Tips and Tricks on Creating Amazing Aquascapes

Hey guys. I posted in this thread a long time ago when I had my 55 gallon mixed reef and you all were great. So im coming to you again. Ive had a 125 gallon mixed reef for about 5 months now. Ive rearranged the rock scape 4 times!!! It never satisfies. I have a vision in my head but am not very good at putting it to actual fruition. So I recently got some more LR and decided to try again. Below is a picture of the tank tonight. I like the rockwork for the most part but not entirely. Ive managed to get some front to back and top to bottom depth but not as much as Id like. I dont want to tear down and start fresh again as this took me 3 hours last night. I would however like some tips and pointers on ways to tweak it and get some better depth. Thanks in advance and if you need any more info let me know-Greg
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greg1786 said:
Hey guys. I posted in this thread a long time ago when I had my 55 gallon mixed reef and you all were great. So im coming to you again. Ive had a 125 gallon mixed reef for about 5 months now. Ive rearranged the rock scape 4 times!!! It never satisfies. I have a vision in my head but am not very good at putting it to actual fruition. So I recently got some more LR and decided to try again. Below is a picture of the tank tonight. I like the rockwork for the most part but not entirely. Ive managed to get some front to back and top to bottom depth but not as much as Id like. I dont want to tear down and start fresh again as this took me 3 hours last night. I would however like some tips and pointers on ways to tweak it and get some better depth. Thanks in advance and if you need any more info let me know-Greg
image_zpsf107bc71.jpg
Click to expand...


Its looking good but if you want to take it further, I'd add some rock on the left in front of the left overflow. That will make the left and right sides look more unique to each other and would be inline with tips and tricks of the original poster - veganbrian.
 
I would recommend rereading the op's posts regarding scales (5::3) and then his color charts. Start at this point and then seek for feedback from the thread.
 
Also a Big Fan of the Two Islands, Three might cause shadows depending of Led Placement. But it sure looks great Though
 
ReefKeeper64 said:
Its looking good but if you want to take it further, I'd add some rock on the left in front of the left overflow. That will make the left and right sides look more unique to each other and would be inline with tips and tricks of the original poster - veganbrian.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! I really was hoping to get more front to back depth, but I think I need more height to acheive that. The closest point of the rockwork to the front glass is about 7 inches from the front panel and the closest point to the back panel is less than an inch. Do you think if I added enough rock to raise the scape four inches or so that I could add more rock to get a better sloping appearence, or in otherwords make the tank appear deeper than it actually is?
 
The one thing that's really been bothering me is my overflow box. It's about 9 inches or so from the left side of my tank. How would you hide it? Or how would you aquascape around it? Because of how much the box protrudes, there isn't a lot of space in front of it.
 
I really love this thread by the way! I read all 18 pages in 2 hours! (of course, I would look at my own tank every page or so to see how it compared....)
 
I bought a large tank and am looking about how to aquascape it. Can someone who's familiar with this thread point me to the pages I need to work with larger tanks (6ft long, 3ft wide).

Thanks
 
The principles and theories apply to tanks of all sizes. The first page at the very least is a must read. There are a lot of good ideas and pics throughout the entire thread that might benefit you.
 
Nice info. I tend to scape my stuff were there are a lot of tunnels thru the rock scape. This allows the fish to swim thru and flow thru the entire tank.
 
Veganbrian said:
In addition:

I firmly believe that the same rules apply to any size tank. The only difference is going to be scale. Instead of huge rocks break them up to create a smaller version of the beautiful reef tanks you see. There's other things to try to still get that "look" In a cube the issue is theres not enough length to do multiple structures. Thats when you only do one. Rule of thirds still applies but only use one intersected point instead of two.

aquascape2.jpg

Here is a great example. It is only on one point with one main structure. notice the movement and shapes of the rocks. Great play with shadows and highlights. If you look at the one structure they still managed to hit two intersecting points. Thats what makes this look go good to the eye. Make sure to "taper" off the structure for that same Depth of field you need to aim for, also for maximum coral space :)
Click to expand...


Can some one clear this up for me? In his first post, he mentioned that you want to hit all four intersection points. But then here he said "try to hit only one instead of two" (when talking about smaller tanks).

So with a large tank, should all four points be filled with something?
 
So after looking at a lot of freshwater planted tanks to help give my mom some ideas for things she might want to do, I had a bit of a revelation. Perhaps it was already said in this thread but I don't remember reading it. Anyways, something that I realized about the tanks that I love to look at is what draws my interest isn't what's presented to me. It's the things that are KIND OF presented. The things I have to hunt a bit for. They keep my attention more and even tend to summon a small amount of frustration (although brief and on a very low level) because I can't see what I want to immediately. Once I explore the tank more, I feel like I get some type of relief from these urges and it's very rewarding. Also, if all the corals are presented front and center then you tend to get desensitized to them. I think the corals tucked around the corner serve a very important purpose. They divert attention and allow you to take a break from the beautiful colonies that are sitting in the front. They play off of each other. All of this leads into the importance of depth. I think that's the ultimate underlying benefit of having depth in an aquascape.

And that's my psycho-analysis of viewing a coral reef tank!
 
nrbelk said:
Can some one clear this up for me? In his first post, he mentioned that you want to hit all four intersection points. But then here he said "try to hit only one instead of two" (when talking about smaller tanks).

So with a large tank, should all four points be filled with something?
Click to expand...

With a typical rectangular shaped tank, you have the width to create an aquascape with two structures. You can create two islands that hit on all four intersection points. When talking about only hitting one structure instead of two, he is referring to a cube tank shape. In that case, he suggests a single structure. It could be a 250 gal cube or an 8 gal cube but because of the shape, you really can't fit two structures in such a tank. So with a large tank, it still depends on the shape. If your large tank is rectangular then two structures. If your large tank is a cube, one. :beer:
 
I would love opinions on where to take my aqua scaping :) Currently my tech 120 4x2 is a work in progress. I would prefer some more natural aqua scape but maintain lots of swimming area. Currently im thinking mixed reef for the tank, zoa's, frogspawn, hammer, star polyp etc... maybe 1-5 sps in like a year or so???

The current formations are for the most part boring rock piles, they do provide lots of hiding and void areas for safe slumber so im happy with that and for the most part would like to keep it the same just work off of it.. Thinking archway is in order... :idea:

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Thanks guys :bounce3:
 
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