I went for the big pile of rocks. Lots of places to mount corals, tons of caves for the fish (very important since I stock so heavily). Also allows for more rock for more biofiltration. Roughly 120 lbs of pukani in a 75 gallon.
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Reef Fish live in and around corals in there natural environment, this sounds like the most perfect habitat to meI did a bonsai style for my home tank and I've not really been happy with it for the year and a half the system has been up. Def needs some caves but the problem with that is that it kills flow for some corals. On the other hand, because I have no caves the 40+ fish I have in there live under the corals/ around the corals/ in between the corals lol. There's no winning
I have an NSA aquascape myself but calling it natural is a bit of a stretch. Those coral covered rocks are just that. Not a reef. Just my 2 cents, looks great but far from naturalThis thread needs some eye candy.
Big fan of open. Seem to me to be super compelling. Think about why your eyes are drawn to and linger where they do in images like these... And I would argue that these are pretty natural looking scapes - see images in second part of natural isolated bommies. I have 5lbs or man-made rock in my IM25 and it works flawlessly. Time to start letting go of some of the old ways, yes.
IMO, these mimic highly compelling images of natural reefs like these...
I agree but I think NSA that commit to matching a more natural looking scale are few and far between. Too many different corals it looks like a skittles packet. Not that I think that's bad but to say it's inspired by a real reef is a reach. That dirty gritty messy look with lots of brown and huge dominance of one type of coral over another. It is hard to do and usually not as rewarding to most people so it is not sought after.Huh...
Calling NSA unnatural is quite a stretch. It's all about scale and vision.
If one were really after a "natural" tank that single colony in the middle with some damsels or anthias would more than fill even large hobbyist tanks alone.I have to say, I have spent hundreds of hours diving on coral reefs and have never seen a "minimalist" reef. To me a beautiful reef tank is one that is aquascaped to met the needs of the inhabitants. A minimalist scaped aquarium with lots of fish is not a natural environment and to my eye looks stressful to the inhabitants.
I have always liked Centropyge angels. In the wild, if you are lucky to see one, they rarely stray from their territory of hiding places. If I have a Centropyge in a tank I don't expect to see it but for fleeting glances. They should be in and out of coral hiding spots constantly picking. They can't do that in a minimalist scape. Even large angels like a cave. Tangs need lots of swimming area but they also need a large surface area to graze. I have had fat and happy Mandarins that show up just in the evenings as they often do in the wild.
A beautiful healthy coral REEF tank should be just that, a thriving reef. That in its self is a work of art. If you want a piece of decorative art in your living room get a piece of sculpture .
I agree with this. And I will further add that if natural was a key concern, then NSA might be even more 'natural' in terms of the scale of our tanks - zoom in on the base of the reef. It's a mangled tangle of branches, caverns and caves. But even more to the point, reefs are not collections of small, highly diverse coral species all laid out next to each other - they are often monocultures.If one were really after a "natural" tank that single colony in the middle with some damsels or anthias would more than fill even large hobbyist tanks alone.