Why is reef aquascaping so unexplored when compared to freshwater?

[NY_Caveman]

LOL, let us not all go a burning our precious corals though.

 

[MiamiAG]

This is a good example of iwagumi. I wonder how this would look without the carpeting plants. But this is not impossible to do within a reef tank even without the carpeting plants.

Appreciate you linking my picture. It's nice to see it pop up where you don't expect.

I think there is a fundamental difference between the two, FW and SW, when it comes to aquascaping. In FW, things grow much quicker and a show-caliber aquascape can be created in a matter of months. This will not happen in a SW aquarium. Therefore, annual competitions will never happen with SW because of the long time for an SW aquascape to mature, let alone the cost involved.

On the flip side, FW will never have the availability of color that SW has. It also has a tiny fraction of the number of aquarists compared to SW.

That being said, I think that there is no reason why aquascaping principles should not be used more than they are today in the SW hobby. In fact, to me, aquascaping is not about competitions nor the constant changing of one's aquarium. To me, true aquascaping requires some permanence and long-term viability. It is thinking about aquascaping in your aquarium and cultivating over a long period to its maturity. Done well, I think an outstanding SW aquascape can be just as beautiful as a FW aquascape.

 

[MiamiAG]

What makes me angry is that none of those freaking incredible artists from the freshwater aquascapes contests wants to have anything to do with saltwater.

To me, this is a little like asking a painter to become a sculptor. It happens but rarely. They are two different mediums.

 

[MiamiAG]

So, what I've noticed, is that with freshwater aquaecapes the goal is to almost mimic a picturesque fantasy landscape; this is done through complex scapes filled with plants, typically of which have small blades or leaves. As such, everything is "small" and it gives the perception of peering into a much larger area.

With reefs, none of our corals really look "small" enough to make that work. In the planted macroalgae tanks above, the illusion wasn't there; it still looked like tuffs of algae tied to sticks, because the algae lacks the texture and size differentiation to mimic a larger structure on a smaller scale; instead, it just looks small. That's why reef aquaecapes struggle, because nothing really looks "small," rather, it just looks like small portions of something large. This applies to virtually all macros and corals I'm aware of. The illusion can only be created in a massive tank where our corals can truly grow to sizes that actually look proportionally large.

IMO, you are correct. Lack of proportion and scale are probably what is most missing from SW aquascapes. It is certainly easier to trim plants than to cut coral. However, this doesn't mean that using different sized coral is impossible. The same is true with choosing live rock to accomplish this as well.

 

[fish farmer]

Here's a more updated shot of my reef pictured several pages back. The massive nepthia which was on the right near the monti frag, has been chopped and placed underneath the hammer. All three colonies have been chopped again since this pic was taken. The one in the center seems to grow the best, even after complete topping. I was hoping that they would bush more and skirt the lower rockwork. Currently the hammer has been taking center stage and is successfully stinging the tops of the nepthias. I'm planning another drastic prune to see if I can get all three nepthias to grow out the same.


I've added a different hammer to the left of the current hammer, I do have a small frag of the same hammer there as well. I still want the upper rockwork to have multiple hammers "connected" together. This may take a few months to actually look decent.

I'm tempted to designate the upper right to a torch or sps if I can pull it off, or just let the nepthia remnants grown back.

 

[sp1187]

update
15AUG18

11NOV18

 

[Swingline77]

Saltwater doesn't have to mean "reef". The elements of freshwater aquascapes are:
smaller fish
plants
rocks, often dark in color
small substrate (sand, gravel, etc.)
empty space filled only with water
Misc. (small snails, etc.)

Assuming that there is no coral, the big differences between salt and fresh seem to be dark rocks in fresh, and plantscaping. I'm trying to think of what the essential visual elements are between fresh and saltwater ecosystems. Just writing a stream of consciousness, it seems that a greater percentage of freshwater environments are substrate-oriented than are saltwater environments. Open water habitats are ignored, of course.

I'd guess that slate and driftwood could be used in a FOWLR tank, and some smaller macro algae, such as some sort of Bangia or Bladderwort could be used, though I don't know.

I think that a possible advantage of a freshwater system is the type of plants used. I think most sea plants are algae, not true plants. True plants in freshwater environments look like land plants, and there are similarities in form over different scales. An aquatic freshwater plant of a foot in height could be found that would vaguely resemble a tree. Therefore, freshwater aquascapes can be created that resemble much larger landscapes.

Something based on eelgrass and sand might work out. I could see myself doing this some day, actually.

I don't think that there's any deficiency with saltwater tanks compared to freshwater. Reef tanks look great. I don't see saltwater aquascapes as being deficient relative to freshwater.

 

[ShrimpDemolisher]

I don't know if everybody's still following this thread, but I agree. Freshwater planted scapes, I mean most of them, will always look better than reef. I hate to say that, but it is true. There are times when I looked at planted tanks, I kept wondering why I chose saltwater in the first place. I know SW will always have much more variety when it comes to biodiversity, but the scapes that FW brings cannot be beat. There are some reef scapes that look amazing though, but they are rare.

 

[Zan's Aquatica]

Yes! I am always searching for reef aquascapes, and you're right, nonexistent. Possibly because much of our look comes from the corals whereas with freshwater the rock and plants create much of the look... so unless you're going to restrict your reef to coral/fish coming from a particular region, it will be difficult to create an aquascape that resembles that?

I tried my best with doing something interesting with my brand new 15 gallon 2 days ago..

 

[Zan's Aquatica]

And here is a little sketch of my possible 10 gallon fresh

 

[Magellan]

I don't know if everybody's still following this thread, but I agree. Freshwater planted scapes, I mean most of them, will always look better than reef. I hate to say that, but it is true. There are times when I looked at planted tanks, I kept wondering why I chose saltwater in the first place. I know SW will always have much more variety when it comes to biodiversity, but the scapes that FW brings cannot be beat. There are some reef scapes that look amazing though, but they are rare.

They can both be amazing in their own way. I have both, why choose just one...

 

[Subnautica]

They can both be amazing in their own way. I have both, why choose just one...

I can say the planted tank looks much better!

 

[Magellan]

I can say the planted tank looks much better!

The freshwater was just so much easier to set up, and so much easier to maintain..I guess I just appreciate my reef more.

 

[Stigigemla]

It is very easy to answer wy.
Most reef aquarists collect a lot of different frags out of interest. There are very few that let them grow up to a decent size and take away those that doesnt fit in 100%.
An old tumb rule for planted show aquarium is one type of plant per decimeter length. (3 per foot)
That would mean about 12 different corals in a 4 feet tank. More than that will split Your mind when You are looking at the tank.
And if You like the Amano style of planted aquariums. How fun would a tank with only a rockscape and green star polyps be. Totally accepted style in the fresh water scene but having a reef tank for that?
But seriously: Isnt it more fun with more corals? Maybe not so beautiful for the onetime visitor but more to look at and discuss with fellow reefers. Do You have the tank for fun or for visitors?

 

[Subnautica]

I agree. Out of 100 planted FW tanks I think about 80% of them look good to great, while in those 100 reefs, only ~30 have beautiful scapes. Here's some examples. They are members' tanks pictures that I saved in my phones for reference.

 

[Ardeus]

There are a few almost universal aesthetic guidelines that are almost always used by master freshwater aquascapers and almost never applied in reef tanks: creating depth, perspective, layering, light/shadow, end point, focal point.

Just the mastering of depth alone has a drastic effect on how you perceive a tank.

I studdied it for a while and I made very minor changes to my tank and they had a great effect.

 

[reefwiser]

There is a lot that goes into a freshwater planted tank if you want to do it right. It’s effort to trim to keep the plants the right. Size. To me it is like Bonsai. Saltwater tanks have been set up by people saying oh that corals color are cool looking I will take it.
I pull my Amano books and make a list on what plants to use foreground , mid-ground and background. Only then do I purchase and put the plants in the tank. Then I have to trim and maintain the heights of the plants over the months ahead.

 

[fish farmer]

Here's a yearly update of my tank. My hammer went though some issues this past year. It lost a few heads and I tried a frag of it in the center island hoping it could slow mushroom advancement. They won.

I gave up on trying to skirt nephia around the lower half of the left side. They didn't receive a lot of light there and looked terrible after trimming. From this shot I had partially trimmed the one nepthia on the left. I've recently completely topped it.

The nepthia in the upper right has completely grown back in a year. i have yet to trim it again.

I've added a couple of T5's to this tank so I may be able to place corals in spot they weren't working before.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Gone true the thread and I believe something important was left out, a planted saltwater tank with the right species of macro algae’s would win a freshwater planted tank any day. The reason we can’t have them is by lack of decent macro algae’s to accomplish the task.
most macro algae’s got stunning colours and let’s not forget they also iridescent, meaning that at night under blues they will glow. There is not enough interest in the hobby to make this happen and not enough incentives.

look at the link





this were failed attempts to recreate freshwater landscapes obviously am no artist , but I truly believe that there is potential on the right hands.


that said this last link looks stunning, if they had planted some halophila at the sand bed it could be an amazing scape.

 

[jefra]

I think an impressive aquascape is all freshwater has so a lot more effort goes into it. For reef tanks even a boring aquascape could look stunning if it has some impressive coral colonies on top.

As others have said, we're limited on structure choices as well. Even more so in recent years with all live rock choices gone (other than Florida) as well as Pukani dry rock due to export bans.