Tips and Tricks on Creating Amazing Aquascapes

[wyattroa]

Thoughts, first time trying this out instead of just stacking rocks and calling it a day. I was trying for a bonsai tree look but, think I failed pretty hard.

[smoothdog]

Why? Imagine it with sand in the bottom and coral growing all over it. I think it will look great all grown out.

[Curious George]

Looks like a pair of Schnauzers playing

[MikeTR]

Originally Posted by MikeTR

Before reading this thread:


After reading this thread:


Let column will be reduced in height and thickened up towards the back. I just piled up the rock to get out of the way. I tried hanging a black background but cannot get it to stay on. Any tips?

Couldn't be happier.

[Wildedog]

Here is what I have. Tell me what you think.

Should I bust up the big rocks and rework it?
How do people make over hangs? Do they use glue?

[Lez uk]

Hi All
I see some very nice Aquascapes on here ,So I like to have a nice set up for when I put fish in, It be fish only and no more then 6,
I have only put 6 bits of rock in so not a lot to work with in move around.
Here is a photo so you see how I done it but still not happy with the way its come out.

[paparchasa84]

What do you guys suggest I have one huge piece of rock should I break that up or should I add more live rock to he tank ?

[kara13]

Great ideas. I'm going to start my design next month. This will help.

[Veganbrian]

Originally Posted by Wildedog

Here is what I have. Tell me what you think.

Should I bust up the big rocks and rework it?
How do people make over hangs? Do they use glue?

Acrylic rods sometimes depending on how heavy the rock is and Underwater epoxy. Usually bought at most LFS.

Originally Posted by Lez uk

Hi All
I see some very nice Aquascapes on here ,So I like to have a nice set up for when I put fish in, It be fish only and no more then 6,
I have only put 6 bits of rock in so not a lot to work with in move around.
Here is a photo so you see how I done it but still not happy with the way its come out.

Originally Posted by paparchasa84

What do you guys suggest I have one huge piece of rock should I break that up or should I add more live rock to he tank ?

All three of these scapes have the same issues. The rocks are not very fluidly placed. You guys need to make sure to create a background,mid and foreground. There needs to be more flow with the structures and try to get them to lock up correctly. You probably have to make some of the more perfectly round looking pieces more jagged, and natural, and not so perfect.

[Veganbrian]

Originally Posted by MikeTR

Couldn't be happier.

Looks great! love the fish selection. You going all sps?

[tcp316]

I have a 70g cube. I hsd a hard time with my aquascape. I wanted it to not touch the sides. I used acrylic rods. I measured on the floor but somehow when we lifted it and put in the tank I couldn't make it fit at the angle I wanted. Its been up a year but ive just started over with corals. Ive been battling cancer and just couldn't keep up with maintenance. My dear daughter came for a visit and tried to do a water and got the salinity way too low. 95% of my corals and inverts died.




Here is how it came out. Im unhappy with the size of aragonite and may switch it out slowly but I have eggcrate so I'm unsure how to remove it.( the eggcrate)


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

[MikeTR]

Originally Posted by Veganbrian

Looks great! love the fish selection. You going all sps?

Majority will be SPS. But I've got a huge learning curve to overcome obviously. My 2 stylophora frags are RTN'ing. Cap is now bleaching. Lights are putting out some serious par. Going to need to find some SPS that love 900s.

[jgalvin]

What a fantastic thread, i tried to do my best to incorporate the concepts and flow to redesign my rockwork. Would appreciate any input or suggestions, my corals (and fish) are not too happy about me moving them over and over. Thanks much!

[livingseas]

So I got my 350 lb order of rocks from Reefrocks for my 300 gallon tank.

I have some really huge pieces. 2x 20lb shelves, and a 30 lb column/spire
in there.

How do ya'll go about glueing this much rock together? Cement? Epoxy?
Whats the best way? Silicone?

I thinking about getting a piece of cardboard the size of the tank, drawing
the thirds lines on it and glueing it all up outside the tank in 3 or 4
large objects.

My cell phone if one one of the large pieces for size comparison.. huge.
The spire is 25" long! My tank is 27" high.

[jbfloor]

I used JB waterweld and gorrila glue. This is for a dry build with base rock.

Silicone is not nearly strong enough, stay away from that.

Also, look into building PVC structures to support your rocks. You can check my build thread for some simple examples.

[ridetheducati]

Originally Posted by livingseas

So I got my 350 lb order of rocks from Reefrocks for my 300 gallon tank.

I have some really huge pieces. 2x 20lb shelves, and a 30 lb column/spire
in there.

How do ya'll go about glueing this much rock together? Cement? Epoxy?
Whats the best way? Silicone?

I thinking about getting a piece of cardboard the size of the tank, drawing
the thirds lines on it and glueing it all up outside the tank in 3 or 4
large objects.

My cell phone if one one of the large pieces for size comparison.. huge.
The spire is 25" long! My tank is 27" high.

Strongly recommend a dry aquascape with mortar from Marco Rocks.

[livingseas]

Originally Posted by ridetheducati

Strongly recommend a dry aquascape with mortar from Marco Rocks.

No that I see it.. it looks like a great solution for the volume of bonding
I need to do. How much do you think I should get for 350 lbs?

2x 15 lb kits?

[Rare Angels]

I have a "L" shaped tank, the front viewing panels are 5' long. The depth is 2' and the height is 2'. Any suggestions?

[livingseas]

So I've started laying out my tank on cardboard to scale.. its 72wx36dx27h

I'm a total noob at aquascaping so I am looking for advice. This is
a really rough sketch of what I am thinking from a top down POV.

The X's represent areas I dont want rock. The 1/4 circles in the corners
represent the overflows. There are three rock structures
in the tank of varying heights. In there will be shelves, caves,
a spire. I see the one on the right as the tallest with a large shelf off it.
What do you think? How would you change the layout?

I'd love to cover up the overflows Since I want that infinity back look
but I can figure out how to do it without having two giant piles of rock
in the corners.

[livingseas]

Okay I pulled out the rock and started dry stacking.. The cardboard is
the size of the tank.

Since the tank has so much depth 36", I wanted areas people could discover
like the cove. a 6ft person is just about at the midpoint of this tank
when looking at it given the height of the stand.

Plenty of space for corals.. One goal was to minimize the look of the
overflow in the corners.

Thoughts? Good? bad? (Please excuse the crappy cell phone pics)

[CyclistMT]

I think that looks great! I would love to see it implemented in a tank and once the corals grow in it should look stunning.

[knight2255]

^ agree with above, coves are cool.....wish I had all that real estate to play with

[Patrick Cox]

Originally Posted by JPMagyar

Finally got to a real computer. I guess my point is for those building a full reef don't forget to consider the colors and forms of the final colonies or at least what you hope they will look like after a few years : )

Joe

You make a very good point and one that I have been considering as well. We seem to put a lot of effort into the aesthetics of our rock structure when in reality, unless we are running a FOWLR, the goal should be to establish a rock base for mounting corals that in the end will hardly be seen. And to also allow enough negative space to set off the corals and provide swim room for your fish. Very nice reef BTW!

[bretcummings]

Any thoughts or recommendations? It's still dry so I an change things pretty easily.

[bretcummings]

Picture w/o lights