Tips and Tricks on Creating Amazing Aquascapes
- Thread starter Veganbrian
- Start date
knight2255
New member
Just wanted to add that to get good shots of your newly made aquascapes/reefs, to get the ProHDR app for your iphone/android...... you'll be amazed how much better your pictures will be. Especially with the weird lighting on our tanks. I get better photos with that app than I can with my expensive camera. The HDR takes two pictures at two different exposure levels and combines them. Then you can tweak the tint, saturation, contrast and brightness to make the photo a lot closer to what we actually see with our eyes.
Just wanted to add, do not be afraid to run much less rock than is often recommended..the ole 1-2lbs per gallon holds no real weight (LOL). so go for your dream aquascape...if it comes out you got 60 lbs of rock in your 120 don't fret it will be plenty enough. This is a great thread, hopefully threads like this will open more people up to creating open, beautiful aquascapes instead of a ton of rock loading down the aquarium.
Veganbrian
New member
You have shown a very fine example of how you can place a formation in the middle and still use the rule of thirds on the rest of the tank. Looks great I'm not sure how far back the structure goes, but you could add more rock behind it for more sense of depth if theres room.Hi Veganbrian,
Very useful info... Thanks a lot for the pointers and sharing this
I just finished my scape...
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2022954&page=36
Could you please take a look and give me some suggestions? I will be very grateful.
Thanks.
:thumbsup:I've thought about it but the somewhat ironic thing is (often) stickying a thread kills it. For good threads like this one its almost always better to just leave it unstickied and let the community keep it on the first page rather than sticky it where it seems most people don't look or read.
^^ agreed. You can always throw the remaining bit in the sump/fuge if you are nervous about less rock.
Thanks everyone for your nice comments. glad you enjoyed the read!
Reef_Noob
New member
Thanks so much for viewing my thread and for the kind words of compliment and encouragement.
Aesthetics and natural is what I am trying to aim for in my new setup. Your advice has helped me and gave me a new perspective. Thanks
I am grateful for the advice on my scape. I will try to work on DOF with some rock I have available...maybe a small bommie towards the right back side between the middle and right columns?
one more thing... I'm hoping veganbrian is not suggesting putting eggcrate in the substrate... reality is that is a horrible idea... If you use egg crate you now have a massive dietritus trap setup.. the corners or the crate stop flow and collect detritus... do not us egg crate under your rock work.
Veganbrian
New member
Yes, do NOT use eggcrate under rock!
Patrick Cox
Active member
I am currently planning a build and I am thinking I will need to use some technique like using rods and epoxy or maybe PVC to support my rock structure. Please post any info or links to info on this topic if you know of any. Thanks!
One stand out that comes to mind is Reef Smac's TOTM setup. He has lots of examples where he used rods, polygem reef safe epoxy, PVC and more. Of course there are others but I think you will like it. You can his build info at http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1798674
Patrick Cox
Active member
Thanks! Will check it out! :thumbsup:
livingseas
New member
Hmm is this the case with a 4" DSB? I was planning on using eggcreate just under my rock work areas to reduce the point load of the rockwork on the glass. I have a 72x36x24 300 gallon tank so it will have a lot a rock weight on the bottom glass.
So my tank has dual rear corner overflows and its quite wide at 36"
Any suggestions on a layout to use? I'd love to cover both corner overlfows
but I dont want a giant pile of rock in each corner.
It will be viewable from 3 sides with the back painted a medium blue.
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
Or another idea I was planning on doing was placing various PVC pieces along the bottom of the tank about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in height depending on how high you want your sand bed to be. The PVC could be the same diameter and then stack the rock on top of the PVC pipe. What pipe doesn't get used can be removed. That way more bacteria can be colonized on the rock if that makes more sense.
Ptyochromis
New member
+1
Maybe even drill holes in the side of the pipe so worms and other critters can still move around the DSB.
some folks do build a PVC base for their rocks... basically you build a square with the pipe and elbows for each rock work section. Much better way to raise the rock up over the substrate.
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
But I was thinking about cutting them about the size of couplings and laying them in designated areas where you want to place the base rock and build the rock on top of that then removing the leftover PVC. I cut a few 2 inch PVC pipes in 1 1/2 in lengths and plan on placing them on the bottom as I want some jawfish and i didn't want to put the rock on the bottom of the tank.
Salt water weighs approx 8.55 lbs per gallon so at 300 gallons, the bottom glass of your tank is already weighed down with 2,565 pounds of water. :beer:
I am too new to have an opinion about a sticky or not but this is a great thread. Those of us with no talent for art know vaguely what we want but don't know why or how to get there. We just know it when we see it. The OP is able to articulate what the rest of us feel when we see it. I am all for whatever keeps this thread on the front page where I can reference it again. Thanks.
Mc
Mc
mwilliams62
New member
Thanks for posting this I am always rearranging my rock work never happy with it. With this thread I hope i too can do beautiful rockscaping.
Veganbrian
New member
Looks great. I would just clean up some of the stuff off the sandbed. glad This thread is helping people. Any questions just let me know.
