Thoughts on my aquascape?

[Tinklez]

Hey all,

What are your thoughts on this Aquascape? This is first reef tank, I would love your advice and input. I haven’t glued or placed cement on these pieces yet. This is going to go into a 50 gallon innovative, marine all in one aquarium.

Max height of this Aquascape is about 9 inches. My aquarium is about 15 inches tall.

Plan to do a complete mixed reef. Don’t really have a specific plan in mind, but I want to keep my options open for all types of corals including SPS if I want sticks down the road. Lots of fish will be added too.

I have a lot of extra rock as you can see outside of the cardboard. The cardboard with the black lines is about the tracing of where my aquarium would be. Please let me know your thoughts!

 

[ReefGeezer]

Look nice. You might move the sides in just a little to leave room to clean the glass. I regret not doing that when I did my aquascape.

 

[Tinklez]

That’s a good point. How many inches on the side do you think would be good?

Also, I’m not sure if this will be a total of 50 pounds of rock (1 pound per gallon)….is that a big deal?

 

[Tinklez]

Do you think I should make it taller?

 

[ReefGeezer]

Looks like plenty of rock. You might move the rock back maybe 3" from the sides. If you have a sump, put the excess rock in it.

 

[Tinklez]

Will do!

Do you think 9inches is tall enough? I think at first I’ll add some zoas on the side right rock for a garden, eventually add some torches, some LPS. Then maybe some SPS at the top areas??

 

[Tinklez]

No sump, it’s an AIO :(

 

[Tinklez]

Do you think there’s too many rocks on the sand which would be harder to clean?

 

[ReefGeezer]

Will do!

Do you think 9inches is tall enough? I think at first I’ll add some zoas on the side right rock for a garden, eventually add some torches, some LPS. Then maybe some SPS at the top areas??

I made mine about 2/3 the height of the tank, then later added more height toward the back. I think if I had to do it again, I'd make it lower overall. Check out my build thread to see the good and bad of my aquascaping.

Also, if you are going to have flow for SPS, don't use sand. Bare bottom is great. You can cover it with Coralline, Zoanthids and encrusting LPS and have all the flow you want.