Aquascaping poll

[BucNtears]

I'm just as bad.Iseem to have my hands n the tank weekly.Then again I'm adding stuff all the time.

[RyanBrucks]

some great tips here for scaping.

I will be starting a new tank sometime january, and will most likely be cycling the tank with a huge amount of uncured live rock.

I am betting that during the cycle month I will rearrange my rock many times! I am going to rearrange as much as it takes to make me happy with the results, and hopefully that way once I actually get corals I won't have to change as much.

I'll probably get a few different kinds of LR to ensure i don't end up with unstackable boulders. Also considering mixing a few man-made arch-shaped rocks so that I will be guarenteed to get the right piece for cool stacking.

My favorite design is with 3 seperarate 'mini stacks', one at each corner, and one in the center. They each will have at least 1 arch connecting to the back wall.


but if you are not happy with your aquascaping, I definitely vote to change it! I know how a small thing like that can get under your skin, and over time turn into a subtle kind of despise for your tank until you change it

Also, I really love how the current TOTM used PVC to make rock pillars. I think I will experiment with this technique some.

[BucNtears]

When I set up my 125 I'll be useing the pvc as the base for all my rocks also..

[hugodboss]

does anyone leave room in the back of thier tanks??? ive been wanting to re do mine too before my softies start to grow on the rocks....but last time i chaged this i forgot i had feature dusters and changed them back.

im not crazy about adding a backfround so i want to stack them all the way back and go up the glass any opinions or ideas would be appreciated...thx in advance.

[RyanBrucks]

if you want to stack high in the back... i'd try to make it as far from the back wall at the base as possible.

I don't have any experience directly stacking rock on the back glass, but I don't see why it would be such a bad idea if you did it only for small support like arches.

I once used thin vertical slices of egg-crate that rested at an angle on the back wall of a tall 65 gallon hex tank. clear fishing line was used to fasten the rocks to the egg crate. This gave a little extra balance and helped being able to stack such a tall vertical stack without the stack blocking all the waterflow in the back of the tank.

if you use thin/tall strips of eggcate, make sure you fasten something like a piece of PVC pipe to the base going lengthwise, so that the eggcrate will actually be somewhat stable.

[hugodboss]

oh i forgot..im having problems doing some caves under the rocks any tips on how to do this??? or can it be the rocks? ive tried all kind of stuff maybe ill post a pic later when i get home.

[RyanBrucks]

making caves and overhangs is not always easy, depending on the shapes of the rock you have.

try stacking on the 'pivot points', or the areas of your rock that form the corners. sometimes this makes it easier. the more round and boulderlike your rock is, the hard it will be to make caves.

if round boulders are all you have, maybe you should consider shopping for a few new rocks with different shapes... arches, longer flat pieces etc. anything with a nice jagged corner will be fairly easy to 'lock into place' by placing the corner on a nice stable base.

*edit for clarification*
what I mean by 'locking the corners' in place is that if your rock has corners that are opposite, forming a vague 'axis', then positioning both of these points onto other solid rock is the best way to ensure the rock won't move. as an example, if your rock is a perfect cube, any 2 opposing points for an axis and would be good for this (assuming there is enough friction there to prevent the rock from 'spinning in place', which is very rarely ever a problem).

[edandsandy]

We did it the new aquascaping. We used the pvc and grating the get the rocks off the bottom so the cretters can do their job.
before

here are just a few of how it all came together.

[edandsandy]

more pics

[edandsandy]

more pics......
we had to rearrange 3 times before it was right

[edandsandy]

Thanks to every one for your honest answers. You won't believe it BUT, we made more changes to the tank AGAIN ( oh my acking back ) and added more coral. I will post pictures later today.

[edandsandy]

..

[jefnalyssa]

I cant wait to see the after pics!!!!!! Could you give a link to your other post?

[edandsandy]

Well, I'm not the best photographer but here are some new pics...




here is our FOWLR tank

[edandsandy]

.....

[Timinator]

God I think I love this woman (dont get mad husband) but thinking about a wife wanting a bigger tank and being interested in getting it perfect is a Dream. My vote is move it till you like what you see. Might even have to make PVC stands to get the look you want. You should have just started a poll before you posted. But I'm sorrry to say from the look of your tank your going to have a lot of problems with the life on it to make them happy.

[Timinator]

I think I Posted to late didn't see the 3 pages, sorry. It looks like you got it figured out!

[Bygkid]

The basic original base rock is where it was placed when the tank was set iup a year ago. As I have bought LR to add to my tank, I have placed and replaced it a few dozen times. I have never rearranged the whole tank. I like bridges and holes for the fish to dart in and out of So I buy a rock place it where I think it looks good and over time move it around til I find where that piece looks best. IMO, the only concern with moving too much at a time is with the trapped bubbles in the rock. Don't want to release too many bubbles at once. I don't know what they are or how they would affect the tank.

Scott

[g_langley]

edandsandy: fwiw your first shot was the one I liked best

You've got the familar (and much copied) "wall" of rock whereas with less rock you could have had two islands but less room to accomodate corals. It's a human thing that after living with anything (including hubby) for a certain length of time, the initial novelty wears thin!!!

[g_langley]

And...

As well as creating something that is visually pleasing to ourselves, we need to bear in mind the habitat requirements of our inhabitants and that they can grow accustomed to this habitat without it changing fortnightly.

All the best

[gjm258]

I put the rock in my 12 gallon 3 years ago and have not moved it since.

I just got done putting the rock in my new 65 gallon and doubt I will ever move it.

[edandsandy]

I know that you can't really tell by the pictures, but there are more nooks that what you see. I know everyone likes the island look, but when you have the islands you are limited to what you can place in there. I certainly like more coral than water. Since this is my first reef tank and have become ADDICTED to corals I have only rearranged the tank 1 major time because I listened to the LFS owner, I did not know about RC and how much information there is on aquascaping. After we rearranged the tank we had to fine tune the rocks to accommodate the proper placement of the corals and make sure the fish had lots of hiding spaces.

[edandsandy]

....

[ToxicPoison]

Thanks for all the pics!
You've given me a lot of ideas for my new tank..

I think the new layout looks a lot better. I think once things start growing and covering the PVC, it's going to look REALLY good.

[fishworm]

I havent had my reef long enough to decide to change anything. I kinda like the looks of it so far.

but I do need to get back there and change the powerhead that's behind the rocks....

hmmm, then I could make a larger cave on the other side....

maybe that rock needs to be over there...


ACK!!! look what y'all did!! now I gotta get all wet again. m



but I do change my FW tanks around quite a bit. they never last more than a couple months before something gets moved.