Looking for advice on aquascape

[Canaan Gary]

I have an 8 month 32 gal biocube and I am still not happy with my aquascape. The current scape is attached to the thread. I definitely want two arches and an island for a zoa garden. I feel like its too bulky at the top but I may be wrong. I would love all the feedback I can get. Thanks!

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

I hate giving advice on such a subjective subject; however, since this remains unanswered.. I will oblige. Sorry if this is not sunshine and rainbows..giving my honest assessment.

1. Bottom with the arches looks great.
2. I am not a fan of the top for three reasons.
   1. Looks simplistically stacked and unstabled
   2. Lacks caves. and an interesting feature.
   3. You are loosing a lot of your coral surface area to the stacking. by fanning it out a little you can get more surface area to attach your corals.
3. Look like you have a big unused spot in the bottom right back. Not only will you not see anything back there at this angle..but will most likely be dead space.

Outside of this..aquascape is very personal. If you are happy..who cares what i think?

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Oh..and Welcome to the R2R community!!

 

[Canaan Gary]

I hate giving advice on such a subjective subject; however, since this remains unanswered.. I will oblige. Sorry if this is not sunshine and rainbows..giving my honest assessment.

1. Bottom with the arches looks great.
2. I am not a fan of the top for three reasons.
   1. Looks simplistically stacked and unstabled
   2. Lacks caves. and an interesting feature.
   3. You are loosing a lot of your coral surface area to the stacking. by fanning it out a little you can get more surface area to attach your corals.
3. Look like you have a big unused spot in the bottom right back. Not only will you not see anything back there at this angle..but will most likely be dead space.

Outside of this..aquascape is very personal. If you are happy..who cares what i think?

Hey! Thank you! I actually agree. I’m not happy with the top but I’m not quite sure what to do with it or how to change it. My rose BTA finally settled in the front of the tank so I wanted to scape it to where he’s still in the front. I’m just not quite sure to do with the top pieces. Can you show me an example of what you mean by fanning it out and adding caves? I was also gonna put a zoa island in the bottom front right so that’s why it’s empty rn. Thanks

 

[Jekyl]

Keep in mind it will look completely different when coral take over. At some point the rock will be barely visable

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

I did a quick search. Not my best finds..but should give ideas:

 

[Canaan Gary]

Keep in mind it will look completely different when coral take over. At some point the rock will be barely visable

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Picture THREE is what I meant by the fanning out. bunch of 'steps' going in different directions. Some SuperGlue and Reef Expoxy, you can get REAL creative

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Hey! Thank you! I actually agree. I’m not happy with the top but I’m not quite sure what to do with it or how to change it. My rose BTA finally settled in the front of the tank so I wanted to scape it to where he’s still in the front. I’m just not quite sure to do with the top pieces. Can you show me an example of what you mean by fanning it out and adding caves? I was also gonna put a zoa island in the bottom front right so that’s why it’s empty rn. Thanks

Bottom BACK right..by intake

 

[kiran]

The BRS aquascaping videos are pretty useful to get the basics down.

 

[Canaan Gary]

Bottom BACK right..by intake

So what should I do to fix that? Just open it up more. I just messed with it for about an hour and I literally can’t find anything that I’m happy with and I don’t wanna tick off the corals any more than I have. This is what I have right now but I’m afraid I’m running into the same problem as before;(

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Maybe a shelfing piece of marco from your LFS thrown in there. I agree, there is only so many ways you can juggle things around. When you hit that wall, i see one of two options...add another piece of rock to change the puzzle...take one of your extisting rocks and split it with a hammer and chisel.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

1. You are loosing a lot of your coral surface area to the stacking. by fanning it out a little you can get more surface area to attach your corals.

This is really good advice, I feel a lot of folks feel they need to stack high and end up creating so much unused space because they create too much vertical surface. Always look at your tank from the top down as if you were a light. If you can't see it then neither can the light.

You don't want to end up with a cool stack of rocks and a small patch of corals up top. At the end of the day we are growing corals, not rocks. create steps rather than peaks.

 

[Canaan Gary]

This is really good advice, I feel a lot of folks feel they need to stack high and end up creating so much unused space because they create too much vertical surface. Always look at your tank from the top down as if you were a light. If you can't see it then neither can the light.

You don't want to end up with a cool stack of rocks and a small patch of corals up top. At the end of the day we are growing corals, not rocks. create steps rather than peaks.

Thank you! I understand that. How do you get some type of height without stacking? Right now, I have a lot of surface area for corals. I think I will break one of my rocks so I can get height for my sps but still leave room for corals.

 

[Canaan Gary]

Alright guys I got this so right now. I’m certainly getting a lot closer to what I’m looking for.

 

[officialreefbros]

Personally I'd flip it and have the top rocks on the bottom and then the arches above, but I also like how the redo is!

 

[Canaan Gary]

Personally I'd flip it and have the top rocks on the bottom and then the arches above, but I also like how the redo is!

Is that just personal preference or is there a benefit?

 

[Canaan Gary]

Is that just personal preference or is there a benefit?

I had it like that at one point?but I didn’t have any putty so it was super unstable

 

[BoneDoc]

So what should I do to fix that? Just open it up more. I just messed with it for about an hour and I literally can’t find anything that I’m happy with and I don’t wanna tick off the corals any more than I have. This is what I have right now but I’m afraid I’m running into the same problem as before;(

With what you have this is pretty good. Just let the corals grow into it

 

[2Wheelsonly]

Thank you! I understand that. How do you get some type of height without stacking? Right now, I have a lot of surface area for corals. I think I will break one of my rocks so I can get height for my sps but still leave room for corals.

Wide bottom and stack like steps