Tips and Tricks on Creating Amazing Aquascapes

[xxvietxjustinxx]

[ReefShrink]

Originally Posted by Veganbrian

Personally i prefer clear backgrounds. I think it adds a sense of simplicity and cleanliness. As long as you are not running any cords behind the back glass and you have a nice solid color painted wall, then Clear is the way to go. Black will create contrast and make corals pop more so then normal. Blue works for some people but im not a fan personally. The only way i see blue working nicely would be on very deep tanks to make it look like a deep ocean. Another option that i think is very cool is a shadowbox background. There is a thread already created on here for them too.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1868825

If you are able to hide all the wiring behind the column somehow then i'd say clear would work nicely. But i think that black background against a wall would be better. I say this because it will help distract the viewer from the huge bulky black overflow. Thats my advice and what i would personally do. Blue will just bring out the overflow more.

Good point about the black hiding the overflow better. I still worry about cleaning the potential coralline growth on the overflow. Will try and see if i can cover it with very small pieces of rubble glued to it and integrate this rock wall into one of my "islands".

Thanks for your thoughts!

I love the shadow box idea! May have to give that some consideration too.

[Mxx]

Originally Posted by The Cardinal

Great thread and insights!

You should write a book on the subject .

I am currently cycling my 910L reef and the aquascape is a very important factor for me and the end result.

Now that's a stunning reef tank...

And it's not even a reef tank yet, but only just a bunch of rocks at this point and still looks better than most any other tanks.

It makes me wonder if it's going to look better or worse than it does right at this moment as soon as things start to grow in! In any case, very successful composition overall in my eye at least.

Successful balance of solid and void, visual and physical flow, and the structures happen to come across looking convincingly natural in terms of looking as if they might well have grown like that.

Technically brilliant as well, as not many people manage to successfully hide any signs of equipment. How did you get the rocks to stand up though? Are the taller pieces placed onto something like vertical acrylic rods which are themselves mounted on an acrylic base plate?

It seems a lot of people struggle with finding a successful structure for either cube tanks or long tanks. But the array of tall vertical coral heads you've come up with here seems to be a very successful solution for a longer tank.

Not that I'm an experienced reefer in the least, but I am a design professional, so I do try to pay careful attention to the underlying aesthetic and structural aspects and have been trying to delve into this aspect to some degree!

My one possible criticism might be that you perhaps have the same issue as I have in my tank, in that if the light is towards to middle or rear of the tank, the front of your aquascaping is in shadow. I'm looking at adding a strip of LED's on an angled aluminum channel along the front inside of my tank to try to counteract that.

Have you considered trying an austere/minimal approach to stocking as well, and restricting your coral species to just a small number of species and palette of colours? That's what I'm thinking of possibly doing with mine, and sticking primarily just to species that are neon-green and purple. Whether I'm disciplined enough to keep to that might be another matter, we'll see...

Definitely keep the sand free, or that'd ruin the effect.

P.S. The shadowbox effect someone mentioned looks stunning as well. Might that even work with a well-frosted intermediate layer behind the rear pane, and then a mirrored pane set slightly further behind as well? In that way you might be able to capture the appearance of the surface continuing well into the distance?

[Mxx]

Originally Posted by xxvietxjustinxx

Upon closer inspection I'm really loving the circular arch, which seems to work very well with your lighting coverage.

The OP's comments came to mind in that if you kept the sand clear then it would really define the structure to read much better and would provide a nice contrast to really make it pop visually.

[Mxx]

Originally Posted by 426Hemi

Take fifteen

Sounds like you're making a strong effort to get this right, if you'd reached take 15! I'd struggled to think what else you might consider doing there.

You have a number of nice relatively flat pieces which might make nice natural looking ledges. But for them to read right you'd have to try to get them to site quite level. (I have one flat piece in mine which I couldn't get to sit flat and which annoys the freak out of me).

Have you considered going the acrylic reef rod approach yourself, so that you could really cantilever the pieces out instead of having to have them stacked? In that way you might be able to form two separate island, which have shelves cantilevering out towards each other in an interlocking fashion but which don't actually touch. That would achieve the recommended goals of distinct focal points rather than the more uniform and symmetrical composition you have there now. It might take some more work, but that might give it a bit of the visual tension of the two islands/piers confronting each other in a manner relative to what is successful in this example by the OP -

[The Cardinal]

Originally Posted by Mxx

Now that's a stunning reef tank...

And it's not even a reef tank yet, but only just a bunch of rocks at this point and still looks better than most any other tanks.

It makes me wonder if it's going to look better or worse than it does right at this moment as soon as things start to grow in! In any case, very successful composition overall in my eye at least.

Successful balance of solid and void, visual and physical flow, and the structures happen to come across looking convincingly natural in terms of looking as if they might well have grown like that.

Technically brilliant as well, as not many people manage to successfully hide any signs of equipment. How did you get the rocks to stand up though? Are the taller pieces placed onto something like vertical acrylic rods which are themselves mounted on an acrylic base plate?

It seems a lot of people struggle with finding a successful structure for either cube tanks or long tanks. But the array of tall vertical coral heads you've come up with here seems to be a very successful solution for a longer tank.

Not that I'm an experienced reefer in the least, but I am a design professional, so I do try to pay careful attention to the underlying aesthetic and structural aspects and have been trying to delve into this aspect to some degree!

My one possible criticism might be that you perhaps have the same issue as I have in my tank, in that if the light is towards to middle or rear of the tank, the front of your aquascaping is in shadow. I'm looking at adding a strip of LED's on an angled aluminum channel along the front inside of my tank to try to counteract that.

Have you considered trying an austere/minimal approach to stocking as well, and restricting your coral species to just a small number of species and palette of colours? That's what I'm thinking of possibly doing with mine, and sticking primarily just to species that are neon-green and purple. Whether I'm disciplined enough to keep to that might be another matter, we'll see...

Definitely keep the sand free, or that'd ruin the effect.

Thank you Mxx! Your comments are very motivating.

The rocks were cut flat at the bottom and glued to the glass with a silicone like glue that came with the reef ceramics. It works really well.

I will definitely give thought to the coral selection and avoid staghorns for instance and keep the corals trimmed to keep the current shape. It will be a challenge though but hopefully my experience from keeping bonsai will help me out . Color combination is something I will have in mind; especially after reading this thread and also keeping the number of corals down.

The photos are lit up by 3 T5 in the back and there will be 2 250w mh coming as well so sorry if the quality is bad in the shots.

[xxvietxjustinxx]

Originally Posted by Mxx

Upon closer inspection I'm really loving the circular arch, which seems to work very well with your lighting coverage.

The OP's comments came to mind in that if you kept the sand clear then it would really define the structure to read much better and would provide a nice contrast to really make it pop visually.

I prefer to keep the sand clear too but I have too many corals to mount and not enough light. Since I have a single MH over the whole 40g tank and my rock structure is tall, there is lots of shading. I think I made my aquascape too tall but there's no way to go back now without breaking down everything. I am thinking about adding 2x24w T5's which I think should help with the spreading and coverage issue but I haven't had time to put it up.

[swcc]

Originally Posted by xxvietxjustinxx

I prefer to keep the sand clear too but I have too many corals to mount and not enough light.

all I can think here is take extra coral back to the store...If you prefer a clean sandbed, then the solution is simple enough.

[Mattmcf]

I was fortunate enough to find this gem at a LFS. It is all ceramic and has frag plug holes drilled in everywhere to help me out as soon as i start stocking the corals.

[swcc]

yup... that rock is awesome... better still if you offset it a bit to the left vs right in the middle of the tank.

[dg3147]

Would be great if you could link corals to areas of the color wheel, maybe have 3 wheels: one for sps, lps, softies.

[JPMagyar]

Your rock work is only a fraction of the equation if your long term goal is to build a reef. The rule of thirds is a great start but understanding how yor corals will look in a few years is almost impossible and creating new tanks with large colonies is to me harmful to the hobby as it reinforces the lack of sustainability.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1350167027.746194.jpg
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1350167044.348779.jpg

[JPMagyar]

Sorry. Tried to load pictures from reefbum.com to show his original rock work and the final result but the pictures didn't load properly using my iPhone. Joe

[Mxx]

I find attention to aquascaping to be crucial in achieving a decent looking tank in the end, so with some time to kill I've been trying to figure out mine for this, my first marine tank. It is a 34 gallon cube, which I consider a temporary trial tank and bought everything inexpensively for second-hand. I'm a design professional by trade, and do find the synthesis of biology, technology, and aesthetics to achieve a potentially beautiful reef to be a engrossing challenge certainly. I'm seeking to build a strong underlying rock form, with a balance of contrasting light and shadow, solids and swimming space, and enough room to get a magnet easily around the front and both sides.


It's a little tricky to read the three-dimensionality of my proto-typing, but initially I was aiming for sort of a ying-and-yang of two interlockinc C shapes, with the island on the right project out towards the front at the bottom, while the island on the left tends towards the back near the top. But with the central location of the light panel in the hood, the top ledge on the left blocked too much light.


First attempt, right after first filling the tank, and with the limited choice of rocks which I got a great deal on. The second piece up on the left bothered me a lot in the way that it was sticking out too far in an overwhelming awkward manner.


Second attempt. I swapped the bottom left two pieces, despite that the bottom piece is now covering a greater deadspot of substrate than previously. Something not right about the top left piece in how it slopes back away from the front going up. Top piece on right looks a bit crude.



Third attempt. I'm secure enough to admit this rescape was inspired by watching... Finding Nemo (Opening GB reef scenes, frame-by-frame). They actually have an intriguing manner of stylizing the forms and colours on some of the coral heads in the scenes.

I sought to achieve a look which consists more of horizontal ledges projecting outwards, in an alternating stepped fashion. This required me to flip several pieces upside down finally, to where their good side with all the coralline was facing the bottom... And it resulted in losing the two separate islands and some of the swim-around space between and around the structures, alas, but I'm generally happier with it now including the patterns of shadow. Third piece upon the left is still annoying in that I can't get it to lay more horizontally, should maybe have flipped it too.

I started by coating the rear wall with two large tubes of silicone, and stuck some sand and all the dry rock rubble which I bought from a LFS to it. (Which I found there as debris underneath their baskets of dry rock). I didn't want to worry about cleaning the rear wall as the back panel is just cheap plastic anyway, and as I wanted to pile rock against it so wasn't going to have the ability to anyway and didn't want it to just look flat.

I also like the clean sand look, so I masked off a two-inch strip around the bottom of the tank, spread a layer of silicone onto it, and then pressed sand into that. I repeated this with two more layers right after the silicone started to skin a bit, and then took the masking tape off, (a little too late). So far this seems to be keeping my sand looking 100% clean without a band of unsightly algae growing along the glass at substrate level.

At the moment, I'm thinking the front of the rocks are too much in shadow, so I might add some supplementary strips of LED's around the front and sides to help that a bit, and to add some colour enhancement with for example a violet and an RGB LED strip.

There is quite a contrast of light levels from the top rocks to the bottom rocks, so I expect this will enable me to keep a range of corals, from SPS to mushrooms. And they each should have their own levels with space between so hopefully they'll play nicely together. I'm thinking of trying to keep the colour palette primarily to purple and neon-green, although as this is a trial tank I might throw in some pinks and blues to play with as well. I have some pink and green birdsnest frags and montipora capricornis already in quarantine, but I'm not sure where along these ledges it might look most natural to stick the montis. I'd like to get a crown of birdsnest going around the top-right piece.

I'm working on eradicating Bryopsis still, so open to aquascaping criticism and critiques of whatever type you wish to offer meanwhile. I also have a piece of Tonga rock which branches in a 'T' shape about a foot wide and foot long, which I haven't figured out where to place yet? So thoughts? Concerns? The positive and negative aspects of this?

[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

[nwnugget]

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

That is quite the transformation. Minimalist rock allows for maximum coral expansion. This thread is very educational.

Also, killer tank JP.

[nwnugget]

Originally Posted by Mxx

Third attempt. I'm secure enough to admit this rescape was inspired by watching... Finding Nemo (Opening GB reef scenes, frame-by-frame). They actually have an intriguing manner of stylizing the forms and colours on some of the coral heads in the scenes.

Finding Nemo is what made me start my first marine aquarium. Specifically the scene with the two crabs fighting over food coming out of that pipe. I like that part.

Anyway, doesn't matter where you get your inspiration as long as the execution is good.

There is a lot of rock in that tank and I don't think it looks bad. Many tanks right now are going minimal. I think you have more of a cliff side look.

[weirzze]

I am very stumped, I have a 55 gallon hex, and I have been trying non stop to figure something out for a aquascape and let me tell you I have had little to no success with it. any help with it, people with experience with them? just anything will be helpful. I will try to upload a current picture when possible,
thanks, andrew.

[knight2255]

Originally Posted by dg3147

Would be great if you could link corals to areas of the color wheel, maybe have 3 wheels: one for sps, lps, softies.

Great Idea, do you mind starting a thread on this topic? Maybe assign a number per color and let other posters submit a list?

[Mxx]

Originally Posted by nwnugget

Finding Nemo is what made me start my first marine aquarium. Specifically the scene with the two crabs fighting over food coming out of that pipe. I like that part.

Anyway, doesn't matter where you get your inspiration as long as the execution is good.

There is a lot of rock in that tank and I don't think it looks bad. Many tanks right now are going minimal. I think you have more of a cliff side look.

Our kids just named our clownfish pair Ben and Ana, or Ben and Holly, (it's still a little up in the air, but was also about to be Tom and Angelina). Don't ask me why as it didn't sound all that reef inspired, but at least it wasn't Nemo! Save me!...

I was thinking the same thing, that there is quite a lot of rock there already which might not leave a great deal of growing space. I'm going to be going with a lot of softies though, so many of them including shrooms and Ricordea might not take up as much space as a lot of SPS would.

Maybe I'm impatient, but I wanted the tank to appear somewhat well filled-in quickly, and the large rock structure may help with this. If I'm still running this same tank five years from now then something didn't go to plan though. Hopefully before it's too filled in solid with corals I can lift the left column of rock straight into a new tank twice this size

I also quite like sleek black backgrounds, but only if you have plenty of room to get a magnet everywhere back there without it being too awkward to and only if you keep it really clean and completely free of any signs of equipment. I'd actually been aiming for lagoon edge, so the cliff look is something like that. Hopefully it will look quite natural before long, with one less side to clean.

Anyone else have any critiques or advice???

[reefscape15]

JPMagyar: that is incredible!!!! Such a great example of how a little rock can end up going a very long way. It's almost hard to imagine that there is only that small amount of rock under all those corals. Great job!

Vegan: Thank you for this. I accidentally stumbled across this while searching for ideas on strengthening a rock structure that i have been thinking about. Great info, and very helpful for people trying to finalize plans on how to scape a tank.

[mwilliams62]

I don't know if anyone else is having any problems but I am having the must difficult time aquascaping due to the overflow boxes inside my tank. It is a 125 reef ready made by Aqueon. Any suggestions would be very appreciated.
Mary

[Veganbrian]

Originally Posted by mwilliams62

I don't know if anyone else is having any problems but I am having the must difficult time aquascaping due to the overflow boxes inside my tank. It is a 125 reef ready made by Aqueon. Any suggestions would be very appreciated.
Mary

You just have to think about the corals you will have and when they grow out will they take out the Line of sight from the overflow? Thats why i always like overflows on the side instead of right in the middle. Post up some tank pix and im sure everyone will give advice to you.

Im glad this is helping people. Keep asking questions and posting photos

[mwilliams62]

Sorry for the quality of these pictures but I have very little room to get a really good pictures plus I need to clean the glass. All work in progress and I just got my clearance yesterday when I went and had my water checked all parameters are zero so now I can start adding all my other rocks which will help in the build. But any advise will be very helpfull.

[blackthunda77]

Very nice post. As a web designer/graphic design who also enjoys dabbling in photography and videography i too have tried to adhere to the rule of thirds when doing my aquascaping.

Heres my attempt at my latest build.