Aquascape for sps

[dustint21]

I'm in the process of aquascaping my new tank. This tank will hopefully be full of sps one day. I'm bonding rocks together permanently. My question is how tall should I go? The tank is 22" and the water line a little lower. To be safe and look good how much room should I leave as a cushion? Right now my tallest pieces are around 7-8 inches from the top of the water.

Light is an ATI 54" 8 bulb fixture.

 

[favites]

looks really nice! 7-8 inches is reasonable for sure. I like to aquascape with some of my taller corals/stags etc in the back, so my preference would to make sure the rocks in back would give more leeway. Start as low as you feel comfortable, the corals will grow in quickly, you can always add height to the base, but it is more difficult to remove height in my experience.

 

[dustint21]

looks really nice! 7-8 inches is reasonable for sure. I like to aquascape with some of my taller corals/stags etc in the back, so my preference would to make sure the rocks in back would give more leeway. Start as low as you feel comfortable, the corals will grow in quickly, you can always add height to the base, but it is more difficult to remove height in my experience.

Thanks for the input! I am 4-5 inches of the back wall. I should be able to glue frags on the back of the rocks for stag and faster growers. I also made a couple lower shelves off the sides of the taller rocks for monties. I have read that if you put them high they like to block the lights....

 

[favites]

montis for sure will block some light-- you could also think about putting them on the bottom--or just off the bottom-- if you have a BB tank if will look nice and you won't have to worry about the light blocking issue. just a thought..

 

[dustint21]

montis for sure will block some light-- you could also think about putting them on the bottom--or just off the bottom-- if you have a BB tank if will look nice and you won't have to worry about the light blocking issue. just a thought..

Waiting on sand from BRS right now. I like the thought of BB and my tank has a black pvc bottom.... my wife wants sand! Happy wife happy life!

 

[Adam G]

Amen to that my friend. If the wife wants sand, give her sand! I think 7 to 8 inch’s The water line is perfect. Plenty a room for stuff to span and grow to the surface.

 

[jbow50]

Just a one question? Do stags typically like lower light than other acros or is it purely aesthetic reasons?

 

[Sonn]

Beautiful aquascape, nice and open fkr flow! Stags imo love light and flow!

 

[favites]

Jbow-- just meant because they tend to be taller, I put them more towards the back with room to grow upwards which highlight their natural growth pattern. otherwise they tend to block anything behind them (and in front of as well but that's whats pruning for)

Mark

 

[chefjpaul]

I'm in the process of aquascaping my new tank. This tank will hopefully be full of sps one day. I'm bonding rocks together permanently. My question is how tall should I go? The tank is 22" and the water line a little lower. To be safe and look good how much room should I leave as a cushion? Right now my tallest pieces are around 7-8 inches from the top of the water.

Light is an ATI 54" 8 bulb fixture.

Looks great

 

[litenyaup]

I like it. What size tank?

 

[maroun.c]

Believe it has more to do with stand and tank height and your length. you don't want to bend to look at corals each time you do so it's good to have corals close to your viewing height. also depends if you look more at the tank while sitting or standing.
one last thing to consider is that corals don't look as colorful from the side or under due to limited light they get so you want to view them from above. a lower scape is always better but takes time to fill up more.
In my last tank (a 26 inch high cube) I had to change my low scape as it looked too low and the tank looked horribly empty from above, went with a higher scape but will make sure to add mostly stags on the top as they are usually ok to see from the side as they allow more light to hit the side branches than tabling branching corals for example.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Waiting on sand from BRS right now. I like the thought of BB and my tank has a black pvc bottom.... my wife wants sand! Happy wife happy life!

Boo sand boo