Guest FZ1Rider February 22, 2007 Share February 22, 2007 I've tried three times now and while I think the aquascaping job I did the first two times looked good it had some stability issues. In addition a lot of the rock touched the back and side walls. I was told this was not a wise idea do to cleaning. Any tips that anyone can give me would be great. Thanks. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bemmer February 22, 2007 Share February 22, 2007 Hi Peter, Welcome to WAMAS If you are "crazy" passionate about this hobby...or even if you are not WAMAS is a wonderful resource. Regarding aquascaping, the key things I did when I was aquascaping were the following: 1) Lots of hiding places for the fish ie, caves, overhangs, small openings, etc. 2) Openness for the fish to be able to swim around the LR (I know, a slight contradiction to #1). This is especially important for the larger fish 3) Try to keep the LR off the sides of the tank. Cleaning the algae off the walls is one reason but also to keep good water movement throughout the tank. If there are "dead spots" you could start to see cyno algae growth on the sand and LR. Another reason is for asthetics so the LR does not look like a "wall of rocks" on the back of the tank. 4) To secure LR to each other I used zip ties and epoxy to hold them together. 5) Keep in mind the size of your tank and how much room you have. Sometimes with LR, less is more. You don't want to cram too much LR in your tank. For biological filteration purposes, some people put LR in their sump to keep a "good" amount of LR in their system. Hope this helps. Again, welcome to WAMAS. Rebecca Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caribbean Jake February 22, 2007 Share February 22, 2007 Peter where are you located? I have a 55G long with 86 punds of live rock, view from all 4 sides, and not one rock touches the glass. The rocks are not glued, tied, or drilled together, they are actually loose. You are more than welcome to come and see the display. You can also ask all WAMAS members that have come and see it, everyone has the same reaction.... how the heck !!!!!.... you do that , well as a matter of fact is very simple. I'm in Herndon, VA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VicSkimmr February 23, 2007 Share February 23, 2007 (edited) I'll add some tips for strictly aesthetic purposes. Straight lines should be avoided at all costs. There's no need to cram as much rock into the tank as possible. Only add as much as you think looks right. Less is more. Try to make you aquascape a simple design. All you're doing is creating a base to mount corals on. The corals give the structure character, the actual aquascape does not need to do this. Maybe have a couple of interesting shapes added to it, a cave perhaps, or an overhang, but don't make it too busy. To go along with the less is more idea, I try to avoid making a lot of huge holes in the rockwork. While diving, I've never seen rock where there were giant arches in it. I've also never seen a rock structure that looked like a slight wind could knock it over. I always try to make my aquascape compact, fit together like a jig-saw puzzle. Positive and negative space plays a major role in aquascaping. Positive space is the rockwork, negative space is the open water around it. If possible, try to offset the main structure of the rock so that there is a large area of both positive and negative space. A pile of rocks in the center of the tank is much less aesthetically pleasing than a pile of rocks to the left or right of the tank with some accents on the other side. This is all just my opinion though. If you enjoy having lots of archways and caves for your fish to swim through, thats great! It all comes down to what you personally enjoy. Edited February 23, 2007 by VicSkimmr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbartco February 23, 2007 Share February 23, 2007 might want to have a long term idea of what you want to keep. That way you have room for coral to grow if you are going that route. ex, staghorn corals grow out to take a ton of space- as in my 20" across monster taking over my tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ingo February 23, 2007 Share February 23, 2007 In the back under all the rock i have a shelf of lighting crate like you see in the LFS. Then the base rock above that is tied with plastic ties. Then the rocks on top are aranged lose so that I can move them if needed. Has worked well for me for over ten yeasrs in this aquarium. Ingo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tygger February 23, 2007 Share February 23, 2007 My rock touches the back wall, but I have no problems with it at all. I only clean the front and l/r sides. Good advice was provided above. Also, browse through as many forum galleries as you can to get a better idea of what you want to do. Some like more rocks (me), some like less... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest FZ1Rider February 23, 2007 Share February 23, 2007 Thanks for all the replies. I actually had ended up creating a cove look that I liked. If you seen my other thread you know i'm getting a new tank do to a leak in my current one. I'll get another chance at aquascaping tonight! I'll take all the comments into account, thanks for the tips. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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