-saw still
balances but it takes five small children-sized objects to equal one of the man-sized objects
asymmetrical balance makes things dynamic and lively in aquascaping it's the best technique
of balance to incorporate because it mimics the randomness of nature just like a real life reef
lastly radial balance is when elements appear to radiate from a central focal point this can be
used if you want eyes to be drawn to the center of your design so if you're one of those central
noun aquascaping types radial balance is the key for you when creating radial balance it's tempting
to just place rocks equidistant from the center but there are also other ways to create balance
in these kind of scapes one way is to place the visually heavier rock structure closer to
the center while placing a visually lighter rock structure at a distance as long as if the line
if it were possible to draw a line between them passes directly through the center point the
structure still remains balanced this way because just like the seesaw analogy physics tells us
that a heavier object closer to the center of the seesaw can be balanced by a lighter object
at a distance these three methods of balance can be used in combination with each other to create
contrast in certain areas of your aquascape like balancing symmetrical forms in an asymmetrical
way or balancing asymmetrical forms symmetrically you can break up a symmetrical aquascape with a
random feature to add a certain flair or you can contrast symmetry and asymmetry to make certain
areas get more attention it's all up to your creativity so why use this method of balance
well when things are balanced in an aquascape harmony is created balance is important to create
a sense of unity in your overall aquascape design when designing an aquascape layout take a step back
and ask yourself if the overall structure feels balanced if one area draws too much attention
experiment with size contrast or negative space to help redistribute that visual weight
so let's take a look at some real-life examples shall we
and that's how you create visual balance in your aquascape folks no i didn't make this concept up
all of the principles mentioned in this reef tank design series are all rooted in the way humans
perceive things around us just remember that these concepts aren't hard and fast rules there's no one
right way to create balance in an aquascape and two aquascapes will never do it in the same way
also none of these design principles have to be followed however they do help significantly
when judging the aesthetic design and overall feel of your aquascape i know that this video
just covers aquascaping but let me know in the comments if you guys would like to see how this
concept of balance applies to coral placement and livestock in general we're going to change the
saltwater game y'all even freshwater planted tank lovers are going to want a reef now just saying
it has come to my attention that i seriously butchered last week's video
i guess it's not called plumber's tape but actually it's called
teflon tape hey you know if it's used for plumbing i was close enough right and to make
matters worse we also placed the plumber's tape ahem teflon tape as you guys call it incorrectly
i guess i should just stick to reef tank design topics huh and this is by far the best advice
i've ever seen for plumbing an aquarium i'll definitely keep that in mind for next time
also a platform ladder is most definitely appropriate you know it's not easy being
vertically challenged you know you gotta hand it to short people like me because we can't reach it