Planted tanks have many styles. Why not reef tanks.

[vlangel]

Whatever happened to 'scaping the back wall of a tank? About 10-12 years ago, it was a thing to zip-tie rock to eggcrate, and either cut away the crate between rocks to create the illusion of a deep crevice, or fill in the spaces with pond foam, and cover it with sand?

I'm setting up a 56 gal tall for my seahorses, and was thinking of sticking slices of Marco Rock base rock onto the back glass with lumps of reef putty/aquarium silicone to hold it 1/4-1/2" off the glass for flow.

Feedback, please?

That is the same tank I have and I originally bought it to be a seahorse tank. It is a great footprint for a herd of 4-6 ponies if you have a sump.

Just make sure that when you have the marco rock on the back wall that : 1. The food can not be trapped by it. With seahorses it is absolutely necessary that all food is flushed from the tank after they eat to be filtered out or they will succumb to bacterial infections. 2. With the fairly high flow (10Xs - 20Xs turnover) that the seahorses will not be swept into the rock). If those issues are considered it should be a beautiful tank!

 

[Greg Gdowski]

I think its a personal preference. I think the planted freshwater tanks look great. They also have their own technical challenges. There is a large group in Rochester playing in this space.

For me -- I prefer the broader spectrum of colors you can achieve in a reef tank. I am constantly looking for colors other than "green". Could I integrate plants better? I suppose. I have caulerpa in my refugium that has sunk to the bottom and is growing in interesting clusters (in very limited light). They are somewhat nice. I've occasionally entertained moving macros into my DT. The problem is that the available landscape in the DT is somewhat limited by the presence of my corals.

 

[BZOFIQ]

The explanation is quite simple:

Takashi Amano didnt like salt in his water.

 

[themcnertney]

I purposely put GSP on my overflow columns to cover them. I knew that it would grow on the plastic. I would consider this to be a style that could catch on.

 

[fish farmer]

Whatever happened to 'scaping the back wall of a tank? About 10-12 years ago, it was a thing to zip-tie rock to eggcrate, and either cut away the crate between rocks to create the illusion of a deep crevice, or fill in the spaces with pond foam, and cover it with sand?

I'm setting up a 56 gal tall for my seahorses, and was thinking of sticking slices of Marco Rock base rock onto the back glass with lumps of reef putty/aquarium silicone to hold it 1/4-1/2" off the glass for flow.

Feedback, please?

You mean like this?

The right side has my return plumbing with a piece of eggcrate zip tied to it with marco rubble and cement hiding it. My overflow is above with an eggcrate/rock cover(since removed). The left side is a mix of marco, aquacultured, and fiji mostly cemented with marco cement or aquastik.

 

[vetteguy53081]

We are talking about different water and environmental conditions and soft structure Vs. Hard structure.
There are many scapes out there which are creations and not naturally grown however they unlike plants provide hiding, support for coral pieces and decor