Criticize me please!!!!

five.five-six · Sep 25, 2017

Mine is all epoxied together and I don't care what engine else thinks. It's my tank.

Sea MunnKey · Sep 25, 2017

My method is to do a dry run first ... meaning draw out your tank bottom on a cardboard or old plywood, place, stack & play around with the rock works & use your phone to snap pictures of views from the side and top down. And if you like structure formation, epoxy, drill to fit acrylic rods etc. I was fortunate to have a whole amount of rocks collected from way back and that way I was able to play around with every sizes & fiddle around with which rocks fit into certain crevices ... kinda like a building block where a rock would be turned around in every possible angle to fit. It does take time to be creative & "visualize" your rock formation in this "old coconut shell"of mine ...

I did mine with just epoxy/putty and when its cured, all I had to do was lift the whole thing into my tank ... done!

Kaytuu · Sep 25, 2017

I like scapes that don't take up all the floor space and go up a little higher.. once it's filled up with corals it'll give it depth!

Ubergroover · Sep 25, 2017

My TC..I changed my layout several times...when I had different rock types in the tank ( rock, skeletal corals, branching ) the look IMO was never right. Build your layout with the same kind of rock.

obadabot · Sep 25, 2017

dricc said:
If you want criticism I could give you my wife's phone number she's an expert in the field.

Ohh man I bet you don’t hear the end of that haha

obadabot · Sep 25, 2017

dragon99 said:
My first thought was:

I like the cave on the left, but you need some more height on one or both sides.

Yes that’s what I was thinking , maybe that will help it not look as empty?

obadabot · Sep 25, 2017

Ashish Patel said:
Looks to me you just put the rock in the tank and tried to get it right... This is very hard to do and I am 100% sure you will end up tinkering with it especially after you add corals. My suggestion is find the heaviest piece of rock and use it for your foundation. add a lighter piece of LR ontop and leave an overhang. The weight distribution has to be right and you'll figure it out but it takes patients. Also, I don't believe in comments suggesting to use the same rock because the benefits of using different rock is you can have less porous rock to create overhangs such as your tonga rock or pukani. Stacking heavy rock ontop of heavy rock is more complicated. Overtime when the rock is the same color and covered no one will know what rock it is anyways.. Currently, I used 3 different types of LR from Reef saver, Pukani, and Fiji rock (for seeding).

below is what I endedup with and what I started with...Took me a 1 week to get it where I was fairly happy with it. Honestly I believe you can use about 60% of your LR and put the remainder in your sump for cryptic zone. I use instant ocean epoxy since its cheap and available on amazon. Also, ordered some acrylic rods from amazon. Hope this helps..

Thanks for the suggestion. I think you’re absolutely right about using different rocks because at the end of the day they’re gonna look the same. But yes I was playing with it outside of the tank but when I got it into the tank it was a whole different story. I’m simply using gravity to hold my rocks together. Maybe I should invest in some of that glue. [emoji848]

obadabot · Sep 25, 2017

obadabot said:
Thanks for the suggestion. I think you’re absolutely right about using different rocks because at the end of the day they’re gonna look the same. But yes I was playing with it outside of the tank but when I got it into the tank it was a whole different story. I’m simply using gravity to hold my rocks together. Maybe I should invest in some of that glue. [emoji848]

Your aquascape looks great btw

obadabot · Sep 25, 2017

trevormass7 said:
I'm personally a huge fan of islands and archways. They're easy to place coral on and still leave lots of room and crevices for energetic fish. This is my scape

Your scape looks great ! & I agree on that, I’m trying to go for that two island look so I leave room for the Fish

trevormass7 · Sep 25, 2017

obadabot said:
Your scape looks great ! & I agree on that, I’m trying to go for that two island look so I leave room for the Fish

thanks man

obadabot · Sep 25, 2017

Greybeard said:
Ok... your forum name is unpronounceable.

As to your rockscape, if you were happy with it, you probably wouldn't be asking. Keep messing with it until you are happy. It's your tank, you're the one that has to look at it every day. Remember, it's real ugly to try and rearrange your rock _after_ it's covered in corals

Hahah it’s pronounced ( O-bah-duh- bot)

& yes you’re absolutely right. I’m gonna mess with it until I’m happy with it. Might get some more rock

obadabot · Sep 25, 2017

dbl said:
@Greybeard took the words right out of my mouth. You are the only one that has to like it as you are the only one that gets to look at it everyday. Get it right for aesthetics, coral placement and flow and go with it. You'll likely want to change it down the road anyway, although it's not the easiest thing to do.

Lastly, if you haven't looked through this thread, take a look. It provides a lot of great information on aquascaping. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-on-creating-amazing-aquascapes.97209/

Thanks for the reply and the tips I’ll definitely take a look at that thread. I’m sure it will help. I’m trying to get it right where I will not have to move anything around when it’s time to put coral in

obadabot · Sep 25, 2017

Sea MunnKey said:
My method is to do a dry run first ... meaning draw out your tank bottom on a cardboard or old plywood, place, stack & play around with the rock works & use your phone to snap pictures of views from the side and top down. And if you like structure formation, epoxy, drill to fit acrylic rods etc. I was fortunate to have a whole amount of rocks collected from way back and that way I was able to play around with every sizes & fiddle around with which rocks fit into certain crevices ... kinda like a building block where a rock would be turned around in every possible angle to fit. It does take time to be creative & "visualize" your rock formation in this "old coconut shell"of mine ...

I did mine with just epoxy/putty and when its cured, all I had to do was lift the whole thing into my tank ... done!

That is honestly the best method but I was worried about killing off the live rock while doing this and didn’t have any adhesive , so I would simply just use gravity. However I’m thinking about getting some glue. How long does it take to dry?

Vahanyos · Sep 25, 2017

Here's my scape. I have the rocks straight in the middle of the tank so it's like a circle around my scape. The fish love it and swim around it and thru the holes I made. Left side has a cave. Easy to manipulate flow and still plenty of free swimming space. Mine is a 55 4ft long and feels spacious

dragon99 · Sep 25, 2017

obadabot said:
That is honestly the best method but I was worried about killing off the live rock while doing this and didn’t have any adhesive , so I would simply just use gravity. However I’m thinking about getting some glue. How long does it take to dry?

This epoxy can be used in water, dries in ~10min so you have time to work with it a bit.
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/vertex-v-colla-voila-reef-safe-epoxy.html

obadabot · Sep 26, 2017

dragon99 said:
This epoxy can be used in water, dries in ~10min so you have time to work with it a bit.
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/vertex-v-colla-voila-reef-safe-epoxy.html

Unfortunately is sold out! Is there anything else on amazon similar to that?

obadabot · Sep 26, 2017

Vahanyos said:
Here's my scape. I have the rocks straight in the middle of the tank so it's like a circle around my scape. The fish love it and swim around it and thru the holes I made. Left side has a cave. Easy to manipulate flow and still plenty of free swimming space. Mine is a 55 4ft long and feels spacious

Wow looks great

Katrina71 · Sep 26, 2017

You'll know when it's right. Don't stress about scape too much. Your first coral purchase will most likely start an addiction that will cover your scape anyway.

Sea MunnKey · Sep 26, 2017

obadabot said:
That is honestly the best method but I was worried about killing off the live rock while doing this and didn’t have any adhesive , so I would simply just use gravity. However I’m thinking about getting some glue. How long does it take to dry?

D & D 2 Part Aquascape Putty hardens pretty quick when submerged and yeah it'd be a real pain to assemble the rock works in the confinement of a tank. It's possible but a bit more time consuming plus liverocks are heavier too.