Yet Another Question about Live Rock............

[MizzouMark]

I aquascaped my 360 gallon aquarium with 500 lbs of live rock from TBS, GLR and KP. I spent a lot of time researching how to build a live rock aquascape. I finally decided to use two plastic kiddie pools placed on a tarp in front of the tank to build the two islands I wanted. This allowed my four adult children and me to continuously spray the rocks with saltwater while the islands were being built. I used my quarantine tanks and the sump to hold the rock while I sorted it into bottom, middle and top pieces. I had lots of five gallon buckets (from the live rock shipments) to move and hold the rocks while we were building the islands. After many iterations we had two solid islands that had the desired shape and size. The islands were carefully deconstructed, with photos and video, and the individual rocks were handed up to me in the tank for placement. I used acrylic sheets under the rock. After the two islands were reconstructed I only had two joints that required epoxy. I then added the TBS live sand and the saltwater.

 

[BeanAnimal]

To each their own, but I don’t get the time and obsession with planning rock piles in advance. I just place it and move on.

Most new reef keepers end up with a reef ledge and no space for coral anyway. Big vertical walls of rock look nice for FO tanks, but are not good for reefs.

 

[W31Olds]

Bean, I made mine ahead of time using dry rock because I couldn't pile/place them without the thing falling over or being unstable. OP has a 360G tank that may be pretty deep so can't achieve the height he wants without adhesives or mortar.

 

[jabberwock]

TBS will instruct you to have a cycled aquarium to receive their premium real ocean live rock. This is easy to do. I grabbed small amounts of some regular old LFSD live rock from a couple different stores and through in some ceramic media to boost surface area. Use some Dr. Tims Ammonia source to kick start the cycle, and then was ready for TBS premium rock! Check my tank thread for details.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Bean, I made mine ahead of time using dry rock because I couldn't pile/place them without the thing falling over or being unstable. OP has a 360G tank that may be pretty deep so can't achieve the height he wants without adhesives or mortar.

Certainly understandable. I have seen people drill and use guide rods, etc.
When I got my first box of Reefer Rocks, I "aquascaped" my tank dry too. It was months until I was ready for water (waiting on equipment and room construction, etc.). I helped with several other club setups and my perspective greatly changed.


I suppose my advice was vague.

I think new aquarists are prone to:

- Building tall reef ledges that are not good for coral placement.
- Don't leave enough space between rock and glass.
- Make "piles" to large with too little flat space.
- Don't leave caves and pass throughs.
- Build complex structures where rock can't be removed if needed for livestock capture, cleaning, invasive coral removal, etc.

I think some of this is driven by lack of experience (you don't know what you don't know) but a good bit of it also driven by YouTube and other social media content that sets trends based on filler for likes instead of good advice.

I think keeping things very simple has many benefits. So my advice should have been along those lines instead of what looks like a rant about "aquascaping" in general.

I have no issue with planning, but I prefer to just do it on the fly. Even with guide rods, i would place and drill as I went. With live rock, that would be wet.

 

[MizzouMark]

I did all of the aquascaping outside of the tank so that I made sure that I had lots of flat spaces that were good for coral placement, lots of caves and pass throughs for the fish (I'm more of a fish person than a coral person), the islands left lots of space between the rock and the glass as well as lots of open sand area, and all of it was solid without having to use epoxy or drill holes for guide rods. I also didn't have to worry about a rock slide scratching the glass.

 

[MizzouMark]

The tank is 72" x 34" x 34" so it is a deep, tall tank. I was able to make some interesting islands and still have plenty of open space for the fish even after coral growth.

 

[MizzouMark]

I sorted the rock into top (lots of interesting life on it), middle (some life on it), and bottom (nothing special) before I started aquascaping. The bottom rock was used in the inside of the island, the middle was used on the sides, with the live sections being lit, and the top sections were fully lit. The sorting did not take into account the size or structure of the rock. This made the assembly of the island an iterative process but I was able to keep most of the life where it had access to light. Some of the really special rocks were placed individually in the sand bed.