How did you plan and establish your aquascape?

[Gumbies R Us]

There have been a lot of rock-related questions recently, so why not add to the question pool. I want to know how did you plan for the aquascape you are currently using and how did you put it in your tank. Did you use rods to help keep your aquscape stable or did you just plop the rock into the tank and hope for the best ( I might have done this option). Let's hear from everyone! Photo Credit: @HawkeyeDJ

 

[Fish Fan]

I've never been an aquascaper, I've always been a "rock stacker", but recently I tried my hand at something of a 'scape for a 25 gallon AIO. I used a 50/50 combination of dry base rock and wet, cycled base rock over two years old. I used a combination of regular super glue (non-gel) from the dollar store and baking soda, which acts as something of an insta-set for the super glue. I went back over the joints with more super glue and some sand, and then end result I thought looked pretty good for my first attempt. I do feel confident that I could do even better on the next one now that I tried it once.

My humble scape for my IM 25 Lagoon AIO:

 

[edsbeaker]

I used this method in my last three tanks. It’s really easy, but wear gloves because the interaction between the glue and powder will cause burns.
I also used this glue from Amazon. It comes with these tips so that you can glue areas that are harder to reach.
Amazon product ASIN B0B8GCY712


Here are some of my tanks.

 

[Fish Fan]

I used this method in my last three tanks. It’s really easy, but wear gloves because the interaction between the glue and powder will cause burns.
I also used this glue from Amazon. It comes with these tips so that you can glue areas that are harder to reach.



Here are some of my tanks.

Really nice work!

Is the top picture a bunch of the shelf rock pieces?

 

[Sophie"s mom]

There have been a lot of rock-related questions recently, so why not add to the question pool. I want to know how did you plan for the aquascape you are currently using and how did you put it in your tank. Did you use rods to help keep your aquscape stable or did you just plop the rock into the tank and hope for the best ( I might have done this option). Let's hear from everyone! Photo Credit: @HawkeyeDJ

I cut a piece of cardboard the size of the ID on my tank, made a 2" line all around in order to stay off all walls 2". Then dry built. Once I like it, I glued certain pieces together so it was movable. Then, when ready, transferred to the tank prior to adding my live sand. Once all was in the tank, I added hand picked pieces of live rock to go on top based on spaces available. We have a LFS that will let you go in and hand pick pieces of Jakarta live rock.

 

[edsbeaker]

Really nice work!

Is the top picture a bunch of the shelf rock pieces?

Yes, it’s Marco shelf rock. It’s my favorite aquascape, aesthetic wise, but not to good for fish to hide in.

 

[Fish Fan]

Yes, it’s Marco shelf rock. It’s my favorite aquascape, ascetically, but not to good for fish to hide in.

Thank you for the reply! Your scape looks amazing! Unfortunately, I ordered a small amount of the Marco shelf rock for my 25, and was disappointed with it. For one thing, it really wasn't flat, not like what you have in your tank. I ended up not using it.

 

[edsbeaker]

Thank you for the reply! Your scape looks amazing! Unfortunately, I ordered a small amount of the Marco shelf rock for my 25, and was disappointed with it. For one thing, it really wasn't flat, not like what you have in your tank. I ended up not using it.

That’s too bad. That tank was an old one set up in 2019, so I wonder if it just doesn’t come in the nicer rocks anymore. I really liked how each rock had layers and textures.

 

[BeanAnimal]

 

[X-37B]

I used to do the great rock wall of the 90's, lol, and loved it
I use live rock so scaping can be a challenge as is maintenance when you are close to 70, lol.
On my ext 170 I have all the rock placed together on the bottom.
This way when it grows in I can remove single rocks if needed.
In 2 years you won't see much rock as it will be covered in corals.
On my 15" nano cube I tried to place the rock to allow as many corals as possible.
Here is the 15.

 

[X-37B]

We keep this up and we as people will destroy the planet. Sad

 

[Marco_99]

We keep this up and we as people will destroy the planet. Sad

Are we really destroying the planet?? or feeding the starving birds and giving the fish fresh new structure? :grinning-face-with-sweat:

 

[X-37B]

Are we really destroying the planet?? or feeding the starving birds and giving the fish fresh new structure? :grinning-face-with-sweat:

If you have to ask that, even if your joking, it's not funny.
Birds aren't starving and fish don't use human garbage as structure.

 

[skey44]

I just spent a lot time stacking until I got what I wanted. I also have added rock and even have some possible future changes in mind. I love the openness and perspective (it’s a gentle slope with corals still visible from front view) of the left side of the scape. The right side is very dramatic and closed I feel like. I like the left side better than the right. May make more changes over time. I have graduated a lot of my LPS to the sand bed at this point! It’s getting crowded already.

Late Aug 2024

November 2024

Yesterday May 2025

 

[Marco_99]

If you have to ask that, even if your joking, it's not funny.
Birds aren't starving and fish don't use human garbage as structure.

There are literally reef tanks on this site with busted up beer bottles sitting in the bottom of them. We sink ships off the coasts for fish and habitat. There is so much life attached the great ocean landfill that they refuse to clean it all up. We use man-made stuff to rebuild reefs which is just controlled garbage. Like it or not it’s a cycle of life. Do I agree with it? no. Was it funny? yes :expressionless-face:

 

[PPBlimpy]

I stack rock like a cave man. I still shoot for 1-1.5 lbs of rock / gallon of DT. Its hard to do fancy aquascaping with that much rock. stil build in caves and nooks, use branch where i can but a wall is my go too

 

[littlefoxx]

There have been a lot of rock-related questions recently, so why not add to the question pool. I want to know how did you plan for the aquascape you are currently using and how did you put it in your tank. Did you use rods to help keep your aquscape stable or did you just plop the rock into the tank and hope for the best ( I might have done this option). Let's hear from everyone! Photo Credit: @HawkeyeDJ

Easy for me! I planned it around what would make my eels the happiest!

 

[edsbeaker]

Easy for me! I planned it around what would make my eels the happiest!

IMO, That’s the correct way to build an aquascape, The needs of the occupants should come first.

 

[BeanAnimal]

In all seriousness -- My first equascape was basically a reef ledge. I didn't know better. There was no easy place to put coral and there was no easy way to do maintenance and plenty of places for stuff to fall and get stuck -- forever.

The photo below is after trying to make it a bit less of a reef ledge, but it was still very vertical.

Dad and Maximus -- early 2000's

I have since removed more of the rock, but it is hard, given that some of it is large and I just hate breaking coral and disturbing things. Doing so only seems to cause the unwanted mushrooms to spread faster.

 

[exnisstech]

I've scaped maybe 8 tanks and have never been happy with the results so I settle with what I end up with. Normally I lay out cardboard the same size as the tank footprint and build on that. My early tanks were just rocks piled against the wall but didn't look too bad. So much changes when coral and other stuff starts to grow. I have trouble envisioning the end result . This was a stack of rocks.

This was my first scape that wasn't a pile of rocks. I used e-marco cement. Its not looking too bad now that coral are growing. Fish are usually my first consideration when I build a scape and I was successful with that I think. I have two tangs in a 36x22x22" with zero aggression (not a recommendation). They have many swim throughs and hiding places and spend the entire day swimming peacefully through the rocks with no pacing, glass surfing etc.

This is my second that I cemented together. Again for the fish. I set this tank up so the tangs didn't have to swim back and forth past each other like the old tank where the rocks were piled against the back wall. This scape is open so they can swim all the away around it. The larger fish use the open area swim room a lot. I'm a firm believer that scape structure can really help reduce aggression between fish.

This is my most recent tank start. Its version 4 of the rock scape in this tank :zany-face: I'm scaping it in the filled tank and just stacking rock. I'm using live rock in wet storage so I can swap it out without upsetting the cycle. My plan is only a single fish, a sixline. It's a 20g long and probably too small for the fish but I'm hoping being the only fish in it will do well. I have a larger tank to move it to if it doesn't work out. I like to keep a sixline for pest control. I have one in each tank above with zero aggression. I want clams as the center pieces so the scape is to hopefully accommodate them and some SPS. I have two little croceas on the center rock and plan a derasa on the sand front and center and probably a maxima at some point. I'm waiting to see how the crocea do before adding more. Other inhabitants are hermits, nassarius snails and two shrimp, a peppermint (need my aiptasia killer) and a blood red fire shrimp.

Apologies for the long winded post.