Rock work

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Starting somewhere

Starting somewhere

Starting somewhere


I'm, not a designer, an artist or have training of any kind( well 3 years landscaping). But from my own work and word of mouth, i've been asked by some to do their aquascapes and help doing it which i enjoy obviously. I've done some threads in other sites about aquascape and work involving rocks and other materials found on the market. Since i enjoy it i though i'd do one here too. I didn't post it as such because i wasn't sure i wanted to do another one it takes time...and efforts. In any case here it is.

Do's and don'ts , possibilities and regrets, failures and triumphs.

Ask yourself is it?

-Reef or fish only tank.
-Small, large, medium tank.
- Do you have a backwall.
-Need to hide things


Key points;


- Cover your backwalls, or the coraline will cover it for you and not in a pleasant way and less cleaning for you.

-You'll have more grazing patch for your fish and less rocks on your sand to retain detritus, ultimatly fouling your water, everything is linked....also less rock means better flow in the tank, more swiming room for the fish, bigger fish ?.....


-Give different hights to your rockwork, different levels mean better lighting options for difficult corals.

-Use the full length of your tank, towers are for huge big tank, 200G + or very small tanks.

-Put rocks in front of that overflow who want to see an overflow wall, why put it front and center, it look like a drive-in movie screen ?

-Stick rocks on that tube or pipe with foam, super glues, anything when its dry to hide it with corals the first chance you get, other wise your tank look like its near a city sewer...

-We don't want to see the corner of your tank we know its square, your suppose to make us forget about it.....

From now on i'll be a bit more "vocal" about pictures and concepts in the following posts if need be.
 
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Realeastate

Realeastate

Everytime i buy a tank or set start to set one up its always too small at the begining anyway. Thats because i see the aquarium as a piece of "Realestate"!

Something to be used and divided according to the price i paid. Realestate for my corals, my fish( swiming space) , and me scaping and shaping.

My first question was , is it a fish only tank or a reef tank your doing and that counts for a lot of reasons in your choice of materials, and planning, because they may not be the same in fact the process and even the choice of your equipment will likely be different. Therefore it wont be the same process.

For argument sake we'll take the Reef as it is mostly Reef builders here, and i will interject the differences of fish only tank as we go.

Two pictures


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The sewer pipe syndrome



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A classic example

Being unfair maybe; but just look up at the right upper corner of this picture. The owner took great care to HIDE the over flow box and the pipe with his aquascape so much that all we see when we look at this beautifull shot is , well beauty and totally forget the inerworkings of the tank. I know its comparing apple and oranges in terms of size , but i'm comparing the efforts of the owners towards their particular tanks.

So thats what i was reffering to in my key point about the sewage pipe syndrome and overflow boxes in the forefront instead of the aquascape and the corals. In the thread their's a lot of example on how to hide your pipes and backwalls, overflows. I can't describe all of them ; too many styles with too many techniques. Use your imaginations, and look for it on the net its full of threads with details on how they did it. I've got some of them here but lots more out there.
 
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Another example of use and misuse of space; is with back walls. In particular in 18 inch wide tanks with a black wall finish. The space your live rock or dry rock is going to take out of your tank is great enough without you give up this whole back wall area . Use it;


take this picture;

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Its not the best work , but the intent is there; by doing this he's creating extra grazing surface for his fish, a place to put difficult corals , reducing ( if he had glued bigger pieces of rock,it would have been better) the foot print of his needed live rock therefore giving more swiming room for his fish

Compare to this;

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Is there any way you can have a sand creature here or any kind of contrast with your scape, but you can see the ugly wall very well can you and the well preserved overflow box..... And thos aren't rock they're rubles, and the pipes??? Esthetics......

These are other example of wall used to their full potential even on large scale tanks but who have a wall behind them and the owner doesn't want to clean that , and i don't blame him one bit.

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This tank is new and is perfect, you see what he did, he brought his rock up and used the full lengt of the tank, now his corals are going to grow and hide the wall, overflow, pipes and produce a tank more like the next pictures....


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This backwall has been build so to hide the ugly coraline smear on a black wall and pipes and to give the fishes better swimming room , better swimming room means getting bigger fish in certain circumstance; same principals applies to all size tanks if you think about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWdhHEGFL7g&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFfR0st8GNDaRE3bJ3mE6vZy&index=4

A nice little video about a Mantis
 
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Fish only tanks

Fish only tanks

Fish only tanks freedom style


A few things that fish only fish only tank has that is greater than a reef tank are freedom of materials, quantity of it, and the style of their tanks.

- Materials are infinite! They can put anything that is not harmfull to fish and make it work. They don't have to have rocks in it, if they choose an external filtration device.

- Because they have an external filtration device they don't have to obey the 1lb rock / gallon of water ratio so they can have has much swiming room for their fish as they want.

- Style ? Well some choose shipwreck at the bottom of their tank, or little mermaid or whatever , tackless ideas as they want but it can be far and removed from reef theme as you can get.


- The few advantages are obvious : less cleaning of the glass, less algae problems, most have UV sterilisers and a good canister or other filtration devices. Coraline is never introduced, all is sterile rock and or plastic decors.Thats the point of a fish only tank, no other organism other than the fish.

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The use of dead corals is frequent in those aquarium primarely because of the beauty of the skeleton shape

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Themes and plastic decor is a way to avoid a number of expenditures and be able to keep salt water fish ( reefs are more expensive to maintain than fish only according to magazines, and its stand to reason as you are dealing with a much more complex ecosystem and variables)

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Even if the corals wont depend on the aquascape in these tanks its even more imperative to have a better aquascape here because nothing will ever grow and amaze the onlooker other than the present scape you are building and its going to be permanent and it wont change or grow. The choice of materials are important. The white skeleton in this tank makes a dramatic contrast in this otherwise gloomy rockwork....

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Although its a tropical tank the aquascape was too much to ignore


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Ahhh Plastic and themes my favorite.....not really. But it works. The composition is balanced and it has an esthetic value. Even if i make a comments or its not my choices i always give the esthetic value that is worth.

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It is easy to understand why some choose not the reef tank considering their locations. Less work and more show.

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Different levels

Different levels

We've covered almost everything already, not so complicated;

we talked about;

-are walls
-the difference between fish only and reef tanks demands
-using the full length of your tank not to loose space for placing corals
- Hiding things, namely pipes

We need to talk about and to show a few more example of hiding over flows boxes and the differents levels of a rock work .


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A very bold example of hiding his stuff and getting his wall ready to receive corals for every level. Not masterfull but he get its and makes an attempt

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In this one he's got the different levels covered but his back wall, how much swimming room do you think he could of saved for his fish instead of an unused wall. Of course this is a purely in terms of space economy. Some don't mind the black backwall full of coraline , but if your looking to put extra fish, your options are limited by your system to accommodate your bioload and your swimming room for stress load.

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Compare it to this one

The size ; i know its larger, but the point is that the back wall was used to foster a better ballance between his bioload and the space he had to work with, he used the maximum of it. Its not the prettiest tank...no, but the use of it is well executed.


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This one belong to a different category; they are the huge tank with NO back walls. This is different thinking all together. But the levels are too important to ignore. The success of a good reef tank scape often reside in the number of levels you give yourself to put corals on. The more levels you have the higher the odds are in your favor... count the levels. Their's no set numbers, the more you have the better. This is a 550 G 8 feet long tank.

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If we compare this one with the previous ones we can see that its much more heavier, rockier, stuffy. Carefull with that, thats why we have putty and why we use acrylic rod, and drill are rocks into place sometimes. I understand he did it to hide his overflow and pipes but in time the corals would have grown to hide those; over doing the scape is also a danger.

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Beautifull tank, except why do we see that sewer pipe again, ( Foam, super glue and a few rocks) hides this thing in no time and you still have the flow,

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Because of the lack of levels this guy is condemned to have his coral on the lowest levels without ever reaching high enough to either get to the light they require or to hide that back wall if he wanted too. It makes for a very flat look almost desolate or after a storm in the sea. Some of his corals are very beautifull too.

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Need i say more
 
A personal choice

A personal choice

A personal choice and i personnaly bought

Here what it look with stuff in it to give scale , because on a picture we can't juge of the crevasses size or how they actually will fit in are tanks, so with familiar object in it we have a better scale of the panels ,i know it looks funny but it gives an appreciation of whats possible with those things.

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Details

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Thickness; one reason for their thicness i've red is that, they are 30% porous therefore they absorb water more than dry rock and contribute to bacterial colonisation.

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Flat back

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They will fit on back wall that i wont have to clean up and most of all reduce the footprint of my rockwork in the tank and giving me lots of swimming and grazing room for my fish ; its a win win. I still will have to put some rocks but not as much and i'll wont have to do any special aquascaping this time. These panels are perfect they give plenty of levels to put corals at any heights i desires.

The back of these panels are totally flat. Which bring me to the fitting. Since i don't want any dead spots and accumulation of debrit; even in small quantity; i'll silicone seal these completely on the back and foam the sides to ensure no water goes in the back and imprison any small amount of debris that i can't get at. I don't intend to redoo my tank in 4 or 5 years, and the day i want to redoo it i'll have a job anyway in front of me regardless.

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Bottoms; they can stand on their own

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I'll have a nice back wall free of maintenance, art deco, ready to receive corals, at any heights, no sculpting necessary for me, plenty of swimming room for my fish, and better flow in the tank.
 
What are the name of those panels? They look nice is it ceramic? Cost? I want the back wall look without the foam..

I check your thread at almost every update=) it gives some nice examples for everybody. I still haven't set up my new tank yet(finally just got the last of my equipment) and have prob close to 250lbs of live rock brewing away in a brute that i need to scape and I will use the tools you have given the thread in my project.. Hoping the artist in me comes out for that one project cause it usually doesn't show up very often =)..
 
What are the name of those panels? They look nice is it ceramic? Cost? I want the back wall look without the foam..

I check your thread at almost every update=) it gives some nice examples for everybody. I still haven't set up my new tank yet(finally just got the last of my equipment) and have prob close to 250lbs of live rock brewing away in a brute that i need to scape and I will use the tools you have given the thread in my project.. Hoping the artist in me comes out for that one project cause it usually doesn't show up very often =)..

You would be surprise sometimes at what you could do.
Now thos panels are ceramic made in Germany, they are very expensive, usually, $ 17/ lb, and i got them for $ 3/ lb. i bought 10 panels for my 2 tanks that i'm starting soon. For obvious reason, they'll take about 60 % of my rock volume away from my sand bed, so less detritus trapping, more swimming room for the fish, more grazing room for the fish, using an entire panel usually unused ans wasted . My bacterial count will be higer because these panels absorb 30% water, they're very porous. They do NOT leach any chemical of any kind, these are not ordinary ceramics, these are made specifically for aquariums, the manifacturer wouldn't be in business long if he didn't adress these problems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPl7R2JKQ-A&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFdfdxt3LnuihwIJUGqREF5K&index=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfBDajiCegU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfBDajiCegU


This is the video about those panel made in Germany
 
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Brainstorming

Brainstorming

Brainstorming

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How easy its is to hide a pipe , very easy; Super glue, foam rocks, done no more pipe + your frag will take over in a few months.I would use pond foam, the black foam UV resistant, fish safe, waterproof. You don't have to sand it will be taken over soon enough by the corals and coraline, but if you want to hide the foam; its resin + sand coating and you'll have a crust it wont show. The foam is "GREAT STUFF™ POND & STONE. at Home depot. green can

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GREAT STUFF™ POND & STONE


GREAT STUFF™ Pond & Stone is a polyurethane-based foam adhesive designed for use in water features. By expanding to fill gaps and cracks, it works as a water-resistant sealant to help direct the flow of water in waterfall, pond and streambed construction to go where you want it to go, not under or behind rocks. The foam is black to blend in among the stones and shadows. It cures in 8 hours to create a water-shedding bond for stone, rock, masonry, concrete and most other building materials. It's perfect for water features from fountains to koi ponds because it's safe for fish.

Landscape/hardscape foam filler, sealer and adhesive
Damp and dry application
Adheres to stone and rock
Fish safe
Expands to fill gaps to direct water flow over rocks
Secures stones without mortar
Repairs cracks and holes in trees
Cures in 8 hours
Black colored foam
All-direction dispensing
UL Classified
One 12 oz. can = up to 19 tubes of caulk
One 16 oz. can = up to 24 tubes of caulk
 
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wow, you guys got super nice scape.

Thank , their not my personnal scapes they are a collection i have of different ideas i've pick up over the years and to give suggestions to those who are looking for some. Plus i've done some for friends and people who saw mine. I did horticulture courses and landscaping before so i have an eye lol. I've posted threads before about this subject and usually people find it interesting if not usefull. I enjoy making it anyway.
 
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