aquascaping help

[josh_tn]

Ok, so I spent a few hours in the garage today playing with rock and I've decided its definitely harder than it looks. I'd like to get some opinions/suggestions on my first attempt at it. Nothing is permanent yet so I'd like to see if anyone has any seasoned advice before I start making it that way.
I was initially afraid that I hadn't ordered enough rock since I've got less than 1 lb/gallon but if anything I think there may be too much already and I still have several pieces leftover. Anyway here are a couple pics of what I have now.

Top down view: (tape represents tank dimensions and overflows)

Thanks,
Josh

 

[commonstranger]

Looks good Josh just be mindful if you stack high that it blocks/shades light to the lower corals. Overall looks and I like the tapeline idea, way to think ahead and plan.

 

[Nashvegas]

Looks pretty good...how about curving it even a little more..that way the above shelf won't be shading too much ..

 

[NeveSSL]

CJ (Nashvegas) is pretty much the man at aquascaping... you should try to hire him to come down.

In general, I personally try to think of cool locations for coral placement as well as the general look of the rock itself when I'm aquascaping.

Having said that, your design looks pretty good, but you may find a bit "man-made" looking being a sort of perfect arch. This may be exactly what you want, which is totally cool, tho.

Brandon

 

[Mobikob]

I think it looks great! That is a good idea, I wish I had done that.
If you are using a DSB I would jog the whole thing forward, because the foot of the reef won't even show. If you are bare-bottom leave it where it is, it looks great!

Mobi

 

[poolkeeper1]

Looks good, Only problem with doing It permanent like that Is you will get tired of It or run out of space to place corals. Then It's hard to rearrange things that are fastened together, so think about down the road as well as now. In two years I've changed my rockwork many times, some people change theirs every time I see their tank! Just a thought youmay want to consider.

 

[sandalscout]

I dig it, I like that there is a lot of open sand, I wish I had more room for LPS that sit on sand in my tank.

 

[mixer911]

That looks pretty good man! Aquascaping is an art in itself. I always sucked at it, lol.

 

[mamagoose45]

One thing we've learned with previous projects is that when you zip tie/connect things together outside of the tank, they don't like to be transfered to the tank as one piece. So be very careful if you're actually moving things as a "whole" that things don't break off and go rocketing to the bottom of the tank causing a disaster. A lot of rock pieces suddenly break apart when you've got other pieces hanging from them...

 

[josh_tn]

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments. I am still torn on doing the full arch or leaving the top open for better light. I took the 2 structures that you can see the rod sticking out of in the first pic and made them semi-permanent. I used a little epoxy but I'm fairly certain it wouldn't take too much effort to get them apart if I decided to later. The rest of it is pretty stable so I'll probably just stack them when I put them in the tank and maybe use a little epoxy where needed. For now, I'm filling up the stock tank that wayne generously let me borrow so I can start cycling the rock. I'm sure I'll revisit this post when I get ready to move the rock into the display tank. Thanks again.

Josh

 

[james3370]

i like it the way it is.....gives ya plenty of sandbed, some shaded areas for corals that don't need as much light & plenty of different elevations to get the light-loving stuff higher in the tank

a good overall harmonic balance

THIS aquascaping is the most pimp-a-licous example i have seen though. huge man-crush on the way that looks

LOL

 

[josh_tn]

I saw that tank when I was searching for aquascaping pics. That rockwork is truly amazing. I definitely agree with that being the best I've seen.

 

[mixer911]

Josh, defiantely let me know when you start on that sump. I would like to help you with it. Brandon can attest that I have a few pointers I could share, :lol:...

 

[josh_tn]

Thanks Rick, I would definitely appreciate that. I am hoping that it won't be too much longer now. Maybe next week after Memorial Day I'll be able to get started on it.

 

[ai-reefer]

looks awesome