what method did you use to aquascape? show off your aquascape

[crazyguy34834]

I was wondering what methody everyone used to hold rocks together while aquascaping.

do you use pvc pipe, underwater bonding puddy, plastic strip ties or what else?

Show off your aquascaping and show pics to give ideas for an awsome look

[Trigeek]

I just piled the rocks on each other, using their shapes to "lock" into place against one another.

[2swift]

Here is my 55 what do ya think?

[Embowe]

This is my still cycling 38gallon...I like it ...

[sage_commander]

Hey you guys who posted pics,

Some of those rocks look a bit precarious. Aren't you worried about them falling down and crashing into your living room? Or crushing your $40 fish?

[crazyguy34834]

looken good

trigeek: what did you put under your rocks to keep them stable?

I what thinking of including some slate peaces to use as shelves, they would cover with coralline to look like all the other rock.

lets see some more, in about 2 weeks when I got my tank aquascaped I will show some pics.

[jefathome]

You might want to crush up some slate and check the PH. Also, are you sure that there are not metals in the rock?

[Shooter7]

My aquascaping is essentially 2 islands of rock. I connected them by placing the large rock you see immediately in the center, over the valley between the two islands and creating a large cave area. I have since removed that rock and it is an open valley now. The two islands were constructed so that the "inside" of them was very open. I wanted there to be lots of room for current to circulate through and for fish to be able to get into and hide if they wanted. Basically started with an outer ring of rocks, then I placed some base rock in the center, just enough to help support the following layers of rock to go on top. I did not want detritus building up much under the rocks, so I placed a MJ900 directly behind and pointing into each island to blow current through them. I removed the center rock as I was finding myself running out of places for frags and room for corals to grow into. My rock amount looks a bit light for a 120g, but I have more rock in my fuge to help make up for the lower amount in the display. I wanted plenty of fish swimming room and plenty of open space for the SPS corals I have now stocked up on to grow into. I'm not a fan of the wall to wall, top to bottom rock look. But again, one downfall to that is running out of spots to place corals. This pic is a few months old, but best shows the rock. Both sides have a large tunnel opening the fish utilize a lot.

[Jim_Leyland]

I just stacked my rocks, they have fallen before but didn't really hurt anything, my kenya tree got hit but its still alive, after i restacked them i made sure by trying to wiggle them around to see if they were unstable but everything seems to be fine now.. you can click on the pic. to get a bigger shot

[Putawaywet]

After numerous years of playing around with different stacking techniques, only to have countless rockslides at some un-welcome point down the road, I began trying a different approach that has worked out pretty well for me.

I pre-build my reef structure outside of the tank using dry base rock held together with various epoxies and/or Portland cement.
This allows me to construct nearly any shape I can imagine; including caves or overhangs, all in the comfort of a dry environment.

The larger structures are built in modular sections that interlock together once they are placed inside the tank

I then camouflage the finished reef structure with either a portion of live rock or some larger coral colonies. Once things start growing in and the purple stuff takes off the base rock is nearly indistinguishable from high-end live rock.

Here is a pic of my current tank that is still under construction. The rockwork is about 75% complete. Mocking it up this way gives me a really good indication of not just the overall layout, but spacing, and planned water flow patterns as well.



You like caves? The entire underside of my rockwork is open allowing water (and fish) to flow right on thru.



This upper portion of this piece was something I scored at the LFS. I cemented it to some smaller pieces of base rock to create the shape I wanted.



And here is my last tank where I first used the pre-assembled rockwork technique. This pic was taken at about a year and a half after everything was first set up.



If anyone is interested in a more detailed listing of how it all went together you can read more here:



If anyone has any other questions free to ask questions and I'll do my best to answer. - Brett