Queenofreef
Active Member
Interested in hearing about any lessons your current/previous aquascapes have taught you, or what you would change if you could go back in time!
I’ll start—
My 40g is my second tank and first true aquascaping attempt (pile of live rock in first build). With this scape, I grossly underestimated the room corals need and left ~3-4” of space between glass and rock. Looks great empty, but not taking into account fully grown-in coral size means I almost always knock some off and angry zoas when doing maintenance. And that sucks.
If I could go back, I would’ve paid more attention to shadowing—the left side has stayed empty because of serious shadowing from the large pillar. Wish I paid attention to that in the tank prior to committing as my coral choices are sadly quite limited there now.
Recently added rubble pieces on the top ledge and arch and it’s really made the difference with this tank. My aquascape had very flat areas, making the corals look a bit one-dimensional when placed together. Looking back, I think my initial scape was too cut-and-dry, adding little pieces of rubble here and there makes the aquascape look much more visually interesting.
With my new 220g, tried to apply those lessons and quite happy with the results. Paid a lot of attention to shadowing because wanted to give each coral “the best spot in the tank”. But this was challenging because as a newbie to large aquascaping it was hard to create height while also avoiding sharp slopes. To avoid that, focused on the transitions between heights more and made sure the slopes (?) were drawn out.
Another challenge was leaving enough room for future colonies at the top of the scape with enough space between the coral and waterline. Creating a wooden stake showing the height limit helped a LOT when building!
What are the lessons you’ve learned from your aquascapes? Hopefully I can learn some new techniques!
I’ll start—
My 40g is my second tank and first true aquascaping attempt (pile of live rock in first build). With this scape, I grossly underestimated the room corals need and left ~3-4” of space between glass and rock. Looks great empty, but not taking into account fully grown-in coral size means I almost always knock some off and angry zoas when doing maintenance. And that sucks.
If I could go back, I would’ve paid more attention to shadowing—the left side has stayed empty because of serious shadowing from the large pillar. Wish I paid attention to that in the tank prior to committing as my coral choices are sadly quite limited there now.
Recently added rubble pieces on the top ledge and arch and it’s really made the difference with this tank. My aquascape had very flat areas, making the corals look a bit one-dimensional when placed together. Looking back, I think my initial scape was too cut-and-dry, adding little pieces of rubble here and there makes the aquascape look much more visually interesting.
With my new 220g, tried to apply those lessons and quite happy with the results. Paid a lot of attention to shadowing because wanted to give each coral “the best spot in the tank”. But this was challenging because as a newbie to large aquascaping it was hard to create height while also avoiding sharp slopes. To avoid that, focused on the transitions between heights more and made sure the slopes (?) were drawn out.
Another challenge was leaving enough room for future colonies at the top of the scape with enough space between the coral and waterline. Creating a wooden stake showing the height limit helped a LOT when building!
What are the lessons you’ve learned from your aquascapes? Hopefully I can learn some new techniques!
