Need help with your aquascape?

[Geebs19]

Those are big rocks, If it were me I would break the 2 rocks up to make structures.

 

[Ardeus]

I think you need 2 tanks, both rocks are very interesting by themselves.

Depending on the kind of fish and corals you are planning to have there, I wouldn't scrape off the idea you showed with the 2 rocks. You still have some open space in front. If the tank will not get lots of corals that grow a lot in all directions, this layout is really amazing. It's almost like a sculpture.

 

[MexiReefer]

Thanks a lot!!! Will certainly post how it moves forward

 

[Why-Me]

Still a work in progress, I do have 80# of rock for this 24x24 50 gallon cube.

I just picked up this stuff.

 

[Why-Me]

My goal is high flow bare bottom.
Tank is 24x24x20
Will have 1/2" of Starboard on bottom
So it should be approx. 18" to 18.5" of water depth

 

[S3PANG]

Have an evo 13.5 - looking to get a bit of assistance. Initially had an overkill scape with the concept of trying to build a declining mountain type in a semi peninsula fashion (peninsula protruding from the plastic wall that separates filtration), and decided to go to in a different direction. Still feel theres room for improvement - any suggestions?

Before:

After:

 

[Crested]

Have an evo 13.5 - looking to get a bit of assistance. Initially had an overkill scape with the concept of trying to build a declining mountain type in a semi peninsula fashion (peninsula protruding from the plastic wall that separates filtration), and decided to go to in a different direction. Still feel theres room for improvement - any suggestions?

Before:

After:

I would break the pieces up a little and stack them. Big pieces look good in big tanks but with small ones like ours I think it works a lot better to scale the rocks down. Here's a pic of mine

 

[Chris’s fish]

Here’s my 16 gallon biocube. It just doesn’t look good imo. Any suggestions would be awesome in how to make it look better.

 

[S3PANG]

I would break the pieces up a little and stack them. Big pieces look good in big tanks but with small ones like ours I think it works a lot better to scale the rocks down. Here's a pic of mine

This looks really nice, what I was hoping to get to after the redesign. Will have to play with it some more, thank you!

 

[Ardeus]

Still a work in progress, I do have 80# of rock for this 24x24 50 gallon cube.

I just picked up this stuff.

The first layout looks too square. The 3 pillars can work, but you can make each of them different, it will be much more interesting.

 

[Ardeus]

Have an evo 13.5 - looking to get a bit of assistance. Initially had an overkill scape with the concept of trying to build a declining mountain type in a semi peninsula fashion (peninsula protruding from the plastic wall that separates filtration), and decided to go to in a different direction. Still feel theres room for improvement - any suggestions?

Before:

After:

Here's an idea

 

[Ardeus]

I would break the pieces up a little and stack them. Big pieces look good in big tanks but with small ones like ours I think it works a lot better to scale the rocks down. Here's a pic of mine

Love that!

 

[Ardeus]

Here’s my 16 gallon biocube. It just doesn’t look good imo. Any suggestions would be awesome in how to make it look better.

It's a lot of rock for that tank. I would try picking 3 rocks (a big one and a small one together and a medium one isolated. Since you have lots of tiny ones, you can then use a few to make it look like they have fallen from the bigger ones.

 

[Aquaman6410]

Well, I feel I can't aquascape a reef for the life of me. Here is what I have. Please any opinions welcome! I plan on a mixed reef tank mainly being LPS dominant. Tank is a IM 75 INT, dimensions are roughly 36L x 24W x 19H.

 

[Ardeus]

If it wasn't for the small rock on top of the right structure, both sides would be very similar.

That being said, when corals begin to cover the rocks, the structures will look more different.

Here are a few tips:

- The top rocks are placed horizontally. Try to place them tilted up or down.

- Create passages inside each structure. Most fish will love those small spaces and caves and it also makes watching them going around their businesses more interesting.

- Most of your rocks have similar size. I would break at least one of them in 2. It will make achieving the 1st tip much easier.

- Try to make the rocks fit into each other as seamlessly as you can.

- You also try rotating the structures in a way to prevent the tank from having a straight line of depth. Diagonal lines and bays will create more interest.

 

[KMWhit]

Rock placement thoughts? I just rearranged last night and I’m not sure...

 

[Ardeus]

There are too many horizontal and vertical lines and 90 degrees angles. This makes the layout look artificial.

I would try a different arrangement and I would consider getting some more rock.

 

[Stanzo13]

Question that could be a game changer. I understand the idea of cycling a rock prior to adding it to the tank. But .... Could you (if rock was clean) add a dry rock to a tank and simply bracket up a opaque material (like plastic) and simply prevent most light from hitting it and just leave it in DT for a couple months covered (covered only for light not to restrict much flow)

 

[sawdonkey]

Question that could be a game changer. I understand the idea of cycling a rock prior to adding it to the tank. But .... Could you (if rock was clean) add a dry rock to a tank and simply bracket up a opaque material (like plastic) and simply prevent most light from hitting it and just leave it in DT for a couple months covered (covered only for light not to restrict much flow)

Why are you concerned with light hitting your rock?

 

[JCTReefer]

Question that could be a game changer. I understand the idea of cycling a rock prior to adding it to the tank. But .... Could you (if rock was clean) add a dry rock to a tank and simply bracket up a opaque material (like plastic) and simply prevent most light from hitting it and just leave it in DT for a couple months covered (covered only for light not to restrict much flow)

I wouldn’t worry about the light. No reason to. If the rock is free from organics and is clean, I would just add it to the tank. If it’s rock like pukani, I would cook it. There’s various methods and opinions on this. Some rock is notorious for leaching phosphates from the dead material inside and out of the rock. You could always stick the rock in a bucket and let it soak a few days. Then test for any die off.
Personally, I’d probably bleach it to get rid anything on it. Soak in a bath of ro/di and bleach “unscented”... I’d do a 1:10 ratio bleach to ro/di... Then rinse and soak in ro/di with some dechlorinator like Prime... Then you could let it air dry. Then soak in ro/di again and test for any leaching of organics. I dosed lanthanum chloride to bind phosphates when curing my rock until there was no detectable po4. Did water changes when necessary. You could just keep dosing and dosing though. This was after the scrubbing, soaking/bleaching, drying process. Used a brute trash can. Straight ro/di ,, no saltwater. There’s tons of info and opinions on how to cook and cure dry rock on this forum with various time frames for the steps in doing this. The terms cooking and curing are some times used interchangeably. Kind of confusing. Cooking to me is cleaning/sterilizing the rock. Not in an oven by the way. Lol!!! When I think of curing I think of Live Rock. I’m not sure what size of rock your talking about or what size your system is. But, if you’re sure it’s clean, just toss it in there. I wouldn’t worry about light.