Does to much live rock look bad?

[marxxx]

Here is a photo of my tank

I know the live rock is very beneficial bacteria wise, but will this layout look good when the coral is added and starts growing. Some of the rock has been in my tank for 2+ years and the rest came out of a new tank that I bought in which it was up to 10 years old! As you can see there is a mixture of types of rock to. It doesn't bother me that it's mixed, but I do want it to look good once all the critters are added.

My camera doesn't take the best photos either...

 

[teamdulski]

Looks good to me.

 

[blaze98]

It doesn't look bad, but you may want to split it up, do you have a fuge you can add it to? Maybe about 10 lbs?

 

[marxxx]

I do have a fuge, I could take some out and put it in one of my other tanks. It is a 6 sided tank so the rock follows the contour of 3 sides, then comes out and around the overflow column in the center of the back wall. it is a good size tank at 180gal so there is still a good amount of swimming room with quite a few caves and crevices in the rock.

Thanks for the opinions!

 

[Rick2203]

man your tank reminds me of my tank, sometimes i think its just way too much rock, but i came across a deal i couldnt pass up and i had to buy all the rock i could. this is not including about another 20lbs in my sump

 

[marxxx]

Very nice looking tank! I to came across a great deal on the rock, I had to take it and run! I think I will take out a piece or 2 and throw it in the 125.

 

[xtm]

well it depends on the kind of look you're after and what you keep. If you want to keep tangs and other active fish I say you go for the open aquascape with more swimming room. However I personally like the crowded rockwork look myself.. full of LR to the brim and SPS all over the place. But that's just me..

Getting adequate flow is also something to consider. It's quite difficult to eliminate dead zones if you have tons of live rocks.

 

[sirjohn]

Agreed with xtm. Getting good flow is the hard part.

I personally like the rock-wall look you have going there. When diving in the Florida keys, that's what you essentially see, rock wall after rock wall in a finger pattern, with sand in the middle. So I'm always puzzled when I hear someone say the rock-wall pattern doesn't look natural...

 

[Toddrtrex]

This is just my opinion....

Don't think you have too much rock, but don't have it placed right. I personally don't like the wall of rock look. Maybe break it up a bit, have some open space in the middle. Perhaps have it going up more like a slope as opposed to straight up.

But, in the end all that really matters is if you like it, you are the one that has to look at it each day. I've found when I am happy with my rock work, I tend to pay more attention to the tank, and there fore notice any changes before they become issues.

HTH

 

[kysard1]

LR is way over-rated as far as being beneficial to the tank. There is a movement toward less rock which gives better circulation. It is also asthetically much better.

 

[rustybucket145]

You can do better than that!!! It looks like you just dumped the rocks into the tank against the back wall. Come On! Get creative. Try to make it look more natural. If it doesn't all fit... Oh Well. A few pounds +/- isn't going to do any harm what-so-ever.

Spend some time playing with the placement. Get a glass of wine, beer or whatever your poison is and take your time, do not be in a rush to aquascape.

Best of luck with your new setup

 

[Runfrumu]

Personally I don't like alot of live rock, but to each his own. Someone may think mines ugly for only having 80 pounds in a 125. It does provide better circulation and alot more room for fish to move but you have to get creative when you start getting more and more corals as far as where to put them.

That being said, some mag IO puts out has some kind of study that says most of the good bacteria is acutally in the sand bed as opposed to the rock.

 

[SeaHorsie*03]

I don't think thats too much rock, I think it looks pretty good, the only thing I would do is take some off the top of the wall and make the bottom of the pile a little more thick. I like the look of the rocks all over the back.

 

[Roy G. Biv]

I dont think its too much rock. I think it looks like a pile of misplaced rock. I cant aquascape for crap. You need to invite a few friends (females) over to point where things need to go. I believe women have a better eye for detail. When I did mine, my wife and a few friends came over to help. Its a lot of what if this goes here, and that goes there, and that doesnt look good take it apart, hey move that piece to the side and save it for the top.

 

[Ardeus]

The art of aquascaping is simple, to state: just try to understand what makes it look good.

It's simple to state but not so simple to achive. Here are a few tips.

IMO, yes, that's way too much live rock and it doesn't have cohesion.

Try to make everyrock look like a logical sequence of the surrounding rocks. Try to gather rocks by types. Rocks with different textures don't go well together. And any flat faces/lines in rocks should be concealed, they look artificial, man made.

Also, you can try to create layers of depth with the rock and to further enhance the depth, keep a open path in the sand until the back of the tank. If the path is a bit sideways, better. Just don't place a path in the middle, it will break you layout in two symetrical parts.

Keep the rock structures with different heights.

You can try to make a part of the layout more solid looking and another part more scattered. Here's an example - more solid on the left and less to the right, like the rock fell off from the left to the right:

______________________

 

[45commando]

Hi,I would just suggest that if you are going to remove/possibly re-do some of the rock,to try & make sure that no rock is closer than a couple of inches to any viewable side of the tank.Once the tank matures you'll hopefully find that corralline algae will start to grow quite fast.If you can't get a scraper or magnet between the rock & glass to remove it,then(at least IMO)I think it can spoil the overall look.HTH & good luck