Aquascaping Advice

[little_fish]

I need some ideas for aquascaping my tank. Could you please post some full tank shots or link me to pages i where people have posted full tank shots?

And here is my current rock garden . . . needs some spiffing up

 

[Dana42078]

Thats a nice start but your def gunna need more LR Stack it all in the middle or all to one side for now?

 

[the reef kid]

This may help
Aquascaping techniques, tips and thoughts

 

[Ulta]

wow, that guy types like he has a ton of energy! Like he should be on an infomercial!

lol, neways. It definitely helps to have some "unique" looking pieces to really bring character to your tank. Hand picking up live rock helps for this. Another good thing to do is look for people breaking down their tanks. You can usually pick up some really nice live rock for $1-2/lb. I payed $200 for 50# liverock online when I first started and I'm not gonna lie, it was possibly the biggest waste of money of my entire build(it came in the mail ~90% dead, bleached ect.). Since then I have picked up some really REALLY nice pieces from people breaking down tanks locally, or an awesome looking piece I found at the LFS.

back on track... a good place to start when building ur aquascape is to find some good foundation pieces. You can either spread them out creating crevasses to swim through or not but make sure that they are sturdy! And build UP;or off from there.

I always situate my rocks a bit and wiggle them a bit, making sure they are secured in and not going to topple down. (You will be surprised how easily some rocks slide/shift on you that you thought were secure!) that becomes increasing in danger with the more corals you have in your tank >_<!

 

[little_fish]

Ya, i got these from off cragslist for a steal. And i think that is part of the issue, these are all base rocks - wide and flat, good for the bottom of the stack. I think ill just keep my eye on cragslist and try and get some pieces that stack better.

 

[chiqui bb]

I just received my order of base rock from Marcorocks. 50# of rock for $119, free shipping. It looks great and there are lots of holes in the rocks so I'm planning on using some threaded nylon rod like dowel pins to secure the rocks. If you are looking for base rock, check this out.
50 Pound box Key Largo Rock, <br>Now Pre Cured and Free Shipping <br>*in the continental US* - DS-50

 

[OhNoNemo]

Personally ,i like the big cave/mountain look...if i was working with what you have now,i would make one big mountain in the middle of the tank with lots of nooks and hiding spots..

 

[little_fish]

OhNo! you just gave me the best idea! Thank you!!!

 

[fastrd400]

Like OhNo said, but I would also look for some flat "shelf" pieces. That gives you a good place to put frags if you don'y have a frag rack. I have 2 shelves in my 120 that hold some chalices and acros, and provide a cave for the fish to swim in and out of.

 

[OhNoNemo]

Your welcome,
heres a pic....

 

[mm2meyer]

Like said earlier its nice to have unique pieces in there, when I was putting my tank together it was right after the tonga branch ban and that's what I was looking for, fortunately I found a couple of stores that still had a few pieces and I snatched those up quickly. But back on topic, I tried the whole planned out aquascape thing and it just didn't look right, then one night while really upset with my tank I just started moving pieces around and placing them randomly and it worked out the best. Ill have to get pics up so you get an idea, there's two areas of my tank that stayed origonal, and that's because one rock weighs rougly 50 lbs and the other about 40. (I have a 180 tank) just gotta puts with it till you find something that your happy with

 

[d2mini]

Take a look through this thread. It's minimalist aquascaping, but it will still give you some good ideas you can expand on. I personally prefer natural looking rock formations and islands vs one big cascading rock wall.

Minimalist Aquascaping - Reef Central Online Community