Aquascaping Disaster! Need some help!!

Pisces28 · 01/22/2015, 10:23 AM

If you guys can help me come up with ANY ideas on how to aquascape the rocks that I have, I would appreciate it. I know its tough to explain via a post, but any suggestions will be helpful. I have been at this for three days now, and cannot get it right

I will be taking everything out of the tank tonight, draining the water, and starting over.

So the red rocks in the second picture, I have already taken them out and broke them into pieces for better stacking. Also, in the second picture, the piece on the bottom right and bottom left I do not plan on using at all.

What I am going to use:

- All the white rocks in picture #1
- The large white one in #2 (The whitest one)
- All the red ones.

Thank you so much in advance!

RocketEngineer · 01/22/2015, 10:35 AM

I would make a PVC stand and drill one of the smaller rocks to go on the bottom. Then I would take that big flat rock in the center of picture two and place that over the PVC stand using an off-center hole to create an overhang. Then I would place a third rock on top to cover the end of the PVC frame. The other rocks I would scatter around the structure.

Inspiration:

Another option is to cut the large round bolder in the back right of picture #2 and use the pieces to make up part of the same structure or another one. I did something similar with one of my pieces:

The big rock in the center before:

And after the dis-assembly/reassembly:

In both cases I used PVC fittings to make a square base with a post coming out of the center and then mounted the pieces of rock onto the post. Zip ties, super glue, and a chisel let me sculpt the pieces as I wanted.

HTH,

Pisces28 · 01/22/2015, 10:52 AM

Hello,

Thank you !!
What exactly is a PVC stand?

RocketEngineer · 01/22/2015, 11:19 AM

I don't have a good picture of mine. You can see the base sticking out on the top pictures. I start by cutting the vertical piece that everything goes around. You can make it overly tall and cut it down later but its tricky once you start adding rock. This pipe goes into the side of a Tee. The Tee gets an elbow on either side of it which form two corners of a rectangle. The other three sides and two corners make up the rectangular base. The whole thing is just dry fit together and squeezed tight. By dry fitting the pieces I can adjust how straight/angled the vertical pipe is to match what I want.

Nothing complicated about it, just a squarish base with a pipe sticking up out of one side. I bury mine in the sand.

Pisces28 · 01/22/2015, 11:23 AM

I will definitely look into this.
thank you for the advice.
Your piece looks great!

01/22/2015, 11:19 AM	#4
RocketEngineer Space is big. Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Maryland Eastern Shore Posts: 3,226	I don't have a good picture of mine. You can see the base sticking out on the top pictures. I start by cutting the vertical piece that everything goes around. You can make it overly tall and cut it down later but its tricky once you start adding rock. This pipe goes into the side of a Tee. The Tee gets an elbow on either side of it which form two corners of a rectangle. The other three sides and two corners make up the rectangular base. The whole thing is just dry fit together and squeezed tight. By dry fitting the pieces I can adjust how straight/angled the vertical pipe is to match what I want. Nothing complicated about it, just a squarish base with a pipe sticking up out of one side. I bury mine in the sand. __________________ -RocketEngineer "Knowledge is what you get when you read the directions, experience is what you get when you don't." - Unknown Current Tank Info: None Currently

01/22/2015, 10:35 AM	#2
RocketEngineer Space is big. Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Maryland Eastern Shore Posts: 3,226	I would make a PVC stand and drill one of the smaller rocks to go on the bottom. Then I would take that big flat rock in the center of picture two and place that over the PVC stand using an off-center hole to create an overhang. Then I would place a third rock on top to cover the end of the PVC frame. The other rocks I would scatter around the structure. Inspiration: Another option is to cut the large round bolder in the back right of picture #2 and use the pieces to make up part of the same structure or another one. I did something similar with one of my pieces: The big rock in the center before: And after the dis-assembly/reassembly: In both cases I used PVC fittings to make a square base with a post coming out of the center and then mounted the pieces of rock onto the post. Zip ties, super glue, and a chisel let me sculpt the pieces as I wanted. HTH, __________________ -RocketEngineer "Knowledge is what you get when you read the directions, experience is what you get when you don't." - Unknown Current Tank Info: None Currently

01/22/2015, 10:52 AM	#3
Pisces28 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: New York Posts: 26	Hello, Thank you !! What exactly is a PVC stand?

01/22/2015, 11:23 AM	#5
Pisces28 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: New York Posts: 26	I will definitely look into this. thank you for the advice. Your piece looks great!