New Tank Aquascape Feedback

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I'm brand new to marine aquariums and have been reading/learning tons from this forum, thanks guys!

I have a 60g (48"x13"x24") tank that I'm starting to setup. I got the BRF reef saver dry rock and created my first aquascape. As I have been reading, these narrow tanks are tough to aquascape, and I basically have the dry rock against the back wall to provide as much room as possible. I'm planning to have some soft corals, along with my livestock.

I'm looking for any feedback or tips with setting up such a system. For starters, I'm not planning on having a sump/refugium, but just a protein skimmer, powerheads, HOB filter (may remove once I have the protein skimmer running with livestock) to begin with.

Here's my current aquascape:

20150413_080501.jpg
 
New myself and just setting up a 120g. It is likewise not very "deep" front to back, but I'm trying to stay out from the back wall a bit so that I can get to anything trapped or dead back there, and to try to minimize dead spots.
 
If your not going to have a sump then I would suggest getting a hang on back refugium to allow a place for pods and macro to grow. As for the rockscape do what you like. Fish will welcome overhangs and caves to call home. Also take things slow, nothing good happens quickly in this hobby
 
it looks pretty good...You just need to think long term as its a pain to move stuff around in the future, not to mention messing with too much can cause a mini cycle... Just make sure you have places for coral (if you intend to keep coral), places for fish to hide out. Equally important as it was mentioned above, make sure your scape allows for proper flow. The last thing you want it nutrient problems because you have a hidden detritus trap somewhere.
 
The one rock sticking straight up on the right hand side looks a little out of place to me but I like the rest. Perhaps just a little more vertical height at some point along the back wall would help a little also like adding one more arch on top of one of the existing arches. As it sits now there is a little too much uniformity in height.
 
I have a 120G (48x24x24) that I used dry rock for the rock work. My only suggestion would be to try to prop some of the top pieces up more to create more swim through spaces for the fish. The other advantage is that give you more depth to place corals - something that likes a LOT of light could go on the top, while thinks that like low light could go near the bottom.

Since I had more width in my tank - one each side, I put 2 rocks with narrow gaps between them, then 3 rocks in the middle to create a cave. I put a rock on top of each of those structures then bridged them with more rocks.

My rock looked a lot like yours when I started - those holey limestones stack really nicely. Maybe take that tall piece on the right, put it in the sand then try to bridge something from that to another piece to give you swim through.

From my experience with my rock - the fish like the bigger / wider swim throughs, and tend to avoid the narrower ones, while the crabs like the narrower spaces.

Here's a photo of my rock work, so you can see what I mean about stacking my rock and swim throughs.

IMG_3996_zpsii8vrzp9.jpg
 
Thanks everyone for the advice! I was planning on getting a piece or two of live rock form my LFS and think I may try to find a nice piece to bridge over to the tall piece on the right to give it some more height.
 
My tank is smaller but I have the same issue with depth 12.5" after leaving room to be able to clean the glass/siphon I basically have a stack of rock in a line more or less. Any tips for narrow tanks would be appreciated.
 
Thanks for the advice folks. Here's how it looks now with a couple pieces of live rock (shelf like piece on the left and rightmost arch). I moved the rocks up on both ends towards the front to create some swim through as suggested.

20150420_164528_001.jpg
 
Dmorty217 said:
As for the rockscape do what you like.
Click to expand...

Agree with this. We all have our aesthetic preferences; so as long as the rockwork is not functionally compromising (traps too much detritus, prevents cleaning of glass, obstructs swimming room, etc.) do what you like. Personally I like open space and open sand, and follow the golden rule of thirds. Although thing don't always grow in cooperative ways.
 
Pigpen: That's a UV sterilizer I put in there when I had a bacteria bloom. Cleared the tank up in less than 24hrs. Too big to keep in there full time.
 
I know I am late with feedback and I hesitate as a good aquascape is exceptionally subjective. But IMO stacking all the rock in the middle seems a little blah. You could try two separate areas of rock work to give some left to right depth and stack one a little higher to give some up and down depth. I also like to try and leave that little path in the middle as it seems like it "opens up" to something else not seen and gives the illusion it is bigger than it is. Maybe something like this:

Tank by texdoc77, on Flickr
 
Ya, personally I like the idea of separation between my reef it allows flow better and looks more realistic. You don't find reefs perfectly stacked up like this in the wild, but a lot of people do it like that. Below is how I scaped mine.

It is a very new tank so the Diatom algae is normal just recently finished cycling, and added a pair of baby clowns in lower right corner (babies) yesterday.

<a href="http://gyazo.com/14ed0369b5fa6f74823fd6f8d93f8330"><img src="http://i.gyazo.com/14ed0369b5fa6f74823fd6f8d93f8330.png" /></a>
 
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