Does my tank look ok?

[Khwee]

With the endless amount of info needed to be in the hobby continues as i look into aquascaping. How do i know if im doing it right? My main goal is so that my fish have plenty of room to swim and also have hiding spots.

heres some info on the tank... its a 75g (60” width). As of right now i have two small clowns and will be adding in a racoon butterfly, kole tang, and a flame angel next week. I plan on adding 2 more fish after this which brings my total to 7 fish. I feel like the way its set up right now, theres amble hiding spots but not enough room to swim? Let me know what you guys think.

 

[HellaDudes]

Looks great! Looks like you will have good flow around the tank. If possible, I would center things less. Think more about the rule of thirds. focal point should not be in the dead center of the tank.

 

[cvrle1]

Right now I dont see any hiding spots. You need caves, crevices, holes and so on. Arch doesnt provide hiding spot. As someone pointed out to me about a month ago when I was working on my scape, for some reason majority of people are drawn to arches, and their 1st scape always has them. But they are not that useful and not natural at all. If you look at pictures of reefs in wild, you wont find any arches there. After he mentioned that, I saw what he meant. My 1st try had arches galore lol.

 

[dreamcatcherr9]

Ok. Being honest. I like symmetry. In the real world, my office, my home, I am almost OCD about symmetry. But I learned a long time ago it doesn’t work in aquarium aquascaping.

I have done exactly the same style you did. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t look natural. Rule of thirds is great. I would keep one arch, on the side, change the rest.

 

[Khwee]

Right now I dont see any hiding spots. You need caves, crevices, holes and so on. Arch doesnt provide hiding spot. As someone pointed out to me about a month ago when I was working on my scape, for some reason majority of people are drawn to arches, and their 1st scape always has them. But they are not that useful and not natural at all. If you look at pictures of reefs in wild, you wont find any arches there. After he mentioned that, I saw what he meant. My 1st try had arches galore lol.

They look so cool though haha.

 

[Crustaceon]

I like it. Well done.

 

[Bastray]

Looks like the rock is leaning towards the front of the tank. I would lean them towards the back. This will gives you more usable space to put corals. I’ve found putting rocks front to back helps. Like the arch on the middle you could put in the middle of the structure on the left but have it come out towards the front of the tank. This will gives you another section of good light to put corals.

I’ve changed my rocks a few times now mainly to give myself enough room to put more corals. I think the rule of thirds stuff is helpful, but also think about how you can maximize usable space that you can see from front of tank.

 

[PeaBrain]

It's right on.


Which two new fish are you planning to add?

 

[Khwee]

Looks like the rock is leaning towards the front of the tank. I would lean them towards the back. This will gives you more usable space to put corals. I’ve found putting rocks front to back helps. Like the arch on the middle you could put in the middle of the structure on the left but have it come out towards the front of the tank. This will gives you another section of good light to put corals.

I’ve changed my rocks a few times now mainly to give myself enough room to put more corals. I think the rule of thirds stuff is helpful, but also think about how you can maximize usable space that you can see from front of tank.

Can i lay rocks against the walls? Would this be bad over time for the tank?

 

[Khwee]

It's right on.


Which two new fish are you planning to add?

Undecided. I just know how many i want.

 

[PeaBrain]

You can stack the rock on the glass. I do, at the back, but I have a corner tank. And a lot of rock. I cannot clean 100% of the glass, but I'm okay with that.

Keep in mind you can re-scape later. Take it easy. Your fish will tell you what they like.

 

[Oscar’s25Gal]

Can i lay rocks against the walls? Would this be bad over time for the tank?

No you probably wouldn't want to do that, unless you don't mind that it would be hard to clean that area. I lean my rocks on the glass, and I don't mind not being able to clean that area but it is up to you.

 

[cvrle1]

They look so cool though haha.

Oh for sure, like I said I had bunch of them as well. I also spent lots of time looking at various aquascape thread, and sure enough a lot of arches from folks doing aquascape first time like us. It's like one of those things, once you see it, you cannot un-see it lol.

One thing that definitely helped me was taking my time. I made one scape that I liked then left it be. Came back next day and looked at it, and I wasnt feeling it as much. By the end of that day, I hated it and tore it all down. I did same with all other iterations. It took me about 3 weeks total to finally get something I was happy with for multiple days and even then I wanted to change few small things here and there. Also keep in mind that once you put corals in, you wont even see what scape looked like.