Help me tweak my scape.

[SeaJay]

My wife and I have both been sitting here thinking something is missing. I’m gonna think about both of those ideas.

I have plenty of rock. just various size chunks of Caribsea base rock. It’s been in my tank for a year and a half. I just pulled it out to make way for these new structures.

 

[Cell]

Looks much better. One more little tweak I'd suggest is moving that middle pillar just a touch closer to the right, so there's a little more space between the cave and pillars and a bit smaller gap between the pillars themselves.

If you think there's something missing, move both pillars an inch or two right and closer together and find a big sort of flat rock to put an island between your cave and pillar structures.

 

[Cell]

I wouldn't mind seeing one of the cave "arms" where it looks like you put some new rubble expanded a bit. Either vertically or horizontally would be fine. Maybe beef up the left arm with one or two new rocks on the sand next to the existing new rock.

Even just a sleight adjustment to the spacing of the 3 structures would do wonders, I think. Those pillars/trees look really nice. They just need a bit more separation from the cave to make them really stand out.

 

[SeaJay]

Looks much better. One more little tweak I'd suggest is moving that middle pillar just a touch closer to the right, so there's a little more space between the cave and pillars and a bit smaller gap between the pillars themselves.

If you think there's something missing, move both pillars an inch or two right and closer together and find a big sort of flat rock to put an island between your cave and pillar structures.

Right after I took the picture and posted it, we moved the middle tree to the right a bit. I like your island idea. I don’t have any large flat pieces of rock, I may look around and see if I can find something.

 

[SeaJay]

Maybe as a future idea, but you would need more rock, you could build a nice wall of rock up the left overflow area and the whole left side of the tank....have it come down and connect to your cave piece...probably would need to shift the angle of the cave piece, but it would look like a reef wall that comes down to a flat area on the ocean floor and your cave piece then comes up like it is part of the rock wall.

I like the sound of it, but having trouble picturing how I could do that. Especially with the chunks of rock that I have. I have a bunch, just not a lot of variation in shape and size. Maybe I could cut some thin. Don’t really have a way to do that. I cut around that tee with an angle grinder, wouldn’t be able to get through a thick piece of rock that way.

 

[SeaJay]

The more I look at it, the more I like both of those ideas. A corner wall on the left and an island between the two main structures. Gonna work on those and post back up the progress. Right now I shifted gears to work on the stand/cabinets for a while. Needed to get my eyes off that scape for a minute.

Built a stand from a load of old barnwood oak I had laying around. Been planning on some side cabinets and shallow shelves up the sides that would Connect the hood across the top. Been doing that one small step at a time between all the other projects as well.

 

[Daniel Waters]

I like @Cell suggestions of moving the one pillar. In fact, I think you could shift them both over a bit to the right. Then add some rock to the right side of the cave having it drop down to the sand bed to make like a curved tail. If you look at your pillars and rock work, it has a very natural left to right flow visually. So adding a "tail" going that same direction should fit nice visually. Shifting the pillars to the right more will give you a bit more space to accomplish that tail.

I'm not as sold about using a flat piece as an island. I think the open sand creates a nice contrast with your structures, but that would be easy to try out and see what you think.

 

[SeaJay]

 

[SeaJay]

How do you think the middle would look with something like a very low mushroom/pedestal shaped structure?

 

[Cell]

I think it may make it look like it belongs closer to the trees.

 

[SeaJay]

I keep making small changes, but I think I’ll leave it alone now. I’m pretty happy with it.

 

[living_tribunal]

Set up this 135 as a FOWLR about a year and a half ago with no idea what I was doing or getting into. What I ended up with was two big pile of rocks with a shipwreck in between. Now I’m upgrading all of my lighting, pumps, etc. to start reefing. So my LFS hooked me up with a couple of life rock coral trees and an arch that I liked, so I’ve put those in. I built the arch into a kind of cave, but after being shoulders deep for a while I step back and I realize it’s too symmetrical. Also, there’s nothing to tie it all together.

I moved rocks around until I just had to step back and take a break from it.

Any ideas that don’t involve starting over? I do think the trees are gonna look cool when they have corals all over them. I’m completely new to this, I’ve never kept corals, so any input would be appreciated.

The before.

And the current

Looks a little crazy right now with the colors since I used a combo of dry base rock, my existing rock and the new life rock. My Coraline is starting to take off though, so hopefully a uniform color will help some too. The wonky mismatched color is part of what’s making it look unnatural.

I like it, a lot of open space. I would maybe add some bridges or flat surfaces for more space to add coral.

I have a very vertical rockscape like you and am quickly running out of space for coral.

 

[Cell]

Looks great. Perfect spacing for the structures.

 

[SeaJay]

I like it, a lot of open space. I would maybe add some bridges or flat surfaces for more space to add coral.

I have a very vertical rockscape like you and am quickly running out of space for coral.

I can see that. Not really sure how I'll address that, but I'll have plenty of time to think it over as I'm going to be fairly slow & cautious getting in to corals until I learn the ropes.

 

[SeaJay]

Looks great. Perfect spacing for the structures.

Thanks for all your help. Sometimes when you're too close to something it's hard to see what's right in front of you.

 

[living_tribunal]

I can see that. Not really sure how I'll address that, but I'll have plenty of time to think it over as I'm going to be fairly slow & cautious getting in to corals until I learn the ropes.

I was in the same boat. My scape actually looks similar to yours just with a lot more bridges and arcs.

The one thing I'll say you can do now is to remember that the shelves at the bottom of the scape will need light, so make sure none of them will get shadowed or the shelf is meaningless. Try to glue some extensions onto it which will help.

Edit* just saw your new scape in the last pic. That's a really good start.You have a lot more flatground to add coral.

You also have a ton of sand bed space in front of it which is what I wish I had more of. I would just say if you have more rock, be sure to taper it to the taller back.

 

[SeaJay]

You also have a ton of sand bed space in front of it which is what I wish I had more of. I would just say if you have more rock, be sure to taper it to the taller back.

I have more rock, but all just chunks. I may try to sell or trade the 80 or so pounds of chunks I have to get some more flat pieces and arches.

 

[SeaJay]

I also did my best to orient everything so that none of the shelves are completely shaded.

 

[SeaJay]

I’ve been totally pulled away from this by other projects.I ended up adding another small arch to the middle and a few more pieces on the left of it. Could I take what I have and all your ideas and make it better, yeah, I could. Maybe next time though. For now I’m happy with it.
Thank you all for your input. It helped me tremendously.

Still kinda going through the uglies from all the new rock and sand. Just added a reef cleaners 125 pack. Once I get everything back to normal I’m ready to start adding corals.