Come along, I'm starting a 24 gallon from scratch!

[dmazz_63]

Glad to see your still hanging around, Amanda! Your girls must be getting excited about the baby! Maybe you can add your opinion to this.
After several months of just aging, I think my 55 gal is finally ready for rockscape and stocking. I spent a few hours scrubbing the rock clean of hair algae and began trying to place it. I don't know how you all seem to be able to stack your rock up so high, but the best I can seem to manage without it being very unstable is in the pics.

I'm keeping it away from the back glass so there is swimming room but that really limits my options with the aquascaping. Any helpful hints, suggestions?
Thanks, Dave.

 

[H2OLUVSME]

Dave, i think some bigger pieces are in order for stacking it higher. i use larger pieces than that, and use my back glass. it looks pretty sweet. if you ise some other pieces to elevate all of your flat pieces, that will gove you some nice spots for corals.

 

[dmazz_63]

Landon, I was just looking at some pics in your gallery to get an idea. How deep is your tank front to back? Mine is a standard 55 which only gives my 12" to work with. This also limits me when stacking my rock.
Dave.

 

[H2OLUVSME]

this was my fgirst tank it was a 29 gallon tank. i think with similar demensions as your 55. it was 20" or so high x 12" wide and (diiferent than the 55) 30" long. i had the rock stacked up against the back wall.

my 75 is the exact same as the 55, but its 18" wide, giving me a bit more room to scape with.

heres my most recent full shot

and a shot from the end to show the depth. i wish i had some shots like this if the 29.

i have much more recent ones in my photobucket gallery. to check them out click my red house

 

[dmazz_63]

Landon, so you don't worry about the dead zone between the back glass and the rock? Your 29 gal looks great, I'd like to do something similar with mine.
Dave.

 

[jay24k]

I don't touch any glass. What you need to do is find some nice large pieces and then stack smaller. I also use a cement compound for pieces I know are slightly unstable. I use enough where it wont move but not too much where I can't do a quick fast snap and have the rock back.

I added 50 more pounds. Here is a few pics.

 

[dmazz_63]

Jay, I like the look of your layout and your coralline is covering the rock nicely!
Dave.

 

[jay24k]

That's the new rock I bought I can maintain corraline but with MH, it's tough to get that coverage.

 

[H2OLUVSME]

Dave, in the 29 i had a powerhead on the right back, at the bottom aimed behind the rock. it was actually one of my higher flow areas. in the new tank i have a powerhead totally underneath the left mountain, and on on the right glass, at the back bottom aimed behind that pile of rocks. i dont (didnt) have a problem with accumilation in either tank. i can actually blast my mysis (with turkey blaster) into the rocks and see it all float back out and into the current.

 

[H2OLUVSME]

Jay, i wont stack the rock on the glass when i get a 24" wide tank either

 

[AEALOVESHERGIRLS]

You guys are making me drool with all these tank pics!

I got rid of all my red macro, I couldn't control it, and those darn grapes were always floating around the tank.

My black sun coral is not doing well, however, my blastos are HUGE!!!! I have never seen such growth in a short amount of time!


I"m off to a Dr.'s dinner party, I"ll get some pics up Sunday morning!!!


Amanda

 

[superswimmer]

Hey sweet tanks everyone... uh... not to hijack the thread or anything.. but i just got back from Maui and I am bubbling with excitement....hhehehe

I snorkeled in Molokini, a sunken volcanic crater, as well as other places and I was blown away!

Corals were various porties, montis, pocillipora species too! I mean it was amazing huge coral gardens and sturctures arches caves pillars! It was sooo cool.

I swam with wild white tip reef sharks and turtles! I saw moorish idols, bannerfish, all types of tangs.. yelllow achilles, unicorn, blue, more!! Hawkfish, firegobies, seaurchins, I saw a snowflake eel right off the beach at my hotel! Masked buterfulies.. exquisite butterflies.. the ones that are impossilbe to keep in captivity! Long nose butterflies.. trumpet fish! Soo many!!! o yah cleaner wrase at a cleaning station with a grouper!

I saw barracuda or something that looked like it.. sargent major.. woowo 5 hours of snorkeling one day wasn't enough

There were huge gardens of monties and porties, x mass worms. featherdusters.

Maui was beautiful....I hate the gulf of mexico now...

ok... jet lag....g'night ZZZZZZZZZZ zzzzzzz

 

[dmazz_63]

Well, I spent a couple of hours arranging and re-arranging and managed to come up with this rockscaping arrangement. The pics are from a couple of different angles. It seems like the rock I'm using (lace rock) is kind of different from the roundish live rock most others have.

Any criticism/helpful hints would be appreciated.
Thanks, Dave.

 

[superswimmer]

Very Nice!!!!!
With some more corals/growout it will look even better.

Very nice! I find it very difficult to find that "perfect" scape in my tank. Good job

 

[Scuba Oz]

Dave, could you hide that heater behind the rocks? Looks nice and you have made some good places for corals

 

[lessans]

Dave, I noticed you have a Coralife Power Compact. Is it the Lunar Aqualight? How do you like it b/c I'm considering buying the Lunar Aqualight myself.

 

[H2OLUVSME]

Any criticism/helpful hints would be appreciated.
Thanks, Dave.

i think it looks 10x better. i really like the 2 mounds look, and it also looks like you have some nice depth there. you seem to have plenty of places for new corals, and plenty of space for your current ones to grow out. i cant think of anything critical to say.

i like it.

Dave, I noticed you have a Coralife Power Compact. Is it the Lunar Aqualight? How do you like it b/c I'm considering buying the Lunar Aqualight myself.

i like the corallife PC products. i have 5 different tanks with aqualites, ranging from my refugium to reptile tanks, to the main lighting on another reef. i think they are an excellent product and have very nice color to the bulbs. as long as you dont want to keepanemones or light demanding clams, i think you have anything with enough PC.

 

[dmazz_63]

I have the lunar aqualights on both of my saltwater tanks and don't have any complaints.

Thanks everyone for the comments on my 'scaping.

 

[SmokeFish]

Hello All! I've been reading a lot on RC and just wanted to say that you guys are some of the nicest people on RC. Its nice to be able to read thru a thread where people are not bickering and name calling. A definite big THANK YOU for that!

WOW!!!!!! Fantastic!!!!! OH how I miss my 75 gallon!!!

I've lost track of your thread. What happened to your 75?????!!!!!!

 

[jay24k]

She went psycho and took a hammer to it and shattered it into a million pieces.

Dang pregnant women!