So I HATE my aquascape

[mpatient]

I have a 32 gallon BioCube set up for about 6 months. Have upgraded the return to a MJ1200, added 2 Koralia Powerheads, upgraded lighting to Steve's Led (YES!), Intank refugium and media basket. Have the crappy Coral Life protein skimmer, but it is the only one that fits, and does ok. Tons of money in upgrades, but I realized I HATE my aquascape! I have about 32 pounds of BRS reef saver rock that I cycled with the tank. I think I have turned into a minimalist because I feel like it is one big lump in the middle of my cube. The rocks themselves are ok, but I want to reduce the foot print and have more shelves and branching rock. I want to remove some of the bulky rocks to and go with possibly two columns or something branching. All my frags are doing well, but the rocks are not secure and fear the whole thing will be coming. down. Did I mention I HATE my aquascape?

Now that my whining is done. How do I go about changing the aquascape without totally disrupting everything and starting a new cycle? I have bunch of really nice frags (softies, LPS, SPS), a thriving maxima clam, royal urchin. two clown's, two yellow headed jawfish, and a lawnmower blenny who is somewhat of a butthead.

Economically I would get some reef saver shelf pieces and branches, but how do I secure remove, the current rock, and secure the new rock, and put it all back in without flipping out the tank. Also what are the best methods for securing rock? Zip ties, epoxy and super glue does not cut it.

Any ideas for aquascapesdesign are welcome because apparently I suck at it.

 

[NY_Caveman]

I have a 32 gallon BioCube set up for about 6 months. Have upgraded the return to a MJ1200, added 2 Koralia Powerheads, upgraded lighting to Steve's Led (YES!), Intank refugium and media basket. Have the crappy Coral Life protein skimmer, but it is the only one that fits, and does ok. Tons of money in upgrades, but I realized I HATE my aquascape! I have about 32 pounds of BRS reef saver rock that I cycled with the tank. I think I have turned into a minimalist because I feel like it is one big lump in the middle of my cube. The rocks themselves are ok, but I want to reduce the foot print and have more shelves and branching rock. I want to remove some of the bulky rocks to and go with possibly two columns or something branching. All my frags are doing well, but the rocks are not secure and fear the whole thing will be coming. down. Did I mention I HATE my aquascape?

Now that my whining is done. How do I go about changing the aquascape without totally disrupting everything and starting a new cycle? I have bunch of really nice frags (softies, LPS, SPS), a thriving maxima clam, royal urchin. two clown's, two yellow headed jawfish, and a lawnmower blenny who is somewhat of a butthead.

Economically I would get some reef saver shelf pieces and branches, but how do I secure remove, the current rock, and secure the new rock, and put it all back in without flipping out the tank. Also what are the best methods for securing rock? Zip ties, epoxy and super glue does not cut it.

Any ideas for aquascapesdesign are welcome because apparently I suck at it.

Post a picture of the current aquascape. Perhaps it will inspire us.

Generally I like to keep an aquascape about 2/3 the height of the water line. I avoid long horizontal or vertical lines and try to highlight the pieces with interesting shapes.

 

[SPR1968]

Let’s have some pictures and we will judge it for you and offer advice! Lol

It’s probably not as bad as you think

The following may give you some ideas and also search modern reef aquascapes

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/brand-new-aquascape-forum.386276/

And welcome to R2R as well!

 

[mpatient]

Here you go! The Big Lump.

 

[Waters]

I think your issue is the smaller footprint with a bunch of big rocks. You could break up the rock, using smaller pieces which would you could then cement into any formation you want.

 

[Fin]

I try to scale the size of the rock I use to the tank size. Smaller tank, smaller pieces of rock. For instance, this was my starting aquascape for my nano, a 15 gallon DIY tank. It is 24" long and 12" front to back and 12" in height. There are a lot of different shapes and sizes of rock, but it could easily be mistaken for a larger tank in photos. Maybe get some smaller pieces of rock with interesting shapes and start trying different combinations, until you find something that you like.

 

[mpatient]

You are right. I m going to break up the bigger rocks and start over. Couple of questions. In your experience, what is the best way to secure these rocks to each other? Also, if I add dry bass rock to my establish rock, will it cause issues in my tank? How long can the live rock be out of the tank?

 

[Katrina71]

Just work quickly. You can add new rock, you might see a little bit of uglies on the new rock. I personally only add one at a time, about a month apart. Just me.

 

[Rjukan]

Idk, I like The Big Lump.

I know what it's like to hate your aquascape though, and have thought of redoing mine as well. Your tank is small enough that it's not too hard to change things around, so if it really bothers you then go for it. Fin has some very good advice, scaling the rock for the tank is a big deal. And I agree with Katrina about adding only one new rock at a time. Good luck!

 

[BirdGuy21]

I'm currently setting up my first aquascape right now, but for what it's worth I think yours fits that size tank. Something I am doing to try and make mine more stable is drilling holes in the rock and connecting pieces with fiberglass rods.

 

[davocean]

I'm not sure if you need to break rock so much as maybe even just pull some out, open it up some, make a swim through spot or cave, ledge.
Throw some of that rock in your sump.

 

[Matt Carden]

I'm not sure if you need to break rock so much as maybe even just pull some out, open it up some, make a swim through spot or cave, ledge.
Throw some of that rock in your sump.

This is what I did. I had 150# in my 150. I recently removed about half of the rock and put in my sump. As @Fin suggested I removed all of the smaller rock and left 12 large rocks only in my aquascape.

 

[mpatient]

Here is my plan for this weekend:
Got 5lbs of Stax rock and a few Reef Saver shelf rocks coming in. Coming off a GHA outbreak (all parameters in check, and the stuff is dying off), so I am going to pull the rock, and siphon out about 20%. With the dirty water, I am going to add H2O2 and let that soak the rock for a few minutes and scrub off the rest of that nastiness. Going see what rocks are staying and which are going. Don't have a sump, so smaller ones may go into my copepod tank or in my pico at the office to keep my ****** purple spot mantis shrimp company. If I permanently pull the larger pieces, I will clean them off, dry out, and save for that much bigger tank I am already planning in my head, but can't afford.

Got a couple of really big pieces in there, so those will be probably be at list split. I find the Reef Saver is a bear to drill or cut (unlike Pukani), so will mostly work with what I have. I do like shelves/steps and cave, and will incorporate the new stuff to achieve that but the goal is to have a much smaller footprint, making it easier to clean and, and not look like Jabba the Hut sitting in the middle of my tank. Going to use Water Weld and Loctite gel to stabilize the main pieces, and leave the smaller ones just stacked. I just need to keep thinking that less is more because I have enough frags in there of all types that it will fill the tank up pretty quickly. Placement of my corals is the next thing I fret over. I am OCD, and it is so hard for me to not keep moving things around.

Here is my frag list:

Red Monticap
Blue Monticap
Green Monticap
Red War Coral
Duncan (2 heads)
Toadstool Leather
Devils Hand Leather (med size)
Neon green finger leather
3 misc zoa frags on plugs
5 head branching hammer (gorgeous)
two heads (soon to be 4) candy canes
green favia
1 mystery green branching Acropora
1 head Blasto
1 random orange rock anemone that showed up from somewhere
Ultra Blue Maxim clam ( 4 inches and his name is Fredrick)
Grade 1 black/blue maxim clam who is insanely jealous of Fredrick (2.5 inches)


Just want to make sure I aquascape to accommodate these guys.

Will share pics whenever I am done.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Here is my plan for this weekend:
Got 5lbs of Stax rock and a few Reef Saver shelf rocks coming in. Coming off a GHA outbreak (all parameters in check, and the stuff is dying off), so I am going to pull the rock, and siphon out about 20%. With the dirty water, I am going to add H2O2 and let that soak the rock for a few minutes and scrub off the rest of that nastiness. Going see what rocks are staying and which are going. Don't have a sump, so smaller ones may go into my copepod tank or in my pico at the office to keep my ****** purple spot mantis shrimp company. If I permanently pull the larger pieces, I will clean them off, dry out, and save for that much bigger tank I am already planning in my head, but can't afford.

Got a couple of really big pieces in there, so those will be probably be at list split. I find the Reef Saver is a bear to drill or cut (unlike Pukani), so will mostly work with what I have. I do like shelves/steps and cave, and will incorporate the new stuff to achieve that but the goal is to have a much smaller footprint, making it easier to clean and, and not look like Jabba the Hut sitting in the middle of my tank. Going to use Water Weld and Loctite gel to stabilize the main pieces, and leave the smaller ones just stacked. I just need to keep thinking that less is more because I have enough frags in there of all types that it will fill the tank up pretty quickly. Placement of my corals is the next thing I fret over. I am OCD, and it is so hard for me to not keep moving things around.

Here is my frag list:

Red Monticap
Blue Monticap
Green Monticap
Red War Coral
Duncan (2 heads)
Toadstool Leather
Devils Hand Leather (med size)
Neon green finger leather
3 misc zoa frags on plugs
5 head branching hammer (gorgeous)
two heads (soon to be 4) candy canes
green favia
1 mystery green branching Acropora
1 head Blasto
1 random orange rock anemone that showed up from somewhere
Ultra Blue Maxim clam ( 4 inches and his name is Fredrick)
Grade 1 black/blue maxim clam who is insanely jealous of Fredrick (2.5 inches)


Just want to make sure I aquascape to accommodate these guys.

Will share pics whenever I am done.

I think you have a good plan. Just be sure not to lose too much of the established rock. That said, your bioload does not appear too large, so I think you could minimize for sure.