My Ugly Tank lol

[gemini9]

Well I know it's pretty horrible, but here's a picture of my tank and awful aquascaping. Hey, I'm a newb so don't expect much. Ha. I have 4 different kinds of rock. I had a Tonga shelf rock that was so awful I took it out of the tank. I have some fiji on the right which isn't bad, Reef Saver in the middle and I have some Pukani thrown in there. Now I REALLY LIKE the Pukani. Unfortunately, I only ordered a few pounds of it. In fact, I love the pukani so much, I plan on eventually phasing out the other rocks. After my tank is established, I'm going to start slowly removing the other rocks and adding pukani only. I like the triangle, mountain shaped look of my two pukani rocks and I would LOVE to do my entire tank that way. Having spent the money on the other rocks now, I can't really just "change my mind". But I do like the Pukani. I know my background is half off. I have a new background I'm going to put on. This one is an old one and wouldn't stay on.. keeps curling. You can see my hideous equipment, as I don't have a sump yet. And my cloudy murky water. And no fish yet. Sigh.. Yup. It's an ugly tank alright.

 

[YHSublime]

Dont be so hard on yourself. I see a lot of potential, and you're getting excited about it, that's what's important. Have you joined CMAS yet? A local club is a great way to dive in deep to the hobby, so to speak!

 

[427HISS]

I don't think it's ugly, just think you can lift the rock higher off the bottom to accomplish the scapping you want.
Make some holes, tunnels and caves to separate the pieces.

Have fun with it !

 

[gemini9]

I'm definitely excited and having a good time. I just wish I could get everything stable so I can get some fish put in there. Sorry Sublime, I'm not sure what you mean by CMAS. I tried making some holes but it's difficult with the pieces of rock I've been shipped. Most pieces are pretty round and difficult to work with and the rocks are small.

 

[fishroomlady]

I think that looks like a great start! you can just paint the back - won't have to deal with peeling and such. how long has the tank been up?

 

[Travt2000]

I don't think that aquascape looks bad at all. Actually, I think it looks very good. I'm a big fan of 'scapes that are a bit irregular and yours looks great to me.

 

[gemini9]

Thanks all. The tank has been up for a month. Taking forever. Soon as I put the rest of the rock in there my nitrites spiked back up. Bummer.

 

[antsbumblebee]

Tank looks great

What size is your tank? Is this your first tank?

I've decided even though your tank is ahead of mine (starting mine up tomorrow) I've decided we're sister tanks.

 

[rayn]

Don't be so hard on yourself. Aquascaping is a art and a hard one at that. Maybe a way around the look would be to mix the rock up some. Looks like you clumped each kind together. Make them mingle.

 

[gemini9]

My tank is a smaller 30 gallon. It's been up for a month. Yes, aquascaping is really hard! I've seen some photos on google where people have trees and everything else in their tanks. Wow. I switched a few of my rocks around trying to make it look better. It's really difficult because my rocks are so small. I wish I'd been shipped larger rocks.

 

[vlangel]

You are definitely being too hard on yourself. When I serviced tanks, you should have seen some of my aquascapes!!! You'll get better and I don't think what you have is bad. A fellow aquarist told me to picture a landscape with canyons and such and mimic that. BTW, I was reading your other thread about the cc substrate and I couldn't figure out what cc was. Now that I see your tank I know its crushed coral, haha.

 

[gemini9]

lol yeah. Crushed Coral. I rearranged some of the rocks to try and ad in some little caves, nooks and other little hiding spots. Will post some pics in a bit later.

 

[vlangel]

Some folks drill small holes and connect rocks with acrylic dowel rods. Its one way of stabilizing smaller rocks.

 

[gemini9]

Ok so I rearranged some of my rock and added a different background. I wiped oil on the background and stuck it to the back of the tank and it turned out wonderful! I have a few bubbles in there but it's not bad. Also, I trimmed it along the top instead of the bottom so if you look at the bottom of my tank you can see a white strip and the UPC codes lol Next time I'll trim from the bottom. Lesson learned. Pics!

Looks gorgeous!

 

[gemini9]

Here is a section with just my Fiji rocks

Here is my Pukani!

More Pukani! My favorite rock is far left.

My reef saver pile is in the middle. I have a Tonga Shelf rock sitting there on in the middle and I'm not sure I like it. It's too flat. I might remove it completely...

and finally, here is a snapshot of the side. I stuck a couple seashells in there for fun.

Wheeeee! I need some fish in there SOOOOOOO BAD

 

[spspirate]

Some corals and fish will really give it some life!

 

[vlangel]

I like all your rock. One thing I learned while servicing tanks for folks is you don't want your rock touching the sides of your tank. You want enough space to run your hand between the rock work and glass on at least the 3 main viewing sides of the tank. That way algae doesn't detract from your viewing pleasure. Since you are using cc you will want enough room for your syphon-clean to get in there too.

 

[sugardonut]

I love your tank! But what vlangel said; It will look nice if the rocks weren't touching the sides of your tank to run your hands there. Also I think it will be nice to see fish or corals on the sides! I love your rocks.

 

[Thesmallerthebetter]

looks not half bad to me.

ive never been a fan of backgrounds though, i always opt for the black paint job

 

[jason g]

Welcome to the hobby and to R2R. You will find out that in this hobby aquascaping your tank over and over is natural. Some of us just can't keep our hands out of the tank. Are you running a sump on your tank?