Aquascaping....

lostmyz

New member
Anyone care to help me come up with ideas on aquascaping my pico tank. I have some great pieces of rock... fiji...tonga...pukani... also got a band saw and aquamend to adhere the rocks. However I heard some form of cement is better and reef safe....

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How are you setting it up? Against a wall, or all sides exposed?..open top? Pendant fixture, or other?

I am doing a rimless 6-gal with a pendant. Love the island look with part of the rock exposed, but I don't think I will be able to pull it off without the perfect rock. Probably going to use 3 smaller rocks of graduated size a la feng shui. Looking to populate it with a Harlequin pair and some sexy shrimp.
 
Picos are HARD to scape! I made the mistake of buying a 3 pound rock as my first piece for my 2.5. It takes up about half the tank...so I had to work around it when scaping.
I think the best way to go about scaping a pico is to buy a whole bunch of really small, funky shaped pieces or large pieces of coral rubble, then glue them into shapes you like. I always like arches and cliffs. I think a good basis to work off of is start with two smals islands, slightly off centre one on either side. I like to put a pillar on the side with the shorter/smaller island.
~~~~~~~~0~~~~~
/-----\ ~~~0~~~~~
/...........\......0/----\....

imagine that is rock islands and a pillar...haha. I failed but u get the idea right? Work off of that with your other cool pices of rubble. Or do something totally different...whatever.
It all depends on the personality of your rocks. If youget traditional looking rock,it'll be boring, but with really quirky pieces, anything you do will look great! have fun!
I can't wait to see how this turns out!
oh yeah, just curious,what do you plan to stock this with?
 
I have like 15 pounds of dry rock right now sitting out in the AZ sun. I will take a pic on friday. I won't get home tomorrow until after the sun sets. But I have big, small, tonga, fiji, pukani, funky shapes.... nice stuff not dull and boring base rock....

I plan on stocking this with....
4 sexy shrimp
2 pom pom crabs
1 holloween hermit crab
1 blue foot hermit crab
a snail or two
A circus goby (looks like a goby version of a lion fish)
SPS, Zoas, Acans, a clam
 
ooo. I love the stuff your'e stocking with! pom pom crabs are my favorites, i wish they sold them here. Loving te circus goby and sexies too! be warned though, sexies will eat zoas...
Can't wait to see some pics of your setup!!!
 
ooo. I love the stuff your'e stocking with! pom pom crabs are my favorites, i wish they sold them here. Loving te circus goby and sexies too! be warned though, sexies will eat zoas...
Can't wait to see some pics of your setup!!!

Ahhh I knew there was something sexy shrimp eat I just couldn't remember! But with such a small tank! I gotta have them tho... so i guess no Zoa's for me hahah thats ok Zoa's aren't my favorite things... i really want it to be some amazing SPS and some acans i guess... I'll try some cheapo Zoas and see if my future sexy shrimp suck or are awesome hahaha
 
I was going to put a harlequin shrimp in the tank and feed him a star fish leg every month... and keep the starfish in my sump refugium but, I'd prefer not to have a dying starfish leg in my system all the time but I might do it instead of sexy shrimp.... I LOVE LOVE LOVE harlequins I had one in the past freaking gorgeous!!!!
 
I'm seeing some amazing potential here!
Have u considered bumblebee shrimp? you could keep a group of those in there and they're super cute and unique looking. They like an occasional starfish too, but it doesn't need to be the staple diet.
You could get some bumblebee snails too...and stripey mushrooms...then of course your striped circus goby...we'll make a themed tank!
hehe. :)
 
Do harlequins eat anything else?

Not really some will eat the little astrea starfish that kill zoa's and stuff but once those are decimated they have nothing. You can try to feed it some meaty for directly but I haven't heard of people having much luck with that. I had one eating astrea starfish in my tank for like 2 months and than died... he ate all his food... Gorgeous tho and totally reef safe and awesome personalities... Hmm now I am truly considering this! I could actually keep the starfish in my Mantis tank that I plan on plumbing into the sump I have with the pico hehe!

I'm seeing some amazing potential here!
Have u considered bumblebee shrimp? you could keep a group of those in there and they're super cute and unique looking. They like an occasional starfish too, but it doesn't need to be the staple diet.
You could get some bumblebee snails too...and stripey mushrooms...then of course your striped circus goby...we'll make a themed tank!
hehe. :)

I've seen the bumblebee shrimp on liveaquaria, they are pretty cool. I'm not really a fan of mushrooms... you can't really control their propagation that well. I do like the few super crazy @$$ ric's out there might get one of those and throw it on the other side of the tank.
 
Here are a few photos of my rocks I took them at like 5:30 sun wasn't really out today

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I really like the top middle one on this last photo. its like a CUP! I was thinking of putting it at the top of whatever structure I make
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oh yeah, THAT'S what i'm talkin about!
way to find some personality!
love em! time to start posting some arrangement ideas!
 
among those rocks I see a K, Z, T, V,P,l,x, U. Maybe you could try to spell a word in your aquarium...
haha. don't you love my ideas?:rolleyes:
 
ideas are awesome!!!! Yeah i really like the rocks that I got. A few of the pieces of tonga where left over scrap from my main tank... I have a 30" multi branch piece of tonga in there along with about 60 lbs of the stuff. I love love love tonga! I buy it every chance i get. The tonga piece on the bottom left of the first pic came all the way from Homestead, FL to Az! Hehe I should have bought the rest of the 40 lbs this reefer chick had but it wasn't all that great shapes.

Here is something I am attempting to mimic. I am probably going to have to cut some of the rock and use Macro Rocks mortar to fuse them together....

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Here is a picture of my clowns and this tidepool anemone (its not even fully open in this pic it's like 16" it extends to where the YWG is normally)
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Went to phx this weekend. I found a 6" clam shell that I am bleaching nkw thatvive had from a dead maxima from 2000 lol yeah never threw it away. I might use somwhere in there. I am going to make a cardboard layout of my inside of my tank and start but I need ti cut some rocks hehe

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OK here are some options......

Option #1 (Negate the big rock holding up the over hang... I needed something so I could get the ledge up... I will be using hydraulic cement that is reef safe so I won't have to have that rock there)
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Option #2 (unfortunately after I made this structure which is my favorite, I measured it and its like 8.75" tall plus my sand bed of 1.5" my total tank height is 10 5/8" tall so I am not sure its going to work out)
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Option #3 (negate the clam shell entirely on this one as well I needed something to hold up the aquascape)
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I need to add a small rock here in the back left corner... I didn't feel like destroying a rock tonight so I might do that tomorrow.
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