ajmckay Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Ordered 22lbs of dry Pukani, first time I've started a tank with dry rock! I'm really happy with this rock, though there seems to be a lot of dead stuff inside that will take some time to break down! Here's the best one I've come up with so far, what do you think? Believe it or not there are only 4 rocks. The pile on the right has a long rod shaped rock horizontally along the back, a small piece up front, and a large "mesa" style rock on top, sitting at a bit of an angle toward the front. Design goals: - Open minimalist concept, lots of space in the water column and lots of space on the sand bed - 1 or 2 main focal points, plenty of space for the eye to wander and not be overwhelmed - Natural looking pillars or piles of rocks. I don't like the stacked look so no seams - Create lots of hiding spots but still be able to see many of them from the outside - Specific locations for easy coral mounting - Very few shadows Here are the pics! Link to comment
Benny314 Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Yes like it. Looks like you still have places for the fish to go hide under and behind the main stack on the right, and that should provide some nice shade for the corals that don't like full direct lighting with out the tank being full of shadows. I love scapes that have lots of sand space for critters and swimming space for fish. Makes them much more open and interesting. Link to comment
Spiderguardnano Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 amazing scape Link to comment
JMarcink91 Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Looks good to me! You seem to have a good mix of high, medium, and low light areas which is always a plus Link to comment
Spiderguardnano Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 reminds me of this http://www.christopherkriens.com/share/elos/fts/large/3.jpg Link to comment
farkwar Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 If you put corals on that right piece, where are they gonna grow? Right into your glass? Link to comment
DriftingNemo Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Looks amazing! But I have to agree with farkwar, you need some more clearance between the rock and the glass. Link to comment
LongDoggy Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 I like it a lot. When is it going to get wet? Link to comment
ajmckay Posted December 21, 2014 Author Share Posted December 21, 2014 Thanks everyone for the opinions! I tried several variations of these rocks, all of them were better than scapes I've done in the past... previous tanks were built using a patchwork of different rocks which looked kind of dumb and stacked. If you put corals on that right piece, where are they gonna grow? Right into your glass? I suppose I should add some color to my plans for this tank. I'm really only planning on having a few corals in it. A large gsp carpet on the lower rock, a large euphyllia of some kind on one island, and a large sps on the other. The tops of these rocks look like they will be awesome for inserting frag plugs Link to comment
farkwar Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 Nooo. Fill it. The 40b is such a perfect size tank, great dimensions. It needs to be stocked. Just take some of that rock off with a hammer and chisel or screwdriver, make a little room. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted December 21, 2014 Author Share Posted December 21, 2014 reminds me of this http://www.christopherkriens.com/share/elos/fts/large/3.jpg Holy crap spider! I was at a concert last night so I didn't click your link but that tank is very similar to the picture I have in my head! That looks to be a much larger tank, but looks very well executed. Nooo. Fill it. The 40b is such a perfect size tank, great dimensions. It needs to be stocked. Just take some of that rock off with a hammer and chisel or screwdriver, make a little room. I agree it's a great size tank, just not sure what I want to do with corals... I'm pretty firm on no softies for this one I think.. The exception may be the encrusting GSP. I've always had smaller tanks with lots of random stuff I suppose I'm just trying to create a cohesive space here where everything fits with each other. As for spacing, here's the spacing between the island on the right and the wall. I think it's a decent amount of room. I chiseled off some of the bottom of the "tabletop" rock so it would fit better. We'll see if I do anything else, I suppose it's possible though I'm hoping to get sand in there today or tomorrow! I've started the RO filter making water already! Link to comment
plainrt Posted December 21, 2014 Share Posted December 21, 2014 Looks good but it's little to close to front glass imo. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted December 22, 2014 Author Share Posted December 22, 2014 Looks good but it's little to close to front glass imo. Soo... I took the table top rock down to start chiseling a bit to make it slope down more, and an idea hit me as I stared at the hack saw... What if I hack sawed the other pieces? Behold! So, which style do you like better? The stacked clump of rocks or these pillars? Should I experiment with spacing them out more? Link to comment
plainrt Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 It's different. Maybe move big side few inches to the right Link to comment
Benny314 Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 Yes again this is very cool. I take it your having an overflow box around those 2 bulkheads on the left? you'll have to watch below it behind the rocks there doesn't become a dead spot and a dirt pile. Are you going to attach the highest rock to a base plate to keep it stable? Link to comment
Roshan8768 Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 Soo... I took the table top rock down to start chiseling a bit to make it slope down more, and an idea hit me as I stared at the hack saw... What if I hack sawed the other pieces? Behold! So, which style do you like better? The stacked clump of rocks or these pillars? Should I experiment with spacing them out more? Similar kind of layout to my scape, so you can take a look at my thread if you need any ideas. If anything I would swap your island rock with the biggest pillar rock on the left. It's just too wall looking atm Link to comment
ajmckay Posted December 22, 2014 Author Share Posted December 22, 2014 Man I'm really on the fence about this... I like the pile look because it leaves the top of that "tabletop" piece fully exposed and there would be tons of places to put coral (the few that I have)... On the other hand this also looks pretty cool... Though maybe a little... Unbalanced? The rocks on the left are huuge and the one on the right looks a little dinky in comparison... Sort of takes away from the coolness of that rock. I think this means I'm swaying toward the way I had it before.. Link to comment
DocReef Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 I like the first landscape better. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted December 22, 2014 Author Share Posted December 22, 2014 Yep, I agree with you Gerber - this is definitely the better scape... More balanced More places to put coral Less "disrupted" - The pillar style rocks consumed more open water Fits together well... With some rubble pieces stuck into place it will be difficult to identify any seams. Modifications: Per the suggestions of Fark and plain I'll chisel down the front of that rock to slope down more. This will get it away from the glass and expose the piece below it to light. Thanks everyone for the opinions and suggestions! If you've got any more let me know. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted December 23, 2014 Author Share Posted December 23, 2014 So I finished chiseling up that rock and it looks much better with a gradual slope down to the sand vs. the drop off that it was. I also chisled away at the underside of the rock that's laying horizontally. It used to sit relatively flat but now it tapers down as you move away from the center of the tank. This helps the top rock slope down better and ultimately the formation sits a little lower, which helps balance out with the single rock standing up on the other side of the tank. I'll post some more pics tonight - and probably start a tank thread. Link to comment
GHill762 Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 I think I would do the first scape, right side looks awesome. left side needs to be flipped over or something imo, looks funny.. Link to comment
lkoechle Posted December 30, 2014 Share Posted December 30, 2014 Unfortunately late to the party but this is what I would've done. I LOVE the second scape. What I would have done is chiseled off the second column and place that piece near the third column for a more balanced and natural look. See crappy drawing: Link to comment
ajmckay Posted December 31, 2014 Author Share Posted December 31, 2014 Unfortunately late to the party but this is what I would've done. I LOVE the second scape. What I would have done is chiseled off the second column and place that piece near the third column for a more balanced and natural look. See crappy drawing: Holy crap that's an awesome drawing! How did you make it? It looks similar to the style I saw someone post using infinite painter. I have yet to check it out (infinite painter) but it's on my list. Anyways, I truly appreciate the suggestion - but as it happens I filled the tank last week... Just haven't made a tank thread yet. I did have one crazy bacterial bloom though, so that was interesting. Fortunately that's cleared up and now my water is mostly sparkly. I've experienced quite a bit of dead stuff on this rock so it may take a while to cure... As for the scape idea, I really was torn and I also did consider cutting that long pillar style rock in half (or something) and putting the 2nd clump somewhere else, but to me it still felt a little unbalanced. Not to say that everything should be perfectly balanced, but one would definitely be really tall and the other much less so. Also I chiseled out some of the rock that the big table top piece stood on... I could make it stand up again, but I would need to shorten it by about 3" more to get a stable flat surface. So I think that this is an idea I might pursue in the future though! I probably won't finish the tank thread by tomorrow, but certainly by 1/1/15! I think I would do the first scape, right side looks awesome. left side needs to be flipped over or something imo, looks funny.. Thanks! I did mess with flipping it, but I thought the island look was pretty cool, where it starts smaller and gets larger. Believe it or not this is a formation commonly found in nature (small base to larger top). Link to comment
lkoechle Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Yeah, like I said, I'm late to the party. lol I used Photoshop, I'm a freelance illustrator so I have a tablet for the pc. The other person probably has a stylus or mad mouse skillz. I don't think you can be so precise with your fingers. BUILD THREAD!!!!! Link to comment
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