How do you do aquascaping? What is the "method to your madness" in rock scape building? Do you go for a wall? Do you shape rocks with an idea of what you're aiming for? Do you kind of stack them to see what you can make with shapes you already have? Are you a minimalist, or do you go for a pound (or more) per gallon?
Answer any or all of the questions above. We just want you to tell us how you work at building aquascapes!
And share pics of any aquascapes that you have built or that serve as your inspiration!
Lol, more of a layered cubist than a wall.
200 pounds of rock in a 75 gallon tank.
I'm only a minimalist in the amount of outside gear supporting the tank.
Tank is bare bottom with egg crate supporting the rock and to help keep it from sliding.
Egg crate (and the live rock) collects a horrible amount of detritus.
I should have used a lattice platform, with the bottom lattice running front to back, for easier occasional power washing with the output of a canister filter.
I used large pieces of dry lace rock and 20 pounds of live pukani this time.
Original goal was 1.5 pounds per gallon as primary nitrification source.
Ended up at 2 pounds per gallon when finished with the structure I was happy with.
Second goal was to reduce line of sight across the 4 foot span. I like a lot of smaller fish and having multiple homes and hiding areas was a priority.
Rock work has several angled slot canyons with an entire layer of multiple caves underneath.
Wanted the fish to feel like they still had somewhere new to explore as much as possible.
I was fortunate enough to live in Hawaii for 5 years and fully understand the concept of "rock fever".
It only takes 3 hours to circle Oahu. (Lol, not counting traffic) Eventually you feel like there's nowhere else to go.
I wanted to reduce that effect as much as physically possible in a 4' span.
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With mostly 3 inch fish that's not quite as silly as it sounds.
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Fortunate enough to have some large pieces and some nice shapes, so mostly worked with what I had. Very minimal chisling or drilling.
The bottom 5" footprint is mostly a solid block of 8 pieces with about an inch or more between them with multiple caves/sleeping holes/swim through arched areas in it and even under it.
The second layer is set up as roofing for the first layer and several small lagoons and a few slot canyons. (Yeah, I'm really stretching it here. But that was the base idea.)
Tank has mostly soft corals under 8" tall. Gorgonians, green and pink Kenya tree and sinularia.
Frogspawn is set low enough to grow well for years before fragging.
Stacking, rocks first, sand later.
