Aquascaping for SPS "Need Honest Opinion"

ashish

ashish

New member
I have a 120 gallon aquarium that's 6 years old in my family business lobby in clearfield pa. My tank has been very successful but I have added no corals or fish to the system for almost 3 years. After various research I came up with these conclusion regarding aquascape:

1. Water flow should not be restricted
2. Fish should be able to swim around it
3. Corals should get enough light
4. Keep the rock of the bottom
5. Pleasing to me as well as great use of depth

I removed about 40% of the rock that was heavily covered in aiptasia and bleached the rock and originally planned on using PVC. However, based on my opinion I think PVC only works well on larger (taller) tanks with larger rocks. I can not create a natural looking aquascape with pvc and wasn't about to sacrifice drilling large holes into good rock. Anyways, I decided to go with heavy duty plastic hangers and expoxy. The rock work may seem unstable but its actually very solid because the overhangs rocks are extermely lightweight and porous (thus not using plastic ties)

My last attempt at keeping SPS was with a pile of rock look (that i keeped changing or moving the sps stressing them and myself out). I don't want to even have the option of moving SPS corals anymore

So please give me your HONEST (constructive) Opinon because I still have not put the rock in my tank. Thanks for reading!!
Ash


My first rock-pile attempt (below)
<a href="http://s1324.beta.photobucket.com/user/ashish0584/media/IMG_3559_zpsd19b59b3.png.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u613/ashish0584/IMG_3559_zpsd19b59b3.png" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_3559_zpsd19b59b3.png"/></a>

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I like the forms so far! Plenty of open space. They'll fill in nicely once the tank is fully stocked. Looks like you're taking excellent first steps.

Thanks for sharing!
 
It really comes down to what you want and like.

Your formations are good. Just make sure you provide areas for your flow to move through your scape.

Also, when your coral grows out, you won't be able to tell what your scape was anyways.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2
 
Shape of the rocks is half the battle, placement in the tank and orientation will make a huge difference. Can you provide a FTS?

One other tip I can give is to keep the rock type all the same, this is my personal preference and not for everyone, but I found that consistency in the type of rock gives it a cleaner look. Again, my preference, someone people like to mix and match and call it more natural.
 
rodneyri said:
can you take a 'FTS' of what it will look like, i cant make out what it is from the pics
Click to expand...

these where just some idea pictures but these new pictures are what i am going with. There is 3 different structures i've re-done. It will look a lot different when inside the tank because I can position each rock differently. I wish i could have took more time on the Live rock piece but they look pretty awesome once I put them inside the tank. I am satisfied with the way it looks but I worry i might have to many shadows (which may be good for acclimating new corals and less light Lps). I do not plan on adding more than 10 corals so they can just grow without war.

Picture 1 -
These are the keepers
<a href="http://s1324.beta.photobucket.com/user/ashish0584/media/IMG_6021_zps5319f325.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u613/ashish0584/IMG_6021_zps5319f325.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_6021_zps5319f325.jpg"/></a>

Picture 2
view from the top of the main structure (back is for fast growing staghorns)
<a href="http://s1324.beta.photobucket.com/user/ashish0584/media/IMG_7010_zps296124d3.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u613/ashish0584/IMG_7010_zps296124d3.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_7010_zps296124d3.jpg"/></a>

Picture 3
main structure from the front minus small overhang. This structure is cool because the overhangs can be moved around until it looks good so i am thinking about having the larger overhang go front to back. I made some legs on the bottom of the larger rock to level the rock as well as providing circulation. I have drilled many random holes inside all the rock for gobies and smaller fish.
<a href="http://s1324.beta.photobucket.com/user/ashish0584/media/IMG_6198_zps02eafb39.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u613/ashish0584/IMG_6198_zps02eafb39.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_6198_zps02eafb39.jpg"/></a>

Does any one recommend drilling small holes where I plan on putting corals? This way I can epoxy 1'' hangers under the corals base for easy removal? Just a thought I see alot of people on RC with jam packed tank that remove all the coral and redoing aquascaping! how is this possible with solid expoxy?
 
oscar.millan said:
Shape of the rocks is half the battle, placement in the tank and orientation will make a huge difference. Can you provide a FTS?

One other tip I can give is to keep the rock type all the same, this is my personal preference and not for everyone, but I found that consistency in the type of rock gives it a cleaner look. Again, my preference, someone people like to mix and match and call it more natural.
Click to expand...

Keeping the rock the same is always good, though I have seen alot of people say different rocks are good. I personally would rather have all the rock the same style. But it helps having some light weight rock for overhangs and the larger rock is about 15lbs. However, i really do not have any LFS that currently has any good rock other than heavy white reef rock. I hand picked all the rock over the course of 7 years & was surprised with what i could do with a lot of flat pieces (as well as irregular larger pieces). I like Bulk reef supplys rock but read to many post regarding there rock leaching PO (needs curing for months) and I can't take the risk on a well established tank. I would buy from them when I set up my next big tank (300 g dd marineland)
Thank you for your response
 
Last edited:
I will definately post cool pictures soon; I have 3 large acropora colonies going on this rock so I want to make sure it's perfect.
 
igot2gats said:
It really comes down to what you want and like.

Your formations are good. Just make sure you provide areas for your flow to move through your scape.

Also, when your coral grows out, you won't be able to tell what your scape was anyways.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...

Thank you, I have seen and experience bleaching of corals at the base because of lack of flow. This can be hard to address because you do not want to blast the top polyps to get to the base. I kept this in mind because IMO if the corals are place on a shelve, there will be a lot more room for flow around the entire coral base (coming from the bottom up not just top)
 
IMG_7010_zps296124d3.jpg


That's a great structure Ashish, outstanding work and it will be a terrific and dramatic base for your SPS giving you great depth of field viewing. I would orient it just as you have it in the pic using the rule of thirds for placement in the tank left to right. Looking forward to seeing it filled in with SPS colonies :)
 
I have a drawing where I planned out where I was going to put each SPS that I wanted. Plan for this, if you can. I have some stags that can get pretty close to tables and stuff since they grow up. You also need to plan for encrusters, if you are into that. Caps and tables need space below them since they will shade lots of stuff. ...you get the idea.

Don't forget that the fish will want to hide in it to feel secure and stuff.

Once the SPS start to grow in, you will likely not see your rocks very much.
 
solid14th said:
What kind of epoxy did you use?
Click to expand...

Aquamend is no longer available.. I ment to say i used waterweld and loctite.

waterweld is slightly more expensive but is easier to roll into a ball. Both work equally (bad) underwater. lol. They work well on smaller rocks and frags as long as you can have the frag freefloating (not on a overhang).
I just bought some loctite marine expoxy (the glue type). Hopefully this is better to use underwater on new corals.
 
jda said:
I have a drawing where I planned out where I was going to put each SPS that I wanted. Plan for this, if you can. I have some stags that can get pretty close to tables and stuff since they grow up. You also need to plan for encrusters, if you are into that. Caps and tables need space below them since they will shade lots of stuff. ...you get the idea.

Don't forget that the fish will want to hide in it to feel secure and stuff.

Once the SPS start to grow in, you will likely not see your rocks very much.
Click to expand...

Thanks,, Unfortunately my aquascape was not the best for my larger staghorn colonies. I only have the front overhang to place new corals.
<a href="http://s1324.photobucket.com/user/ashish0584/media/IMG_1946_zps7391b147.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u613/ashish0584/IMG_1946_zps7391b147.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_1946_zps7391b147.jpg"/></a>
As you can see not the greatest for what I have., the large staghorn is no longer on this structure, neither is the tabling coral. I damn near killed my tabling from having issues gluing him down. Here's some new corals I got todays. Believe it or not first ones after almost 4 years
<a href="http://s1324.photobucket.com/user/ashish0584/media/IMG_4310_zpsad55ff1b.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u613/ashish0584/IMG_4310_zpsad55ff1b.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_4310_zpsad55ff1b.jpg"/></a>
 
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