Rock work critique please

[JMorris271]

Well here it goes. A day I thought would never get here. Two years I've been fooling around with this project hitting snag upon snag.Please give me your opinion of how this will work. I am using 120 lbs of all dry rock here with about 30 lbs of LR from Tampa Bay coming for a 120 gal mixed tank.

 

[ca1ore]

Aesthetics are personal preference - one reefers perfection is another's disaster. The only thing I would suggest is to consider the longterm goal for the tank. My personal opinion of course, but I think folks put too much rock in their tanks which results in crowding and a lack of swimming room down the road. Lots of open space is a good thing.

 

[stingeragent]

Id open it up a bit. You could also have maybe 1 side higher, and have a couple pieces in the front so its not just like a rockwall. Here is how I did my 40. You can see the left side curves in towards the front. Just gives it more depth I think. As the poster above said though, it's all ultimately gonna come down to you. If you have corals already in mind that you want, look up there lighting requirements, and try to image what spots you could put them in. 2nd one is my 125. Was trying to go for the same effect as the 40 but it didn't turn out quite as good, and I didn't want to buy any new rock so I just made it work. Have little bridges, or arches can give your fish spots to swim through, as well as allow water to flow through it. You have several flat rocks that would work great as a bridge, and give you a bunch of space on top for stuff. Now that you have a few pics of it, rearrange it, and take another pic, and then rearrange it again, and take some more pictures. Then if you decide you had one you liked better, just reference the pic to put it back together. If you can get it just how you like it now will make it much easier. All my rock was live transferred from 2 established tanks, so I had to aquascape with the rock in the water which is a pita especially on a 2ft tall tank. In the end, if your planning on packing that tank with coral, your rock work won't matter much in another year or 2. All you will see is the coral.

 

[whosurcaddie]

Open it up more. You have some really nice peices in there for overhangs and ledges. Don't be afraid to drill the rock for acrylic rods. You can stack them and give your scape some amazing structure.

Scape built with acrylic rods.

You want it as asymetrical as possible you want depth. The way you achieve depth is having rock in the foreground and background with valleys and peaks. Kind of like this.

 

[billdogg]

I prefer a more open look as well.

There are several reasons why:
1. At least to me, it looks more natural with numerous swim-throughs and caves.
2. Giving your fish those spaces will keep them happier as well.
3. It's way easier to avoid dead spots that will lead to detritus buildup and then nutrient issues.

As mentioned above - if it looks good to you, great! And a huge +1 to take pictures as you go so you can go back to an earlier attempt if you don't like the rearrangement.

Having someone there to help makes it way easier as well.

jm.02

 

[JammyBirch]

IMO I'd ditch any rock that was old coral. If you use those kinds of rock then place them as the original coral would have looked. I really like the pukani rock like Whosurcaddie posted, the nice part about that kind of rock is it looks like rock, it holds together better and it's very porous. All good for the tank.

It's up to you and whatever you do for a rock scape will be great as long as you're happy with it.

 

[JMorris271]

The thing that confounds me is the amount of rock weight suggested. 1-2 lbs per gal. Some very nice setups I see have nowhere near 1 to 2 lbs per gal in the tank. I have a 120 gal tank so I was using 140-160 lbs. In my way of thinking, I can't have weight without bulk. The base rocks I am using are mostly 10-12 inch pieces that look large to me. My tank is 24 inches deep front to back so how do I get all of that open space between rock and still use the amount of rock suggested?
I do have 8 caves that run from front to back. The scape is 14 inches high I wanted more cave like escapes with about 10 fish and some inverts.
I really would like to accomplish more depth of field and
will shift those flat shelf rock around to make a few bridges but I am not using rods or glue as I want to be able to move things if I need to. So it's sturdy as she goes for me.

 

[pdiehm]

I have 75 lbs of pukani in my 120. I suck at art in general but here my my scape with only 75lbs of Rock.

 

[Bent]

The thing that confounds me is the amount of rock weight suggested. 1-2 lbs per gal. Some very nice setups I see have nowhere near 1 to 2 lbs per gal in the tank. I have a 120 gal tank so I was using 140-160 lbs. In my way of thinking, I can't have weight without bulk. The base rocks I am using are mostly 10-12 inch pieces that look large to me. My tank is 24 inches deep front to back so how do I get all of that open space between rock and still use the amount of rock suggested?
I do have 8 caves that run from front to back. I wanted more cave like escapes with about 10 fish and some inverts.
I will shift those flat shelf rock around to make a few bridges but I am not using rods or glue as I want to be able to move things if I need to. So it's sturdy as she goes for me.

I think a lot of what you are seeing is just rock in the display tank and not whats in the sump or refugium. I have only 40 pounds in my DT but over 150lbs in the system.

 

[JMorris271]

The surprises me. That would completely fill my fuge.

 

[JMorris271]

I have 75 lbs of pukani in my 120. I suck at art in general but here my my scape with only 75lbs of Rock.

That looks really cool.

 

[pdiehm]

it's pretty open too. the cave on the left is where the detritus from the clowns usually lies. Eventually I'll get a Gyre on the other end, and I'm pretty sure that "dead" spot will be clear.

 

[whosurcaddie]

That's nice pdiehm. OP the rock you have is extremely porous so you don't need to use it all. You can also place some Marine pure bio media slabs inbetween your baffles to make up for rock that you don't need.

I only have 100lbs in my 120, all dry rock. this is my tank just before I added water. 100lbs of dry rock is a lot of rock.

 

[JMorris271]

That's nice pdiehm. OP the rock you have is extremely porous so you don't need to use it all. You can also place some Marine pure bio media slabs inbetween your baffles to make up for rock that you don't need.

I only have 100lbs in my 120, all dry rock. this is my tank just before I added water. 100lbs of dry rock is a lot of rock.

I have been reading about stuff and wonder how much capacity is loss due to algae plugging the pours. It seems like a good solution for the sump
where I want to place my reactors.

 

[whosurcaddie]

That's what its meant for. You just want it in a high area of flow.

 

[JMorris271]

Next submition. :facepalm:

 

[pdiehm]

better. I would try to find a way to put that flat piece on the left so the flat piece is facing up, and the pointy bottom attached to a rock or something...almost like a ledge.

 

[JMorris271]

better. I would try to find a way to put that flat piece on the left so the flat piece is facing up, and the pointy bottom attached to a rock or something...almost like a ledge.

I did try it that way but it won't sit well. I am ok with it sitting this way too. The resulting look is not that different. I have been nursing that piece for 2 yrs ands really want to use it.

 

[FishAddict87]

I just picked up a 120 yesterday with one corner overflow and my plan for scape is minimalistic. one tower in the center toward the middle/front, one island to the right back side and another island against/near the corner overflow. To me, less is more as long as my corals can be mounted on the rocks and there is plenty space on the sand bed for corals, the fish have more room to swim and it looks much nicer. But its all up to personal opinion.

 

[ca1ore]

1-2 pounds of rock per gallon is an old rule-of-thumb; and like many rules-of-thumb essentially useless (or at least unprovable). A quick perusal of the available rock will reveal rock of various weighs and porosity. Since the determining factor for biological filtration is surface area, defining requirements in terms of weight is just silly.

My own anecdotal observations with most rock is that a satisfactory bio filter can be achieved with far less rock than people think they need. In the unlikely event you end up needing more, rock or biomedia in the sump works fine. Personally I don't do it for a bunch of reasons, but certainly one can.