+Mitch Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 This is my first attempt at rockscaping and was wanting ya'lls artistic and practical advice to this setup. First and foremost, this will be for a 90g tank with inside dimension 47.25"W x 17.25"D x 22.5"H and a left corner overflow. I forgot to measure the eggcrate but it is smaller and will easily accomodate wetside of a magfloat (the first pic shows it inside the tank). The tank will be in an entry way sitting on a 42" tall stand, so my eyes are pretty much a third of the way from the top. It will be viewed from all 3 sides, but primarily from the front and the right side/corner where our living room is. The dimensions of this current rockscape is 43.5"x15"x20.5". I will have 120lbs of sugar sized sand which will give me about a 3" depth. This has been sitting as-is for over a week now, and is relatively stable. Slideshow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mitch_sengson/sets/72157622543210996/show/ And the last pic is a birdseye view to get a sense of where i can place corals and how the light (T5's) will shine down. Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muddybluewater Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 looks good, I would definitely use some epoxy or attach the rocks together some how Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Mitch, is this primarily for corals or fish? If you're going to have man fish I would open it up a little so they have places to swim through. Otherwise your twin of my tank looks good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted October 8, 2009 Author Share Posted October 8, 2009 muddy & mike, thanks for the feedback any suggestions on an epoxy to use? i have reef expoxy (http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Fragging-Tools/c119/p723/Coralline-Purple-Reef-Epoxy/product_info.html), but i think it's more intended for attaching frag plugs. of course the other option, is the acrylic rods. mike, i believe you are doing this with your's. can you share the where's and how's? the tank will primarily be corals with maybe 10 fish at most - i'm thinking 2 clowns, a goby, a blenny, angel, tang, firefish, hawkfish, gramma. my understanding is the tang will be the only one really needing open space to swim. the rockscape as-is does have small swim-through's (in the pics it's kind of difficult to see wrt the background), and that was the best i could do to create openings in the wall structure. i left perches and outcroppings for the fish and corals. i could easily remove the 2 isolated rocks in the front if needed, as i was planning on having at least one clam, and may need that space on the sand bed. and the last thing i forgot to mention in regard to the rockscape was my plans for flow... i have 2 vortechs on either end, and will have to experiment with flow pattern... hopefully this rockscape "breathes" enough to facilitate movement... the rockscape will not be leaning against the back wall as best as i can... and my understanding is the vortechs do a great job with undertow... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reybeast Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 as long as you can get behind it WHEN you drop something back there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted October 8, 2009 Author Share Posted October 8, 2009 reybeast, are you advising to have the rockscape up against the back glass? if so, why? i thought one of the concerns is having deadspots, and i would think that having the rock be so close would more than likely create such spots. please advise. anyways, i do have a pair of these tongs: http://www.marinedepot.com/Eheim_Plant_Tongs_Tongs_Tweezers_for_Saltwater_Aquariums-Eheim-EH3590000-FIMTTT-vi.html and if i'm not successful at recovering whatever i dropped, i'll just spend 10 min cursing and probably just leave it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reybeast Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 naw, not saying that, its just that I always drop stuff behind the rocks, especially when I dont want to, then its a pain to get it out of there. Thats how I got my VERY pale light green ricordea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barderer Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 if you are going to do sps, or any corals that grow up and out. I would leave a little head room. Right now you don't have much grow up space. It will look good for the first 6m but after your corals start kicking up some serious growth you might wish you had more room. Points about flow dead spots also valid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Looks good. I think the couple of holes you have are probably big enough for an angel and tang to swim through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted October 8, 2009 Author Share Posted October 8, 2009 (edited) barderer & seahorse, thanks for the feedback! i still have a lot to learn about various corals and their respective light needs, but i was hoping to place the taller growing ones on the forward outcroppings where they do have room to grow upward. how close to the top of the water column would you advise to put the rockscape? as-is, there's only 2" from the top of the structure to the top of the tank (inner dim)... oh!, i just realized the overflow will set the actual water height in the tank , so i gotta measure what that point is. fortunately the top of the rockscape has a row of smaller rocks which i can simply remove to lower overall height. Edited October 8, 2009 by Mitch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKarshens Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Personally I have never been a fan of the rock wall look. I know a lot of people like it though. I prefer a more open look. I agree with the others about needing room for fish and corals. I would also advise not putting a Tang in a tank that size unless you go with one of the Bristle tooth variety that don't get much bigger than 7". Most other Tangs should grow to over a foot long. If you are going to run the Vortechs on a pulse I would not worry too much about dead spots. I have a wave box and it keeps things from settling to much on the sand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Daniel Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Wouldn't an angel be a bad idea in a tank with SPS? I have read that polyp extension is almost guaranteed to be reduced when an angel is present. Also, personally, I also love the look of less LR. It's becoming overdone at this point, but islands are your friends. One of the things I would have changed with my rockscape is exactly that. A large (no more than 50-70% of the tank height) and small island (40% or less of the tank height) would provide plenty of swimming room, growing room, and also minimize the LR obstruction of water flow. Of course, the drawback with the island approach is that you won't be able to place corals on the backwall and lose the aesthetic qualities of that arrangement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Daniel Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Here's an example of an open-rockwork tank: Reefbum's Tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 We are setting up a new 58 this weekend. Robin wants a rock wall so we are going to do about have the tank with a rock wall then create an island on the other side for her RBTA. Just thought I'd kick in. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted October 9, 2009 Author Share Posted October 9, 2009 thanks for that link daniel! i can really appreciate the open layout seeing the progressive pics. my original reason for doing a wall was due to the 18"D of the tank. i felt i could only construct short islands and that would look disproportionate. i see that would only be the case early on. anyways, i will try to experiment and see what may come of it. @ GKarshens & Daniel, warnings about tang and angel noted - thanks! again, thanks to everyone for your very useful feedback! stay tuned for rockscape ver2... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhart032 Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 you just have to work at it. it took me 3 times re aqua-scaping till i finally liked it. the only time i liked it lol. depending on what you will keep, caves and overhangs are a good idea. and shelves are also a great idea to put diff corals at diff levels in the tank depending on their light and flow needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 muddy & mike, thanks for the feedback any suggestions on an epoxy to use? i have reef expoxy (http://www.bulkreefs...oduct_info.html), but i think it's more intended for attaching frag plugs. of course the other option, is the acrylic rods. mike, i believe you are doing this with your's. can you share the where's and how's? the tank will primarily be corals with maybe 10 fish at most - i'm thinking 2 clowns, a goby, a blenny, angel, tang, firefish, hawkfish, gramma. my understanding is the tang will be the only one really needing open space to swim. the rockscape as-is does have small swim-through's (in the pics it's kind of difficult to see wrt the background), and that was the best i could do to create openings in the wall structure. i left perches and outcroppings for the fish and corals. i could easily remove the 2 isolated rocks in the front if needed, as i was planning on having at least one clam, and may need that space on the sand bed. and the last thing i forgot to mention in regard to the rockscape was my plans for flow... i have 2 vortechs on either end, and will have to experiment with flow pattern... hopefully this rockscape "breathes" enough to facilitate movement... the rockscape will not be leaning against the back wall as best as i can... and my understanding is the vortechs do a great job with undertow... Yeah, I have acrylic plates and rods in the tank but am not currently using them. When Pug gets back from Vivid we will be doing my aqua-scaping properly. It is 1/2" rod and I have a foot long masonry bit that will be used to bore holes in the rock for the acrylic rod to go through. That should allow me to move pieces later without having to break them apart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhart032 Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 Mike when you do it, i have a Hammer drill if you need it. it makes it very easy to drill through rock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted October 12, 2009 Author Share Posted October 12, 2009 rockscape ver1 (aka the wall) i really liked until daniel shared reefbum's tank pics of his open-rockwork... i can really appreciate having less is more when keeping future coral growth in mind... it seems if one is setting up primarily islands/piles of LR the use of acrylic rods (or any support structure) is overkill, right?... i also like the possibility of following dapettit's approach of having 1 wall and 1 island as well... hmm, yes, too many possibilities... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhart032 Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 A lot of the reason i did what i did was to have the best of both worlds, lots of shelves and lots of over hangs but still the openess that i was looking for for good flow and still have somewhat of a wall type scape for more of a part of a large reef not really a small stand alone reef, also wanted to hide the overflow as best i could. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 We are setting up a new 58 this weekend. Robin wants a rock wall so we are going to do about have the tank with a rock wall then create an island on the other side for her RBTA. Just thought I'd kick in. . . I did the island tactic to keep my bubble tip from wandering all over the place. It also is working to keep GSP in check also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted October 21, 2009 Author Share Posted October 21, 2009 ok, here's rockscape ver2 (islands): http://www.flickr.com/photos/mitch_sengson/sets/72157622634861834/show/ again, my inside dimensions are 47.25"W x 17.25"D x 22.25"H and the tank has a left corner overflow. left island is 16" tall, middle rock 8", and right island 12". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Daniel Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 I like it. Is the taller island designed to cover most of the overflow? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhart032 Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 I like it it looks good, and will give you great flow.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Mitch Posted October 21, 2009 Author Share Posted October 21, 2009 yes, the left/taller island is to cover the overflow. i added a few more pics that shows what that might look like. the black line is where the top of the water line would be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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