Does this aquascape look acceptable?

[Saith]

I have been thinking a lot about aquascapes. looks nice.

The tank of the month had some pretty cool pillars.

Thanks.

I went and looked at the tank of the month. It took me a minute to figure out where to find it. It looks really neat.

There seems to be a certain style with the past few tank of the months. They seem to all have lots of empty space around the clusters of corals. It is an awesome look.

 

[Saith]

Looks great - my favorite is the shelf rock

Thanks. I like your tank scape. Your rocks fit so nicely together. It's got a natural look to it.

 

[Saith]

I’d encourage you to keep your rockwork very simple, but focus on the general shape you want to achieve. Glue it together, but do small tweaks as your coral grows in. Look how simple my structure is and how it grew in.

Beautiful tank Sawdonkey! Thank you for the including the picture of your almost bare aquascape. It really make me wonder it I'm over doing it. I should have started this process a year ago when I had all the time in the world to work on the aquascape. I have a hard time picturing what things will look like down the road, I never would been able to imagine how your tank would look in the pictures later on.

 

[Saith]

I think you did a great job. I agree with trying to squeeze out a little extra room around the edges for maintenance. Give it rest for a bit before gluing then come back to it. Picture your fish, inverts and corals in it, then make last minor adjustments if needed.

Thanks. I think you're right about giving it a rest. I was hoping to have it glued and in the tank by next weekend, but I'm going to give it the week to settle on me. I'll see how I feel about it when the weekend gets here and go from there.

 

[J1a]

Depending on what fishes you are intending to keep, the caves may be too short for them. Especially when coral start to grow and create more obstruction.

I see that most of your rock pieces are rather large plates. Having less space taken up by rocks, means you will have more space for corals.

 

[Saith]

This was the culmination of 1.5 years worth of aquascaping with smaller tanks. When we upgraded to the larger system the existing rockscapes just got incorporates.

Once you get sand, equipment, fish and of course corals - your perspective changes again. I should also add that none of my rock is glued - it's all freestanding. Upside is I can rearrange on a whim. Downside is that certain fish also do same (I'm looking at you parrotfish!)

I also don't run a lid, so another reason the rock is down lower (less incentive to jump).

I still like your second setup. Once you get it in the tank you can easily add the odd rock here and there to create more caves, nooks and crannies.

Ah okay. Nice to hear how you got there.

I like the idea of being able to rearrange the rocks or pull out rocks if needed. I was wondering why you were trying to keep the fish in the lower 2/3rds, that makes sense now.

 

[Saith]

Depending on what fishes you are intending to keep, the caves may be too short for them. Especially when coral start to grow and create more obstruction.

I see that most of your rock pieces are rather large plates. Having less space taken up by rocks, means you will have more space for corals.

I think you're right about the cave size. I was thinking that maybe dottybacks or some other smaller fish would be able to use the caves, but anything that is sorta bigger won't we able to fit through them.

Ya, I was trying to incorporate all the large pieces. I was thinking they would provide more area for mounting corals. Do you think it would be better have less plates to allow room for the corals to grow out?

 

[J1a]

I think you're right about the cave size. I was thinking that maybe dottybacks or some other smaller fish would be able to use the caves, but anything that is sorta bigger won't we able to fit through them.

Ya, I was trying to incorporate all the large pieces. I was thinking they would provide more area for mounting corals. Do you think it would be better have less plates to allow room for the corals to grow out?

I use a more frame like scape. It looks unnatural when new. Once the corals grows out though, the rock will just vanish. (The rock work is 1.5ft high, the tank is 2
5ft deep)

And the fish still gets their caves.

 

[blaxsun]

I think you're right about the cave size. I was thinking that maybe dottybacks or some other smaller fish would be able to use the caves, but anything that is sorta bigger won't we able to fit through them.

Ya, I was trying to incorporate all the large pieces. I was thinking they would provide more area for mounting corals. Do you think it would be better have less plates to allow room for the corals to grow out?

You'd be surprised what fish use for caves. At night, all 32 fish in my tank literally disappear. My marine betta sleeps under a rock ledge and the parrotfish has several slumber spots depending on where he feels like sleeping. My midas blenny has two barnacle hotels that he calls home. The angels all share a single sheltered cave (all 4 of them), and I've watched the anthias back up into these teeny tiny crevices you'd never think they'd fit into. The dottyback I have is actually digging a network of tunnels (why, I have no idea - but he's been working on it for several weeks now).

 

[J1a]

T

You'd be surprised what fish use for caves. At night, all 32 fish in my tank literally disappear. My marine betta sleeps under a rock ledge and the parrotfish has several slumber spots depending on where he feels like sleeping. My midas blenny has two barnacle hotels that he calls home. The angels all share a single sheltered cave (all 4 of them), and I've watched the anthias back up into these teeny tiny crevices you'd never think they'd fit into. The dottyback I have is actually digging a network of tunnels (why, I have no idea - but he's been working on it for several weeks now).

This is exactly what the fishes do. Any fish without hiding place at night are almost certainly snap up by sharks.

This is also one of the reason why some fishes are extremely territorial.

We need to, as much as possible, provide sleeping space for every fish, and even plan in advance for the day when the fish grows bigger.

 

[jslud]

following the thread. getting ready to tackle HNSA for my 280 peninsula reef. getting good ideas from ya'll. currently have rock piles for aquascape.

 

[SaltyPotato]

I really liked what you had going in the first pic, like a stairway to heaven vibe. Really disliked visually what I marked off, seems like it should stop there.

those were initial knee jerk thoughts, love it other than that though! Really classy.