Aquascaping 101...

[MarvinsReef]

pls share your aquascaping philosophy... what has inspired your current aquascaping? do you use more depth or length on your aquascaping? do you aquascape to accommodate your tank inhabitants? who's aquascaping is your favorite? any other input about your aquascaping you can add?

Thanks...

 

[Sooner Reefer]

If it's a nano then a reef wall looks the best. Just stack against the back wall, but I'd only suggest that if it's a cube or aquapod with a plasctic wall and you don't mind not reaching all the algae growing on the glass. Otherwise I like my current setup. Formed kind of a tower in the middle which goes from all the way from my back wall to the middle of the tank. Would look best for a reef tank, don't know about a frag tank.

 

[maroonytunes]

In my current setup, I have the rock across the middle of the tank, about 15lbs and it is about 5 inches from the top of the water. I didn't plan the rock work for any inhabitants, but when I had seahorses, the entire tank was set like their natural habitats, fake sea fans, gorgonians, and branching rock.

 

[reef-lover]

My favorite aquascape set-up would be CRAZY4ACROS tank on RC. A clean looking, practical and SWEET setup... Here's some of the pics he posted...

 

[ahayes13]

currently our tank is setup with two islands on each side of the tank which are more vertical they are connected in the middle of the tank with 1/2 bridge one level to one side and 1/2 bridge at another level to the other side. our tank has many "caves" and lots of rock stacked to make bridges. i have found that most fish like to have their own "territory" and there own place to sleep or to hide when scared. so i think it is very important to have spaces, caves, overhangs for your fish to have a "home". i may not have as much space for corals as others have but my fish all have their own spaces and i think thats important.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

That is an awesome set up!

 

[Hypertek99]

My favorite aquascape set-up would be CRAZY4ACROS tank on RC. A clean looking, practical and SWEET setup... Here's some of the pics he posted...

I like it!!! I like the empty look now. I use to just pile the rocks in but i like more sand now.

 

[MarvinsReef]

yup.. I've thought about that ZEN or was it Bonsai? anyway, it's really nice, simple yet very pleasing to the eyes...

 

[Paintguru]

Problem with minimal aquascaping is lack of real estate for coral placement. I tried the pillar look and had issues finding room for the coral. I have a simple island/wall right now, which seems to give me good area for corals but it is not super big.

 

[fly guy]

I disagree with less rock means less places for corals. Done right, it creates more spaces as you can use many more angles and tank positions than any kind of a wall will provide.


I just rebuilt both of my systems and took the less rock concept to the extreme kinda. I have less than 25 lbs in my 90 polyp tank and about 60 lbs in my 240 SPS. You can see what I did with the polyp tank here as well as my aquascaping philosophy.............Im not ready to unveil my sps tank yet as everything is still recovering from the move.....My main philospohy ios if you cant see or use the rock for corals....it is just unecessary and in the systems way

anyway...here is the polyp tank. The sps tank is very similar rockwise........but a little funkier yet

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1456149


the rebuilds were inspired by a unfortunate crack in my big tank........my sps took a serious hit in the tank swap ordeal and living in a tiny 70 gallon shallow temporary home for 5 days. End result was progress though.....

 

[badfish]

i really like the less is more approach also.i don't think you should ever stack a bunch of rock against the back of your tank.i like to have space so i can have 360 degrees of flow,i think that is important.

 

[paintballer768]

When I first set up the tank, It was like a small bridge, and I only had about 25 lbs, out of 3 rocks. I chopped one up so now I had to redo it and I had a TON of room to fill. I filled in behind the 2 existing rocks and stacked up the back for a slope type deal. Then on the left side I tried to wrap it out into the sand a little more for some lower light and delicate corals (when it comes to warfare). Most importantly to me, I make sure that SPS are separated from the others so they can be catered to, and the rest on the mid/bottom so they dont get pounded by the flow.

If I had a larger tank, I would make 2 islands on opposite sides. One being a really tall, spire-ish one and the other being more of a mound, with it leaning on a tank wall. It looks really cool in my head.