Tips and Tricks on Creating Amazing Aquascapes.

[spiraling]

Updated took some off the top and make some shelves in the front and left side

Both look great! I'm more drawn to the second one, but both will be amazing covered in coral!

 

[Whipples]

Hoping I can eat some feedback or suggestions on my current plan from you fine folks! Trying to play up the idea of negative space while keeping decent options for the future tang (or two) and eventual emphasis on SPS corals. Tank will be 48Lx24Wx20H. Thanks!

 

[LEOreefer]

Just re did mine and this is the final version! Very happy how it turned out !

 

[afgi]

Hi,

Can you please help me to find the best aquascape?

Thanks

 

[samnaz]

Dorniakm, I think this one... #7 has the most promise of them all.

I like that the height varies between each of the structures, makes it more interesting. Also has a few nice caves, and plenty of surface area for corals.

In my opinion, it would look even better if you moved the whole scape forward a couple inches. It looks like there is a lot of space in front and none behind.

 

[gurumasta]

 

[billy1205]

My 7ft new rock scape

 

[MamaLovesHerReefTank]

My 7ft new rock scape

This is really good. Lots of caves, room for corals and a lot of swim room. Hope to see this filled.

 

[Winschuc]

Looks great!! Where did you get those brackets for the canopy?

 

[Ashish Patel]

I feel most ppl just need to get a chiesel and rubber mallet and sacrifice the least favorite piece of LR. Once you have a smaller pieces things start making more sense from a fish, coral, and aesthetics perspective. The amount of small natural pieces that break of can be easily epoxied on to make awesome tunnels and rock structures. I used mostly epoxy and 2 acrylic rods on mine. one of the pieces consists of 6 pieces of LR with a 3 entry points and the tangs are constantly fighting for this area. So more tunnels with multiple exit points is the most valuable real estate.

Below picture is what i started with and ended with.

 

[Hely'sreef1]

So I'm currently in the process of aquascaping. I'm using live rock and putty. First day took all the rock out (80 kg), had been in the tank water for a few days. Spent about 2 hours forming the base structure but was concerned about leaving the rock out for so long. Ended up piling the rest back in while I consider my next move. As I'm cycling I don't want to kill the rock so am planning on doing the rest in small stages. Will that be ok? Will I keep interrupting my cycle by taking out portions of rock at a time to scape and set in putty? All advice gratefully appreciated!

 

[Maritimer]

That should be fine, as long as the bacteria don't get dried out - and it'll take a lot more than an hour or two to reach the bacteria deep inside the rock.

~Bruce

 

[Reefbuds]

Before and after of my reef. This thread really helped me rescape. I'm about to a little more next week and see if I can tweek it a little.

 

[Denisk]

Current scape for the reefer 350

 

[Grey Guy]

I found the same ideas once in another link. Still hard for me to get it right. I'm just getting ready to re-scape my reef, so it comes at a really good time. Last time I didn't have anyone to talk to about it. What always happens to me, is when I'm moving rock and pile it up randomly, it looks better than when I try to make it look good. There is also the question of water flow and maintenance that makes me not able to do things just the way I want. Can you help me get my head wrapped around this. As soon as I start planning, I seem to stall out. The hardest part is the starting point, where to place the first rock, and which one to use. I guess you already tried to explain this. Then to create a plan for coral placement throughout the reef, instead of trying to figure out where to put things after I'm done. Any more tips would be great. I have never been very happy with my own reef scrapes.

Thanks,
Grey Guy

 

[MamaLovesHerReefTank]

I found the same ideas once in another link. Still hard for me to get it right. I'm just getting ready to re-scape my reef, so it comes at a really good time. Last time I didn't have anyone to talk to about it. What always happens to me, is when I'm moving rock and pile it up randomly, it looks better than when I try to make it look good. There is also the question of water flow and maintenance that makes me not able to do things just the way I want. Can you help me get my head wrapped around this. As soon as I start planning, I seem to stall out. The hardest part is the starting point, where to place the first rock, and which one to use. I guess you already tried to explain this. Then to create a plan for coral placement throughout the reef, instead of trying to figure out where to put things after I'm done. Any more tips would be great. I have never been very happy with my own reef scrapes.

Thanks,
Grey Guy

You might try doing it outside the tank first. Use cardboard cut to the size of your tank. Have glue or reef putty so if you like the way something fits together, you can glue it on the spot. I like to move the pieces around like fitting a puzzle piece. You are trying to get swim through spaces, hiding spaces and places to attach coral.
What size is your tank? What kind of rock are you using?
This is my 55g I just restarted. I also have a 125g that I changed the scape many many times until I was happy.

 

[Grey Guy]

You might try doing it outside the tank first. Use cardboard cut to the size of your tank. Have glue or reef putty so if you like the way something fits together, you can glue it on the spot. I like to move the pieces around like fitting a puzzle piece. You are trying to get swim through spaces, hiding spaces and places to attach coral.
What size is your tank? What kind of rock are you using?
This is my 55g I just restarted. I also have a 125g that I changed the scape many many times until I was happy.

I have a 120g 2' x 4' base and live rock of many shapes and sizes, more than I need. Mostly Fiji rock.
Thank you for the suggestions. I will try them. I think that outside the water is the only way I can see and feel what I'm doing. I tried it before, but it all fell apart in the tank. Next time I will use epoxy and take lots of pictures. A 2' by 4' peice of plywood makes a good setup base for my size tank.

 

[Reefishness]

I feel most ppl just need to get a chiesel and rubber mallet and sacrifice the least favorite piece of LR. Once you have a smaller pieces things start making more sense from a fish, coral, and aesthetics perspective. The amount of small natural pieces that break of can be easily epoxied on to make awesome tunnels and rock structures. I used mostly epoxy and 2 acrylic rods on mine. one of the pieces consists of 6 pieces of LR with a 3 entry points and the tangs are constantly fighting for this area. So more tunnels with multiple exit points is the most valuable real estate.

Below picture is what i started with and ended with.

+1 on acrylic driveway rods and some proper cementing with small pieces for final effect. I also use a piece of acrylic to mount the bases to to prevent shifting

 

[Ashish Patel]

I found the same ideas once in another link. Still hard for me to get it right. I'm just getting ready to re-scape my reef, so it comes at a really good time. Last time I didn't have anyone to talk to about it. What always happens to me, is when I'm moving rock and pile it up randomly, it looks better than when I try to make it look good. There is also the question of water flow and maintenance that makes me not able to do things just the way I want. Can you help me get my head wrapped around this. As soon as I start planning, I seem to stall out. The hardest part is the starting point, where to place the first rock, and which one to use. I guess you already tried to explain this. Then to create a plan for coral placement throughout the reef, instead of trying to figure out where to put things after I'm done. Any more tips would be great. I have never been very happy with my own reef scrapes.

Thanks,
Grey Guy

Live Rock is tricky since its wet and more difficult to epoxy. Best bet for LR is probably find additional shelf pieces and make a rod structure (see mike paletta-sanjays tanks), and slide the pieces on... I have done this before with older LR its pretty straight forward and gives your tons of overhangs.

On my new tank I used Reefsaver rock and I had some old Pukani and fiji that i ended up using.... Pukani is the best to aquascape and overall appeal but its dirty and I personally would not add this to an existing tank without curing for at least 4-6 months. Therefore I opted for reef-saver rock since its proven to be amazingly clean and free of all dead organics. I know this for a fact because nuisance algae is avoiding this rock.. I've had nuisance algae flock to one of my fiji pieces

The trick is to have more Rock to work with... That way you have left overs for frag plugs and such... Send me pictures if you need help decided I can advice.

 

[gurumasta]

Looks great!! Where did you get those brackets for the canopy?

I got them from a buddy they have a certain use. I will find out and let you know as soon I can. Sorry for the delay I missed this post.

Thanks for the compliment!