What lessons have your aquascape taught you?

[Arthacker87]

Once established and coral growing all over it.... good luck getting fish out.

 

[Fishinabarrel]

So this is my first reef tank as such first time aquascaping in a reef tank as well... I wanted to create a bonsai/NSA style scape and tried to take into account of shadowing when I built the scape.

The more I look at it, the more I want to fix it or add more to it. Anyone have any suggestions for me? (Are my branches too close together for a nano?) This going into a 18x18x18 cube, hopefully I didn't build too close to the walls. I am planning to add a small island up at the front with a piece of live rock when I cycle my tank.

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I would stop here!

 

[PeterReefer]

I like to leave some space between the rocks and glass, for scraping and cleaning. As well as enough space that a clumsy invert that might knock over a piece, you can retrieve the piece of coral/frag. Also, I’ve learned (the hard way) that an avalanche might cause a chip or crack in the glass!

 

[blaxsun]

What have I learned? Fish love caves. Lots and lots of caves...

 

[GHOSTLY]

I made my aquascape with RRR and I learned my lesson for aquascpaing. I love my scape but the old one was TERRIBLE.
Don't underestimate growth
Caves are important.
dedicate areas.
My new scape is perfect for me as it has caves, space to grow, and dedicated areas

 

[Rp8]

I think of areas to sleep, hide, and control flow and light. And of course I have to like it.

 

[afrokobe]

Sometimes

Depends if you want to pack as much coral in there or not. I personally love a clean sandbed and would leave it like that to have this cool contrast, it’s really unique and would be a shame to change it

I would stop here!

Thanks, guys. Appreciate the vote of confidence. I think the more I look at it, the more I want to find things wrong and try to fix. I come from the freshwater side and was really involved in planted tank aquascaping. I feel like I always have aquascape regret once I am done . Since everything is glued down here, I just have some anxiety about calling the scape done. I am constantly moving things around in my planted tanks haha.

 

[Simon Reefing]

Don’t over react in this hobby this leads way more problems

 

[workhz]

I used to move rocks around so much on previous tanks. Current one just kinda came together and I’ve left it alone. Definitely good to have space between the rocks and back of tank.

 

[Queenofreef]

I've learned a few thing in my time escaping aquariums
Some things I've learned are :
*give yourself plenty of rock to choose from
*always build a structure before filling the tank
*sketch your idea first
*be okay with it no looking like your sketch

Having plenty of rock is essential imo! Can’t tell you how many times I needed to redo portions because of cement mistakes or the structure falling and breaking. Plus, what you don’t use is worth keeping around— I keep leftovers handy to use as a base for frags, adding small chunks over time, nem rocks, etc.

 

[Queenofreef]

I kind of knew where this was going. I don't need advice from a fish hater. Won't help me one bit. GL on the views

Only included it since people replied about having trouble with design, it’s not even the topic of this thread. Didn’t mean to offend you.

 

[Queenofreef]

I used to move rocks around so much on previous tanks. Current one just kinda came together and I’ve left it alone. Definitely good to have space between the rocks and back of tank.

Didn’t even think of that when I made my live rock scape whoops

 

[ninjamyst]

Just put this scape together:




What I learned:
- Keep height low. I am planning to completely demolish the first branching structure next week and start over and make it lower. It is currently 14in high and will be going in a 20in high tank.
- Make plenty of caves and hidey holes and ledges for fish to hide. It's a balance between minimalistic and practicality. Not shown in my photos are additional rubles I will lay next to the main rock structure to create safe space for smaller fish.
- Avoid too many flat spaces. I am not a fan of stax or smooth flat surface. They do not look natural.

 

[workhz]

That seagull structure on the left in the first pic is gonna give your fish nightmares.

 

[Rmckoy]

Interested in hearing about any lessons your current/previous aquascapes have taught you, or what you would change if you could go back in time!

I’ll start—
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My 40g is my second tank and first true aquascaping attempt (pile of live rock in first build). With this scape, I grossly underestimated the room corals need and left ~3-4” of space between glass and rock. Looks great empty, but not taking into account fully grown-in coral size means I almost always knock some off and angry zoas when doing maintenance. And that sucks.

If I could go back, I would’ve paid more attention to shadowing—the left side has stayed empty because of serious shadowing from the large pillar. Wish I paid attention to that in the tank prior to committing as my coral choices are sadly quite limited there now.

Recently added rubble pieces on the top ledge and arch and it’s really made the difference with this tank. My aquascape had very flat areas, making the corals look a bit one-dimensional when placed together. Looking back, I think my initial scape was too cut-and-dry, adding little pieces of rubble here and there makes the aquascape look much more visually interesting.

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With my new 220g, tried to apply those lessons and quite happy with the results. Paid a lot of attention to shadowing because wanted to give each coral “the best spot in the tank”. But this was challenging because as a newbie to large aquascaping it was hard to create height while also avoiding sharp slopes. To avoid that, focused on the transitions between heights more and made sure the slopes (?) were drawn out.

Another challenge was leaving enough room for future colonies at the top of the scape with enough space between the coral and waterline. Creating a wooden stake showing the height limit helped a LOT when building!


What are the lessons you’ve learned from your aquascapes? Hopefully I can learn some new techniques!

I think it like great .

a
Step up from my current stacked pile
Of rocks .

if there is another upgrade I would like to try more of a branching stick look .

 

[ninjamyst]

That seagull structure on the left in the first pic is gonna give your fish nightmares.

That's the rock I am gonna demolish =P. It's also heavy as hell and not stable. So gonna take a hammer to it next week and see what shakes out

 

[Reef and Dive]

My personal lesson is:

I planned this:

Then I collected too much coral and messed up with this:

Then I did a radical restart and went back to what made me much happier, this:

So, if you have a nice plan, just stick to the plan….

 

[Goaway]

Only included it since people replied about having trouble with design, it’s not even the topic of this thread. Didn’t mean to offend you.

I was being serious about views. Its hard work. Lots of work. GL with channel. Need more stuff for newbies entering the hobby.

And no, not offended.

 

[Miami Reef]

@Queenofreef I’m a huge fan. I’ve watched all your aquascaping videos.

It took a while, but here’s my scape:

It’s not perfect. But it works. It took me the whole year of constant changing to get it like this. I realized it’s not healthy for me to look at aquascaping threads because I’m never happy with my work. If given the chance, I’d break it down and redo it again. But I’m tired of aquascaping. I never want to touch another rock again. It’s backbreaking, soul crushing work.

I seriously overworked myself on this tank. I got burned out. I tore down my tank over 6 times this YEAR just because of the aquascape.

 

[sam.veilleux30]

Good thread!
For me since the time i had to deal with aefw and monti eating nudibranch i dont glue corals on the scape anymore.
like this since 2018.
Now i have 3 rocks with "holders" to place the corals.

Waaay easier to treat or frag corals this way.