Aquascaping is hard

[B16acrx1988]

I just set up my new cube and don't know if I like my scape or not. I have seen so many scapes here that I love but when it comes to making one it just kinda goes to sh**. So without further ado give me some tips on my scape.

[DocReef]

There's lots of great tutorials on aquascaping online. Cubes are hard to scape. Try using less rock or building it up and splitting up the rocks as opposed to one single wall. I like using rocks in the front and back of the tank, as it gives the effect of a deeper tank. You have some neat looking pieces of rock that would look cool if split up. Use smaller pieces in front and build up, sort of like bleachers. Also, open sand space will make your tank seem much bigger and add to your aquascape. Just my 2 cents.

[Arkayology]

It is hard. That's why I don't sweat it and just drop the rocks in and glue the coral down

[Zia]

There's lots of great tutorials on aquascaping online. Cubes are hard to scape. Try using less rock or building it up and splitting up the rocks as opposed to one single wall. I like using rocks in the front and back of the tank, as it gives the effect of a deeper tank. You have some neat looking pieces of rock that would look cool if split up. Use smaller pieces in front and build up, sort of like bleachers. Also, open sand space will make your tank seem much bigger and add to your aquascape. Just my 2 cents.

 

Great advice ^

 

Scapes are tricky. But less is more imo. Negative space and a clean sand bed go a long way in creating a visually stunning scape. You have a superb centerpiece rock to start with at least. That giant hole in the center is a really neat piece! Good luck

[Weasel Baron]

mixing branching rock and base rock makes things difficult. You might consider breaking up the base rock into small pieces and going from there. Stick to the photographer's rule of 3 when figuring out rock placement

[CHOX]

It is hard. That's why I don't sweat it and just drop the rocks in and glue the coral down

 

That is probably the best way. I'll usually switch up my tanks until I have corals actually growing on rock.

[B16acrx1988]

That's the main reason why I did the base rocks the way I did because I had shrooms on them and some zoas that I don't know where they went during the move from my old tank to new tank after peroxide dip. That's why I got all the frags in the sand.

[B16acrx1988]

I have enough dry rock to cover the tank just couldn't start a cycle again.

[PiscesFish]

Well, it all depends on what you're searching for as your aquascape. You can use the biggest branch and put it in the back with the two branches attached to it touching the wall and make some arches. You can also set the biggest branch off to itself and make an island with the rest of the rocks making arches. You can take that biggest branch rock, turn it to where the part touching the sand is off on one of the sides and have the two branches resting on an island then build off of that. . . There's many possibilities that you can use based off of that big branching piece, but it all depends on what you want to do with it and what you want the aquascape to end up looking up as.

 

With my tank, I like being able to see what the fish are doing in my rockwork, so I have it where there's big gaps so that I can see into the rockwork from almost every angle so I have plenty of caves and gaps in my rockwork but also shelves and crevices for my corals too.

 

So it all depends on what you want to be able to see in your tank while enjoying the rockwork.

[Benny314]

As already said branching rock is hard to scape with but looks amazing if done well.

Look at building a central structure that has some height that you can position reaching into the tank maybe with either a wide base supporting it or different height islands around it.

 

These are some scapes that inspired me,

 

 

I love the extra sand bed you get with the floating or over hanging type structures and I like the height that can be achieved with branches or using lots of small chucks to build pillars or spires.

I also really like the counter weighted leaning type structures.

 

This is what I ended up managing, I scored some great branches with some nice large chucks of interesting rock and was able to make leaning columns with the branches fitting in or on quite naturally.

My tank is a 3X2X2 which I have 3 sides viewable coming into the room, but this shot is head on from my favourite viewing angle.

 

 

This is the full room shot, it's hard to get proper perspective of the rock work. It's a main structure with the branches leaning into the tank from the back wall. There's maybe 10 inches of space below the base of the structure and the back wall of the tank and back has an over hang piece that sort of counter balances the look back towards the back wall with 6 or so inches of clearance. The branches over hang the base of the structure leaning into the tank. I then have an island to balance the extra space at the front of the tank as the over hang into the tank wasn't as big or far reaching as I had hoped.

 

 

Sorry about the blown out photos, my phone really doesn't like how bright my LED arrays are.

 

And this is a shot from when I was testing the LED arrays and the tank was still cycling (really need to get some new photos using my DSLR).

 

[Sancho]

That will look killer with some coral! Very nice. Aquascaping is so frustrating.

[Benny314]

Yeah this came out nothing like I planed but by blind luck some how better lol.

 

You always see these great tanks or have great plans in your head, but trying to make them happen is a right pain in the ass.
Some people have a gift and can do it with out thinking about it, and others just can't get it right.

I think the real key is not to try to hard and over think things.

The more you try to make it look natural the more forced and unnatural it ends up.

The other thing to remember is your coral growth will change the appearance and shapes of your structures. You have to plan 3 or 4 years worth of growth ahead really. Over hangs or coral that will plate out into the tank can cause shading issues for coral below so real consideration has to be given to where you chose to place things as well as the base structure.