Aquascape advice before I add live stock. Want to ensure good long term set up.

[Stuckita]

Hey everyone, I’ll be picking up my first live stock tomorrow for my waterbox 35.2. Can you review my Aquascape and let me know your thoughts on it/ability to have a good mixed reef?

I am considering pushing the structure (already glued and mortared) closer to the back glass leaving only enough room to get a scraper down, although tighter than normally recommended my reasoning is that with the AIO I can’t use a magnet scraper any ways and the additional room at the front will allow for more coral in the sand bed.

Secondly, I am hoping for a mixed reef in the long term and have a light on order that can support this. How should I structure the coral?

I was thinking SPS top to top left or arch, possibly torches on far right of arch, LPS throughout and softy down low/sand bed?

What about below the arch? Will this become dead space due to lack of light? I can move the power head if needed. So far just have the one sicce nano power head o can get more/better as they’re needed.

Thanks everyone, pretty excited.

 

[Reeflix]

It might be pretty hard to get a tank with softy and sps. I am aware that you ordered a light for that, but the tank is really small so it might be difficult. I am not saying it can’t be done, but will be difficult. Do you have any really good hiding spaces for fish? Certain parts of the arch will be dead spots due to not being able to get the power head in there

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I love arches, they are beautiful for certain purposes. But I can’t help but feel you lose all the space for corals under the arch. And of course, most of the fish we keep in these nano tanks like to hide in the rocks, so this setup deprives them of their natural tendency to hide. Sorry to be a downer. But if your idea is mainly to have fish swimming around the arches, then it’s great, it would look very nice to have damsels or chromis going through and around the arch. It depends what you want.

 

[Stuckita]

I love arches, they are beautiful for certain purposes. But I can’t help but feel you lose all the space for corals under the arch. And of course, most of the fish we keep in these nano tanks like to hide in the rocks, so this setup deprives them of their natural tendency to hide. Sorry to be a downer. But if your idea is mainly to have fish swimming around the arches, then it’s great, it would look very nice to have damsels or chromis going through and around the arch. It depends what you want.

Hey thanks for the reply! No worries, not a downer, here for advice haha. There actually is caves built into both the arches, I was hoping coral could also eventually grow out to provide new ledges. I do agree the arch is pretty big, it's nice but could be somewhat limiting in the long run. Originally I had stone connecting on the lower level which created additional caves/arches and places for coral but it felt too busy - this could always be added back in.

 

[Reeflix]

If you really want an arch, you can get clownfish, those don’t sleep in caves.

 

[Stuckita]

It might be pretty hard to get a tank with softy and sps. I am aware that you ordered a light for that, but the tank is really small so it might be difficult. I am not saying it can’t be done, but will be difficult. Do you have any really good hiding spaces for fish? Certain parts of the arch will be dead spots due to not being able to get the power head in there

Yes, I agree! Pretty small to do both and if I have to do just softy/LPS that is totally fine with me. Hoping to find something to grow down the sides of the arch a bit. As for caves, yes there is a really good/big one on the left side of the arch right in the middle as well as ledges creating caves in 3 other places. Tried my best to think of caves when designing but getting this right is a serious skill!

 

[Reeflix]

Some people do this for their professions! Sounds amazing

 

[o2manyfish]

I would push the aquascape closer to the back just leaving enough space for water to flow smoothly behind the aquascape. I also, as mentioned by others, think you need to get a few more pieces of rock for spaces for the fish to swim between.

If you have aggression issues and the weaker fish goes into 'the' cave you have. Then the dominant fish will just sit outside the cave and wait for it. Assuming it can't get into the cave and have the fish pinned in.

Fish need places to escape from each other and sliding in between the rock work is the safest way for them to get away.

Get some more rock to go around your bases, not big pieces, just big enough to rest against the base rocks you have now.

Dave B

 

[Stuckita]

I would push the aquascape closer to the back just leaving enough space for water to flow smoothly behind the aquascape. I also, as mentioned by others, think you need to get a few more pieces of rock for spaces for the fish to swim between.

If you have aggression issues and the weaker fish goes into 'the' cave you have. Then the dominant fish will just sit outside the cave and wait for it. Assuming it can't get into the cave and have the fish pinned in.

Fish need places to escape from each other and sliding in between the rock work is the safest way for them to get away.

Get some more rock to go around your bases, not big pieces, just big enough to rest against the base rocks you have now.

Dave B

Thanks Dave, I'll do that, there are a number of cave options not present in the photos.. but I'll work on making more. Originally i had 2 caves built underneath the structure (instead of laying the base flat I flipped 2 pieces and glued the flat parts together to create an elevated cave on each side) but didn't expect to have such a high sand base If I'm moving everything back I can also clear out the sand in those areas and reposition or move it out entirely. I suppose I can always add rock/rescape if I'm noticing aggression down the road? Fish load will be small for the next while (well, it will never be that high) but I am shooting for a healthy habitat as priority 1.

 

[Stuckita]

I would push the aquascape closer to the back just leaving enough space for water to flow smoothly behind the aquascape. I also, as mentioned by others, think you need to get a few more pieces of rock for spaces for the fish to swim between.

If you have aggression issues and the weaker fish goes into 'the' cave you have. Then the dominant fish will just sit outside the cave and wait for it. Assuming it can't get into the cave and have the fish pinned in.

Fish need places to escape from each other and sliding in between the rock work is the safest way for them to get away.

Get some more rock to go around your bases, not big pieces, just big enough to rest against the base rocks you have now.

Dave B

Here are some better shots of current caves. I’ll work at building out some more.