DaveS January 10, 2010 Share January 10, 2010 So I was really looking forward to going to the social. But since I didn't finish my aquascape beforehand, I decided I should hold off on buying a ton of corals. It was a tough decision but I spent the day instead changing my rocks around. Was it worth it? Please ignore the random placement of the corals. The idea was to make it into kind of a horseshoe shaped reef with space in the middle for a Ricordia garden or something like that on the sand. The pilar on the left has a pointer that is in front of the rear wall so there is a little bit of depth utilization. I wanted to avoid the rock wall approach but I just wasn't able to make it click. I'm not super excited about this look but I'm hoping that once the corals grow in, things will look better. Thoughts or suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctenophore January 10, 2010 Share January 10, 2010 I think it will work. Could you take a few of the rocks from the left (don't change the foreground pillar) and move them to the top right of the bowl, so that the rock breaks the surface as a peak. It would help take the flat look out of the wall. Also don't plan on putting the monti caps on the top- they will grow up and out, and you'll only see the bottom of them (like last time IIRC) If you grow a few tabling acros or prune a few stags into horizontal growth patterns on the foreground pillar, allowing them to grow to the right, you may have a nice depth effect in time. Grow stags all along the top ridge of the rock, and see if you can put a dark blue background on the glass, but leave enough room to scrape the coralline off the visible portion of the back wall. The dark blue bg with colorful stags in front would give a nice ridge effect. I would limit table acro placement to only the foreground pillar edges, top and left. A series of layered table acros in the foreground would look nice. Save the bowl face portion for either encrusting corals or small, bushy growth patters. Put some branching softies on the bottom in the middle with your rics. Lastly, grow the monti caps on the far left, starting at the bottom/back wall seam, let them grow out and around the CL jet but keep glass above them clean (again, a blue background might look really nice there with multiple colors of monti) Just my 2 cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind January 10, 2010 Share January 10, 2010 I like this look a lot better then the two pillars. I really don't think I would change anything with the rocks themselves. Just relocate the monti down like Justin suggested. It was definately worth missing the social for. Besides, small freshly cut frags would have been lost in that large tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesbuf January 10, 2010 Share January 10, 2010 Thoughts or suggestions? Add some sand. It'll help cover up those outputs on the bottom and give it a more natural look. Rockwork looks good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE January 10, 2010 Share January 10, 2010 I like it, I agree with justin though, if you could build up the right, that would be cool. If you have the pilar in the left still, I can't tell from the picture, but maybe open up the U a little to allow it to "be a part" of the rest of the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind January 10, 2010 Share January 10, 2010 If you do keep it bare bottom just place a rock or coral in front of the closed loop returns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sikryd January 10, 2010 Share January 10, 2010 Dave - looking good. I agree though, it kind of seems like a rock "wall". Maybe opening up a hole in the back, or raising some edges will give it a little more contour. I HATE aquascaping - it is a nightmare - so its easy to give advice when you look at pictures! Putting it into action is a whole different ball game though - as we all know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noobalicious January 10, 2010 Share January 10, 2010 looks good probably better to have gotten the rocks set the way you wanted...there will always be other sales Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 January 10, 2010 Share January 10, 2010 I would have kept the pillars and built around them... are the pillars still there somewhere? I like open space and the rock wall. It's hard to see in a picture, though. If you want, you seem to be having some of the same issues I was having. Don't know if you like my rock set up, but you seem to have some similarly large pieces that you could utilize to build arches. Your initial design had partial arches and what you've got now suggests that you wanted arches (psychoanalyzing you). I always wished that I could just get one humongous rock from the ocean and drop it into my tank as my rockscape... wouldn't that be great to be able to simply cut a chunk of the reef out and put it in your tank? I'm surprised that none of the live rock people create custom rocks with flat surfaces to match up to the walls and corners of a tank... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k January 10, 2010 Share January 10, 2010 looks better than the bridge. needs some sand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveS January 10, 2010 Author Share January 10, 2010 Thanks so much for the input guys! Yes the monti caps and other corals are just randomly placed for now. The caps will definitely go lower. The tank will have sand I am just waiting for the rockwork to be done before adding it. I think I have decided that this is my least favorite part of the rebuild process. It's messy, subjective (artistic) and pretty much the final step keeping me from being able to buy a bunch of corals! Oh well, I also think I'm probably being too uptight in trying to make it "perfect". I'm hopeful that colorful corals will hide/distract people from the rockwork. Sorry I missed you guys at the social, I hope you guys had fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sikryd January 10, 2010 Share January 10, 2010 Oh well, I also think I'm probably being too uptight in trying to make it "perfect". I'm hopeful that colorful corals will hide/distract people from the rockwork. I think that is the most often overlooked thing. Once it is covered in coral, nobody really notices the rock work. Now try to explain to your non-reefing friends that you spent 3+ hours organizing rocks, and they might look at you funny! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkey18 January 11, 2010 Share January 11, 2010 I think it looks good, and chad is right.. add the corals and it will look great. I think it is a bold move to start over and really make it look the way you want.. or as close as you can get Some tanks look good with the minimalist rock work, but I have seen a lot of great tanks with tons of rock. Bottom line it is YOUR tank and it should be designed for YOUR pleasure. I am so dreading adding rock to my new tank.... Laura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now