Critique of first aquascape. Ever.

[Onewolf]

We are putting together our first saltwater aquarium. It is a 90 gal 'reef ready' because we needed to fit the existing stand/canopy/location of the (prior) freshwater 90. The Aqueon 90 is a compromise for a reef tank because it's 48" long, but only 18" deep (and 25" tall). And the reef ready tank has the overflow built into the tank which reduces the 18" space even further.

My wife and I went to the MACNA show at the end of August and we ended up buying a bunch of the SolviReef 'rocks' to construct our aquascape.

So with that said, here's my proposed aquascape design. My goal was to have the structures 12"-16" tall (which is challenging within the narrow space). While the back near the top of the left rock mound touches the plastic overflow box, I kept the rocks at least 2.5" away from the back/side glass (and much farther away from the front glass). I tried to create a lot of swim throughs and caves.

The cardboard represents the plastic overflow box in the new reef ready tank (this is the old (and scratched up) freshwater 90 tank).

All comments, critiques, and suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.

 

[LiveWire]

For your first time I think it looks very good myself. If you have not done so yet I would just make sure to secure it with reef safe epoxy just to make sure everything is secure and wont fall in the future.

 

[aabjones888]

Looks awesome, u did a great job

 

[MombasaLionfish]

It seems good to me I always like tanks with bridges/tunnels as you can see.

 

[Onewolf]

For your first time I think it looks very good myself. If you have not done so yet I would just make sure to secure it with reef safe epoxy just to make sure everything is secure and wont fall in the future.

Definitely going to epoxy putty them together before they go into the 'real' tank.

 

[Smarkow]

I like your arches and there is a lot of negative space. If you're doing LPS or softies or FOWLR I think you'll be really happy, maybe even a mixed reef with mostly encrusting or plating SPS. If you want "sticks," I will say that your footprint and rock scape are somewhat similar to the first tank I set up for myself, and I regretted how tall I made the rock structures because the acros, etc, didn't have room to grow and the tall structures impeded flow.

Good luck and welcome to R2R!

 

[Auquanut]

Looks awesome. Wish I'd put as much time and attention into my first aquascape.

 

[Katrina71]

That looks really good!

 

[mattdg]

Looks great. Lots of room for coral to grow and fish to swim.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Looks good. A bit too symmetrical for my taste but that is just me.

 

[Onewolf]

Sand and initial aquascape done. Mixed/added saltwater and starting the nitrogen cycle.