What do you think of my first dry scape?

SC017

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Images below of my first attempt at dryscaping with DD Aquatics rock. Interested in opinions/criticisms.

Middle structure is hollow and meant to be a cave. (Pandering to the Marine Betta/Comet I want to keep)
Other 2 rocks for "isolated" colonies if/when we get corals (Mother intrigued by Zoas and Xenias.)

Planning to add sand, was originally looking at Red Sea Reef Base pink, but now inching more towards Caribsea Ocean direct sand.

Please excuse the post moving house not yet unpacked stuff, lol.
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Looks good, but before the sand, have you looked into negative space aquascaping? Basically you would break up some of your large chunky rocks and glue it back together to build a more spread out open type of structure. If done right, it looks incredible in my opinion. I think you get the most out of your rock, and there are other benefites such as increased flow through the rock. Might be happier with it down the road.
 

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Images below of my first attempt at dryscaping with DD Aquatics rock. Interested in opinions/criticisms.

Middle structure is hollow and meant to be a cave. (Pandering to the Marine Betta/Comet I want to keep)
Other 2 rocks for "isolated" colonies if/when we get corals (Mother intrigued by Zoas and Xenias.)

Planning to add sand, was originally looking at Red Sea Reef Base pink, but now inching more towards Caribsea Ocean direct sand.

Please excuse the post moving house not yet unpacked stuff, lol.
IMG_20210927_160810.jpg
IMG_20210927_160256.jpg
IMG_20210927_151606.jpg
IMG_20210927_151829.jpg
IMG_20210927_152226.jpg
IMG_20210927_160514.jpg

Glad you told me there was supposed to be a cave because in above pictures unable to determine there is cave large enough to house adult marine betta (fish will be over 6" and should have room to maneuver.

Not sure how involved you want to get in dry aquascaping, but acrylic posts/pegs can be drilled into rock for support. I used E-Marco-400 pink aquascape mortar kit to secure pegs. I'm soon ordering more to do a tripod like cave, breaking up rock then re-mortaring and pegging back together. Feel the fish really enjoy swimming thru structures and it will give better water flow thru structure helping overall tank
 

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I like the look you have going. There is a craze for negative aquascapes but honestly some of the nicest grown out tanks start with more basic layouts like this.

my only critique is you are to close to the glass on the center structure for a peninsula. It will be hard to clean and depending on what type of coral you plan to keep there, could end up shaded on the viewing sides.
 
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Looks good, but before the sand, have you looked into negative space aquascaping?
The scape only reaches up to half the water column, how much "less" space can you take up?
I was hoping on using live rock as my main source of filtration (due to complete lack of sump)
 
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Glad you told me there was supposed to be a cave because in above pictures unable to determine there is cave large enough to house adult marine betta (fish will be over 6" and should have room to maneuver.

Not sure how involved you want to get in dry aquascaping, but acrylic posts/pegs can be drilled into rock for support. I used E-Marco-400 pink aquascape mortar kit to secure pegs. I'm soon ordering more to do a tripod like cave, breaking up rock then re-mortaring and pegging back together. Feel the fish really enjoy swimming thru structures and it will give better water flow thru structure helping overall tank
The cave is mostly certainly not big enough and I think I've drastically underestimated the size it'll take up, the "cave" is more of a 6" deep by 3" wide hole made by loosely sticking rocks ontop of eachother til I had a structure that felt stable.

I don't really have much more in the way of immediately available rock, I'm not sure if the rock I have would work for a comet suitable cave and I don't feel confident in attempting to break it apart or anything like that to make one to be honest.

Actually bringing an 8" tape measure to the tank makes me wonder how you'd even comfortably fit one in the tank now.
Which astounds me that I read a thread earlier of someone who had 3 breeding in a 40gallon tank, 80% of my tanks volume. Although its all a bit hypothetical as I'm not sure where to pick one up yet here in the UK.
 

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I like the look you have going. There is a craze for negative aquascapes but honestly some of the nicest grown out tanks start with more basic layouts like this.

my only critique is you are to close to the glass on the center structure for a peninsula. It will be hard to clean and depending on what type of coral you plan to keep there, could end up shaded on the viewing sides.
I'm not crazy about negative aquascapes, but I am not a fan of wall of rocks. I think there is a happy medium somewhere that will flow, but still have enough rocks to allow for caves, overhangs... enough for the fish to feel secure.

I like to aquascape with nice size rocks unlike the typical long skinny pieces in negative aqua30scaping. However, the area that comes in contact with the sand is very minimal. My current setup for my 30x30 aquarium has two pieces of rockwork with a footprint of 4 sq ft. The area of the rock actually in contact with the sand is maybe 1 sq ft. There is plenty of overhang, caves and even shelter for the smaller fishes against larger dominant fish.
 

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Glad you told me there was supposed to be a cave because in above pictures unable to determine there is cave large enough to house adult marine betta (fish will be over 6" and should have room to maneuver.

Not sure how involved you want to get in dry aquascaping, but acrylic posts/pegs can be drilled into rock for support. I used E-Marco-400 pink aquascape mortar kit to secure pegs. I'm soon ordering more to do a tripod like cave, breaking up rock then re-mortaring and pegging back together. Feel the fish really enjoy swimming thru structures and it will give better water flow thru structure helping overall tank
I think acrylic rods are good back in the day. New stuff used today is superglue. The joints are stronger than the rock itself. Stable in 30 seconds and rock hard in 3 minutes. I can attach two pieces of rock size of a volley ball where the adhering joint is a mere 1" in diameter. This can make for some crazy designs.
 

MnFish1

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The scape only reaches up to half the water column, how much "less" space can you take up?
I was hoping on using live rock as my main source of filtration (due to complete lack of sump)
You asked - for opinion - I don't particularly care for it. I'm not sure the 'cave' is big enough, and may have poor flow - but maybe I'm not seeing the entrance?.

Otherwise it seems too uniform to my liking. I would suggest more vertical but maybe you're adding coral? which will grow up higher in the tank? Otherwise - as others have said - I would leave a fair bit more room between the rock and the sides of the tank.

When you said you were using live rock for filtration - did you mean you were adding more rock on top of what you have now? If so - you can partly disregard some of what I said.

One more thing - the cave - unless its somehow attached together - if you bump it and it falls etc - you will regret it.

Good luck on the tank though - and hope it works well
 
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You asked - for opinion - I don't particularly care for it. I'm not sure the 'cave' is big enough, and may have poor flow - but maybe I'm not seeing the entrance?.

Otherwise it seems too uniform to my liking. I would suggest more vertical but maybe you're adding coral? which will grow up higher in the tank? Otherwise - as others have said - I would leave a fair bit more room between the rock and the sides of the tank.
I did ask for opinion, thanks for your input.

I agree that the cave doest seem nearly big enough for the specific fish I was thinking of. The goal was to have some corals in the tank and so I tried to factor that in and I think that'll it seem less uniform if I'm successful at that.
What parts specifically seem "too close to the sides of the tank", and what makes this a problem? Similiar to what Smite has mentioned above?
 

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I agree there are several places too close to the sides of the tank. You want at least 1" of space around the perimeter, 1.5" is better. Your mag scraper needs to pass along the entire interior without bumping anything.
 

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I did ask for opinion, thanks for your input.

I agree that the cave doest seem nearly big enough for the specific fish I was thinking of. The goal was to have some corals in the tank and so I tried to factor that in and I think that'll it seem less uniform if I'm successful at that.
What parts specifically seem "too close to the sides of the tank", and what makes this a problem? Similiar to what Smite has mentioned above?
The latest I've seen from the experts is to Aquascape about 1/3 -2/3 up in various areas - to allow coral growth. So - the height to me seems great. I am just saying varying is a bit instead of having 3 blobs (No offense) - vary them.

If you look at your pictures - if you moved some of the rock even 1/2 inch away - it would allow a magnetic scraper. But - to test it - picture putting your hand into the tank - and grabbing a dead fish. Mine was like yours - and I ended up in the emergency room - with a bad infection.
Make sure you have room - assuming coral growth (as you are) such that you have room to get your hands and at least a magnetic algae cleaner in the tank. JMHO. I apologize - I didnt mean to sound like your Aquascape was bad. :)
 

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The latest I've seen from the experts is to Aquascape about 1/3 -2/3 up in various areas - to allow coral growth. So - the height to me seems great. I am just saying varying is a bit instead of having 3 blobs (No offense) - vary them.

If you look at your pictures - if you moved some of the rock even 1/2 inch away - it would allow a magnetic scraper. But - to test it - picture putting your hand into the tank - and grabbing a dead fish. Mine was like yours - and I ended up in the emergency room - with a bad infection.
Make sure you have room - assuming coral growth (as you are) such that you have room to get your hands and at least a magnetic algae cleaner in the tank. JMHO. I apologize - I didnt mean to sound like your Aquascape was bad. :)
Since this is more of a peninsula type aquarium, space between the rocks and glass is a must. My first reef I was so greedy to use all the live rock I left no room for the magnet. So the side glass had blobs of hairy green algae then coraline algae. It looked bad. On top of that, had a rock that fell down and scratched the glass because it was too close.
 

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The scape only reaches up to half the water column, how much "less" space can you take up?
I was hoping on using live rock as my main source of filtration (due to complete lack of sump)
You could use the same amount of rock, increase the height of your scape(if you wanted to), and even increase the surface of the rock. But to each their own. Personally I like kind of a mix between the two as well. Some chunky, some thin, more variation looks more better, provides more options.
 

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I'm just speaking from my previous experiences. When you go that close the the glass it's just a pain to clean and is not going to have a nice open flowing natural feel. If you have certain "goal" tanks or tanks you really love the look of pay close attention to whether they left room near the glass. Most of them do, which is why you don't even notice the glass. My current tank is a peninsula and it comes into play even more with the 2 long viewing sides. I felt I left plenty of room but under 1 year I'm already knocking coral when trying to scrape the glass.

To each their own, but just my experience to help you with your decision. I can see the two pieces that basically touch the glass are structural so I can imagine it would suck to have to redesign completely. If they were not, those are the two I would remove to open your structure up more and allow for glass clearance/return flow (assuming your pump placement will be on the rear wall flowing over the top of the rocks.
 
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To each their own, but just my experience to help you with your decision. I can see the two pieces that basically touch the glass are structural so I can imagine it would suck to have to redesign completely. If they were not, those are the two I would remove to open your structure up more and allow for glass clearance/return flow (assuming your pump placement will be on the rear wall flowing over the top of the rocks.
Thats the problem yes.
I think most of you are referring to the centre structure, in which case I don't even know how I'd adjust it to be further from the side without completely redoing it.

I don't have any glue or acrylic sticks or anything like that to join it all up to make a taller scape really.
 
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When you said you were using live rock for filtration - did you mean you were adding more rock on top of what you have now? If so - you can partly disregard some of what I said.

One more thing - the cave - unless its somehow attached together - if you bump it and it falls etc - you will regret it.

Good luck on the tank though - and hope it works well
The tank currently has no skimmer or filter attached.

I'm hoping that with a small stock level I can use powerheads/live rock alone as filtration, at least at the start.
This tank is a bedroom so HOB skimmers/filters concern me as to the noise they will produce, as well as the difficulty I've had trying to research which ones are "best" but also within budget. In this regard, starting off without gives a chance to afford.
 
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I think acrylic rods are good back in the day. New stuff used today is superglue. The joints are stronger than the rock itself. Stable in 30 seconds and rock hard in 3 minutes. I can attach two pieces of rock size of a volley ball where the adhering joint is a mere 1" in diameter. This can make for some crazy designs.
What glue do you reccomend?
 

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Gluemaster. Stuff is a miracle to work with. Definitely get the low viscosity (thin) as it seeps it way through the rock and sand easier. There are many videos on youtube using superglue to glue liverock.

You can tell its working really well as the area that is being glue heats up due to a chemical reaction between the calcium and the glue.

go the Gluemaster vendor page and there is info on how to get 10% off
 

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Gluemaster. Stuff is a miracle to work with. Definitely get the low viscosity (thin) as it seeps it way through the rock and sand easier. There are many videos on youtube using superglue to glue liverock.

You can tell its working really well as the area that is being glue heats up due to a chemical reaction between the calcium and the glue.

go the Gluemaster vendor page and there is info on how to get 10% off
I used this on my rockwork for my upcoming tank. I've used a few different products over the last few years and this one was by far the easiest. I was hesitant that maybe I had to use marco rock and ground up rocks I used a fine grade sand for the joints and it worked extremely well.


Edit: gloves are a must!
 
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