Is my rock work terrible?

Notsolostfish · Jul 3, 2022

I have the marine x60.2 36 gallons. And i bought the caribsea tree kit, and i was wonfering if its enough for fish to hide or its terrible?

topjimmy · Jul 3, 2022

I think it's interesting. You might regret that much sand though.

flashsmith · Jul 3, 2022

Looks good to me. You could always add some small islands in the front for depth. Also I think you have a bit much sand in there.

Notsolostfish · Jul 3, 2022

topjimmy said:
I think it's interesting. You might regret that much sand though.

Why would i regret that much sand?

Mr. Mojo Rising · Jul 3, 2022

Are those 2 solid pieces of rock? If it was me, I would break the pieces into a few smaller pieces, to create more little caves and places to swim through, thats just me. (looking again, it might even be just one piece of rock? Or kind of looks like the second piece is precariously placed and ready to tip over? it could be just the picture angle though.)

Personally I like the amount of sand you have, all my tanks have 3-4 inches of sand.

Notsolostfish · Jul 3, 2022

LordofCinder said:
Are those 2 solid pieces of rock? If it was me, I would break the pieces into a few smaller pieces, to create more little caves and places to swim through, thats just me. (looking again, it might even be just one piece of rock? Or kind of looks like the second piece is precariously placed and ready to tip over? it could be just the picture angle though.)

Personally I like the amount of sand you have, all my tanks have 3-4 inches of sand.

Itd a csribsea tree kit. Rod in the middle with rocks that goes on top of each others to create a shape

BroccoliFarmer · Jul 3, 2022

Are you doing coral or FOWLR? If corals..you might regret not having enough surface area pointing up to the light. Given you look like you have a Radion, I am assuming corals is in your future and you might want some more horizontal space.

topjimmy · Jul 3, 2022

charbel101 said:
Why would i regret that much sand?

Deep sand beds are difficult to keep clean. Eventually it will be filled with gunk. Even with sand sifting critters and fish.

JumboShrimp · Jul 3, 2022

I like it.

Waters · Jul 3, 2022

Depends on what you plan on keeping as others stated. Minimalistic designs can be really cool if done right. If that tree was filled with SPS for example it would not only look nice, but offer more hiding places.

BrotatoSalad · Jul 3, 2022

It’ll ruin the purple look you have, but you can grab 3 or 4 decent sized dry rocks and smash them up to extend some of the branches on your rock tree you have if you want. Can also make some fish-sized caves and either glue to the rockwork or place on the sand bed. If you like the look though then disregard.

I’m boarding the train on removing some sand. Shoot for about an inch to 1.5 inches. It’ll collect a lot of gunk over time and after you get past the uglies and have corals in you may see some algae issues come up. Plenty of other ways algae can take hold but having a shallow sand bed that’s vacuumed regularly can help rule one thing out.

Edit: There are a lot of words I could use to describe your scape, but terrible is not among them. I absolutely love the tree look you have going and can’t wait to see your tank grown in.

OfficeReefer · Jul 9, 2022

charbel101 said:
Why would i regret that much sand?

Do you require a deep sand bed?

I state this because typically, those I have seen run a deep bed are typically desiring to leverage lots of natural live rock and may or may not have the ability to get the best flows in the back areas. Deep sand beds can be useful here for their nitrogen cycle capabilties, otherwise in smaller tanks, they pose more of a challenge as they starve your tank for space (including water) and may create black areas of "bad' per se during your tank cleaning, all of which could kill whatever "fish" and inhabitants you plan on having if the bad is disturbed. I recommend a sand bed in nano sized tanks no greater than 2" and where possible, bare bottom tanks are actually in your favor - that is when you have live rock or dry cured rock. The Caribsea rock is a painted rock that eventually turns greyish until the coraline really sets in. This process could take a year or more, hence some go for painted rocks.

Don't feel bad about this as I did the same in Red Sea Max Nano that I had on display in my office behind me. However, given the choice, this is not like pukani or fiji which I started with but the marcos rocks with proper dosing of coraline algae and keeping up your alkaninity can really make it pop faster (provided light in kept in check through the first 3-6 months).

Tmtdvm · Jul 9, 2022

Agreed, extend branches and add more depth via islands or solitary rock for Zoas etc, the more surface volume of rock and less sand the easier it is. I would add 50% more rock and decrease 50% sand for maintenance.