aquascaping - anyone with a 45g?

[treesprite]

Anyone who has a 45g could you possibly post pics to give me aquascaping ideas? I'm having a rediculously hard time and my rock arrangement is always messed up because I get frustrated with it. I need to get it right once and for all and stop re-arranging every month.

 

It has to be 45g, unless there's some other gallonage with an area of 36x12.

 

Thanks

Edited August 28, 2007 by treesprite

[Brian Ward]

Anyone who has a 45g could you possibly post pics to give me aquascaping ideas? I'm having a rediculously hard time and my rock arrangement is always messed up because I get frustrated with it. I need to get it right once and for all and stop re-arranging every month.

 

It has to be 45g, unless there's some other gallonage with an area of 36x12.

 

Thanks

 

Wow, it must be pretty bad if you're up at 3 in the morning worrying about it! My suggestion would be to take a look at new tank pictures either from here or reefcentral or nano-reef to pull a few ideas - the size of the model isn't that important, you just want some thematic ideas. Neither of these are great, but you can take away positives and negatives from them:

 

http://img212.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img2333bs6.jpg

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...mp;pagenumber=5

 

You probably want to look at doing piles of rocks, some higher than others, some closer to the front, some piles allowing lots of space in the front. The "bridge" example in the first piture is pretty common, though I don't generally like it. You can create a cove in the middle or on one of the ends. Mostly you want to avoid the big pile of rocks look - so vary the heights and depths, provide plenty of swimming room for the fish as well as hiding places - let them be able to get behind the rock structure in places as well as swimming in front of it (this is the varied depth idea). Think about placing corals on the rocks, you'll want to provide some areas to attach them easily. If you want to post some pics, at the very least I can try to provide some suggestions on where to move things.

 

~Brian

[phisigs79]

I like a rock fomation that leave the side and front open as possible. I recenlty changes mine to make it horse shoes shaped which gives it alot of open area for water movement. With 12 inch depth you will be limited however

[treesprite]

the size of the model isn't that important, you just want some thematic ideas.

 

Actually it does matter. It's such a narrow tank that doing anything with depth is very difficult.

 

An absolute need for a tank that is only 12" wide, is for space in the back right corner behind the rock that is like a cave but facing backward, is big enough for both clowns to fit in at the same time, has big enough spce in the back and the front with big enough openings for the large clown to fit in from every angle.

 

No matter what I do with the rock, the clowns always go to that corner whether there's a cave or them or not. Right now the only thing decent about arrangement is that the clown cave area is adequate. I had to put a piece of rock with the coraline side facing down because it was the only way I could put the rock in a way to give me the right cave arrangement.

 

Even when I'm messing around in the tank the clowns - especially the female - stay in that corner. I was scooping around sand with a tall container in that corner, and ended up with a lot of sand AND a large female clown in a container with a diameter the size of the fish itself (I couldn't see very well with not enough light). It scared the daylights out of the fish and she was covered in sand.... I was afraid she wouldn't recover from it.

 

If the tank was wider, I wouldn't have so much trouble with it. I took some of the rock out because I didn't know what to do with it (actually, everytime I mess with it, I either put some back in or take some back out, not always the same pieces even). 12" practically leaves the formations to being 2-dimensional! I decided that I'm not going to buy another tank until I can afford to set up something like a 75g, unless someone actually gives me a tank, so I'll have to keep struggling with this one.

[Brian Ward]

OK... let's work with this. Are you trying to create a formation to force the clowns to a particular place in the tank? I know mine has a spot it likes, and she's much more active at feeding time but for the most part she stays in her spot in the back of the tank. I guess you probably are stuck with things being semi- 2-dimensional, so work with varying the heights across the width of the tank - and other than that keep most of the rock against the back glass.

 

~Brian

[lanman]

Anyone who has a 45g could you possibly post pics to give me aquascaping ideas? I'm having a rediculously hard time and my rock arrangement is always messed up because I get frustrated with it. I need to get it right once and for all and stop re-arranging every month.

 

It has to be 45g, unless there's some other gallonage with an area of 36x12.

 

Thanks

 

I feel your pain...

If you lived closer, I'm sure YOUR anguish would keep ME awake nights. Fortunately, distance attenuates the most painful vibrations.

 

My name is Bob. I had a 45. I couldn't stand it after 2 months, for various reasons - the aquascaping difficulties and the U-tube overflow foremost. I purchased a gently used, Reef-Ready 58, moved everything over, and breathed a large sigh of relief. I traded the 45 and a beautiful stand for a few frags, and walked away with a smile.

 

The rock wall:

 

The 58 a couple days later:

 

 

Even if you start with a fairly open 'scape - as you add a few corals, like rocks with zoa's, and a fungia or chalice, etc - it starts to close in. Nothing can be any wider than your 12" - and that's in a place where you do NOT have any rocks against the back wall.

 

I think I saw someone selling a nice RR 58-gallon tank

 

Best of luck,

bob

[Rascal]

Here's an idea:

 

Start with the concept of a rock wall against the back of your tank, leaving an open sandy area in the front. Now imagine a couple of places where there are sharp drops or dips in that wall. Now, in the places where you went "down", go "out" by placing some rock structures in front of the wall, creating a sloping, peninsula-like effect. With only 12" to work with, I realize that your peninsulas may only be 1 rock, but it still should create a nice looking effect.

 

Other tips:

 

Use less rock than you think you want at first. Give yourself room to add corals on rock and give your corals room to grow and take up the space.

 

Don't get too caught up in trying to use all of the live rock you have. Just try to build an aquascape you are happy with. If you have extra live rock when you are done, you can always put it in your sump or sell it off.

 

Don't worry about the clowns. It may take a while, but once you settle on an aquascape they will move to wherever they are most comfortable. If you go with the mini-peninsula idea you will be creating two corners for every peninsula. You could easily include lots of mini caves in that concept.

 

Any pics of what you've tried so far?

Edited August 29, 2007 by Rascal

[treesprite]

Rascal, Im trying to envision what you're saying.

 

I keep changing the rock around, so there's nothing to see in pictures. I'm supposedly a really creative person, but for some reason this tank stuff totally escapes me. It's like this mountainous challange, I swear!

[EBR]

Here's an idea:

 

Start with the concept of a rock wall against the back of your tank, leaving an open sandy area in the front. Now imagine a couple of places where there are sharp drops or dips in that wall. Now, in the places where you went "down", go "out" by placing some rock structures in front of the wall, creating a sloping, peninsula-like effect. With only 12" to work with, I realize that your peninsulas may only be 1 rock, but it still should create a nice looking effect.

 

Other tips:

 

Use less rock than you think you want at first. Give yourself room to add corals on rock and give your corals room to grow and take up the space.

 

Don't get too caught up in trying to use all of the live rock you have. Just try to build an aquascape you are happy with. If you have extra live rock when you are done, you can always put it in your sump or sell it off.

 

Don't worry about the clowns. It may take a while, but once you settle on an aquascape they will move to wherever they are most comfortable. If you go with the mini-peninsula idea you will be creating two corners for every peninsula. You could easily include lots of mini caves in that concept.

 

Any pics of what you've tried so far?

 

Now THIS is advice I wish I had when I first started my 55g (which is also only 12" wide). Being new to this at the time, I was told "a pound of rock for every gallon -- one and a half, really. Now TWO pounds per gallon... now you're cooking!" So I dutifully went and bought 110 pounds of rock for a 55g. Yeah.

 

It took some time to figure it out (ugh), but I finally ripped half of it out. Here is a thread on CMAS when I overhauled the entire tank:

Refresh for a 55g

 

The first picture is the before shot, a rock wall in all it's glory. It was all stacked in the middle so that I could get some flow in the back, but that never really worked. The next photos, and those on page 3, show a better open arrangement, a) with less rock, b) some beach-front real estate in the front, and c) taking advantage of the back wall to gently lean some rocks.

 

Note the maxijets on the egg-crate stands. There is one in each back corner, blowing toward the middle -- those have actually helped a lot to keep the detritus out of there and accessible for cleaning.

 

Hope this helps. Good luck -- and post some pics! We love pictures.

Matt

Edited August 29, 2007 by EBR