Stacking rocks: How do you layout your aquascape?

[Peace River]

Stacking rocks: How do you layout your aquascape?

There are a lot of approaches to creating the rockwork for an aquascape. Whether you prefer an old-school rock wall with caves, a minimalistic design, or something in between, determining how to build your aquascape applies to everyone whether you add rocks on-the-fly or take extreme measures toward extensive planning. Some reef keepers build the aquascape outside the tank first while others build it in the tank for the first time. Similarly, some people make the effort to secure the entire aquascape together, others combine the rocks into larger segments, and still others stack the rocks without permanently connecting them together. Please let us know how you layout your aquascape. This could be for your current tank, a past tank, or maybe how you are planning to design the aquascape of a future tank. Pictures and tips are welcomed!

Photo by Albert Lou; @Aquaforest rock


This QOTD is sponsored by Tidal Gardens

“The goal of Tidal Gardens is to offer the highest quality corals to those seeking a piece of that world without destroying it. We hope to instill a deep appreciation for the natural reefs and help develop a self sustaining hobby that no longer requires the collection of fish and corals.”

 

[blaxsun]

I let the fish push them around, lol.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I get the idea outside the tank, then put it in the tank without water.

 

[Gill the 3rd]

My carpet anemone rearranges my rockwork for me lol. I now just stack my rocks until they kind of naturally lock together and create caves and crevices. I like to also incorporate some arches as well. I did the NSA on my previous tank and I liked the look, but it didnt offer nearly as much space for corals or hiding spots for fish.

 

[JoJosReef]

Live ocean rock, so in tank with water and some colorful language.

Latest tank had 2/3rd dried previously live ocean rock, so out of tank scaping was a treat!

 

[Azael]

I had an idea of how I wanted to arrange my rocks, but I started with about 90% live rock and I had to be quick in putting the scape together.
I put the rocks in without water and put the water quickly.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

Should be inside the tank throwing things and getting angry or outside the tank throwing things getting angry lol.

 

[o2manyfish]

Mine is a bit more complex than most. It started with my previous 400 and carried over to my current 750.

First was a I bought a ton of flat slab rock. For the 400g we tilted the tank onto it's back and used black pond foam and mounted all the slab rock to the back of the tank. We put the pieces together like a heavy jig saw puzzle. We let the foam sit for a few hours and then tilted the tank back up and all was well.

I wasn't able to use this same technique in the 750g because the tank was way to big and heavy to flip onto it's back and then back again. Using spring loaded sticks, and bags of salt I slowly and painstakingly used the black pond foam to mount the rocks to the back wall.

Unfortunately, I forgot to clean the black back panel, or scuff it with some light sand paper and about 15% of the rock that went up on the wall came off. Strangely the rock stayed on when the supports were removed and came off when the water was added. The buoyancy of the foam caused the rock to release from the back wall.

This gives me the back wall of my aquarium that I don't have to clean and I can grow corals on.

The next step is the aquascaping. I like a lot of rock work so the fish have plenty of space to hide, but at the same time don't want huge pockets without flow or detritus piling up. So I built structures / shapes out of FRP Fibergrate.

Fibergrate is like giant eggcrate made out of Fiberglas reinforced plastic. The material is 100% inert and safe for aquariums. It is strong. With eggcrate squares that are just under 2" x 2" x 2" a 10' long by 3' wide strip of Fibergrate can support a small car. These gratings are used in factories and such for walking platforms, or non-slip stair treads.

In my 400g tank I built on the left side of the tank what looked like a couple of steps. This allowed me to pile the rock all the way to the top of the tank looking like a wall of rock, and yet the rock was only 1-2 layers thick. I was also easily able to mount Tunze Stream pumps in the Fibergate to keep the water moving in and around the rock work. In the 400g underneath the stairs was probably closed to 80g+ of open free space for the fish to dwell in.

As you can see from the photos, to interlock the fibergrate and build the structures is very simple. You can pin them together with just them selves. You can lock them together with big zip ties, and you can even apply Crazy Glue Gel at the intersection points to lock the Fibergrate pieces in place.


This was the left side of the tank. On the right side of the 400g we were able to build a free standing Fibergrate island and then lean and stack rocks onto it to make the structure dissappear.

This structure system worked great for almost 20 years. The rocks were all locked together with gravity and friction, no real delicate balancing and as you can see from the photos I was able to build some really nice shelves and over hangs.


When the 400g came down we setup a Temporary 560g tank. The 400g was 28.5" tall and the 560g was 36" tall. The Step structure from the left side of the 400g tank was modified to be taller and we ended up with a really cool swim thru arch for the fish.

The 560g was 120x30x36T. As an island tank it was full walk around and so the aquascape was down the center of the tank.

I really like how the flow went all the way around the tank with the island style of aquascape. I hated the height of 36". While it was the most beautiful tank I have ever owned, it was the most awful to work in.

When we ordered our new 750g I was really worried I would regret not going 36" high. But I just couldn't live with a tank I couldn't reach to the bottom of. The 750g is 120x48x30. This tank was going to be up against a wall. So reaching the back of the tank (48" away) could have been an issue. But Titan Aquatic Exhibits took my person size and large weight and ran that thru a CAD engineering program and built the cross bars and the top thick enough that I can actually lay my girth across the top of the tank and reach the back.

With the 4' of depth I was able to take the aquascape from the 560 and put it somewhat into the center of the 750g plus add the rock on the back wall.

With the rockwork in place in the 750 I had a bunch of open space on the right end of the tank. I had about an 18x18 footprint and I could go up to 30" tall. Which meant it was going to be a very narrow structure. I wanted to keep it separate from the structure more towards the middle of the tank, which I call the bridge. I had some left over rock but couldn't quite make it work. I took 3 pieces of slab rock and drilled them and pinned them in a stack, like pizzas using some 3/8" fiberglass rod. I didn't even have to glue it. Then I had a great big boulder rock. I stood it on it's pointy end. Then drilled that and put a fiberglass rod thru into the pizza stack. There is one rod that goes into the stack and a few other rods to balance the weight.

If you look closely you can see the freestanding island on the right end of the tank. Stacked rocks with a balanced boulder on top.

This was a neat piece of aquascape. Which got even cooler when we added and Abyzz AFC 150 Flow cannon to the tank and put it in wave mode. All of a sudden not only were the corals swaying back and forth but the boulder ontop of the pizza stacks started swaying.

The boulder has been swaying for over a year now with no sign of toppling over. I have a public webcam and get 1-2 messages a week that I have a rock about to topple over in my tank. People around the world are really worried about it.

Best way to see the rock bouncing is to watch it on the live webcam(s). www.o2manyfish.com and www.o2manyfish.com/right - The wave pump cycles on/off every 15 minutes and is off for 90 minutes when the lights ramp up or down. So if the rock are swaying, just come back in 15 mins and check the cam again.

Final aquascape looks like this: