Aquascaping

[deluxe_noob]

Whats up people its 2:10 am and i have been aquascaping my 55 for almost 3 hrs now. What a freaking experience!!! Needless to say i have never aquascaped anything to this extent before. a little back story, because im a cheap sob i bought 50 Lbs of base rock for 50 bucks shipped. Suppose to arrive last wed. it got put on the wrong truck and sent to Cali and finally arrived today while i was at work, heh half surprised the UPS guy left it at all. Anyway i rinsed all the rock off and was actually surprised at how porous it was. The wife was still up and as i sat there trying to configure something on my living room floor she kept telling me "damn thats alot of rock".Sorry im rambling did i mention i cracked a few cold ones during this endeavor Anyhow i finally completed it. Feel free to comment and tell me whats wrong with it i know its base rock and im not in a huge hurry so in 6 months or so i fig it should start to show signs of life and some coraline growth i hope.

 

[deluxe_noob]

opps forgot the pics

also i know im getting new lights Sunday and building a hood someday next week and the big piece on top is a piece of Live rock i already had in there and couldn't fig a place out for it so just sat it on top for now and the caves to the left i made myself and they have been in there a while now and didnt want to move them due to the damsels i have in there already

 

[levon15]

That looks like 6" of sand? Am I seeing that right? Is that crushed coral on top of the sand?

Why so much sand?

Also does base rock need to be cured, will it leach anything into the water? I dont know I have never used base rock.

 

[Angler02]

I have used base rock before, but you may need more than six months before you can even add fish. Possibly a year to year and a half with my experience, I suggest adding some live rock to seed the base rock and start adding calcium and strontium to start your coraline. I had some where around 170 pounds of base rock in my 120 gallon and 30-40 pounds of live rock, I added fish after 4 months of curing and lost hundreds of dollars in fish in that instince and then again a few months later. From talking with many people we concluded that it was the base rock that was the cause of my problem. By no means do I think base rock is a bad idea but I will never use it to start a tank again unless I had the same amount if not more live rock to add as well. I believe it just takes a while for the base rock to become live rock.


As far as your aquascaping I would create more caves and get away from the wall effect thats going on. That rock with the hole to the left, I would move that to the middle and rest it on top of a couple of other pieces or under them. I usaully try to fit them together like puzzle pieces so that way they are a bit more sturdy. Anyway thats just my opinion.

 

[deluxe_noob]

its about 5"inches of sand the stuff on top is what came in the bag of GARF grunge i bought. SO yea i assume its some crushed coral . I wanted a DSB hence the deepness of it.

Damn KvcGSxr600 losing all those fish sucks. Actually most of the rock formation is really sturdy despited the looks of it but after sitting here looking at it for a while i decided it does look rather like a wall and have begun what i should have done in the first place and take every piece of rock out and start over from scratch.

As far as leaching its Caribsea rock and i know there are no guarantees in this hobbies but the rock is made from petrified coral so i think it isnt going to leech any nasties into the water.

 

[Angler02]

post some pics when you get done I would like to see what you come up with. Do you have a few pieces of live rock in there now?

 

[Angler02]

Do you have a sump? How are you filtering it?

 

[deluxe_noob]

Yea i have a sump its a itsy bitsy 10g. 1st chamber of sump is about 10 lbs of live rock rubble i bought from the lfs then a few baffles then a fuge with about 2" of oolite no cheato yet gotta go to home depot or somewhere and get a 6500k bulb.Then the return chamber. Im picking up a skimmer sunday unless something falls through. was going to put a skimmer in the sump but the underside of my stand is pretty small. So opted for a different one.

 

[deluxe_noob]

Im not sure if beers and aquascaping mix but it sure is more fun this way

right side

left side