Which comes first? The vision or the rocks?

[lkoechle]

So, this is bold of me to say, but I am planning a TOTM tank with my new set up. I think I've learned enough from my past tanks, that this next set up could be "the one". lol I do say that with all humility but also with great hope that I can make it up there with the greats of nano-reef. lol (it probably won't, but you never know! I'm also cautiously optimistic that I can win the lotto when I don't buy a ticket. )

 

I have a hard time with aquascaping though. I want to a minimalist I think.

 

How do you begin? With a vision or the rocks? I usually buy from reef-cleaners and go from there.

 

What do y'all do?

[krusing93]

bold and brash and I AM FOLLOWING hahaha

I usually just pick some rock up from the LFS so I can hand select each piece as I think it will fit into my tank.... IMO the get some random rocks and smash them with a sledgehammer thing ends up with weird looking rocks IMO again but that my way of picking rocks...

[MedievalITGuy]

I don't have a whole lot of experience, but the wife and I went to the LFS not knowing what to expect, and walked out with two gorgeous pieces of LR. Our eyes were slightly bigger than our tank though, and the "vision" then became trying to fit them inside of the glass with some room to spare. So I'd definitely say that our approach is "rocks first, then vision". Doubly so since the one chunk we had to break off developed into it's very own pico bowl!

[jack1978]

I finally figured out that getting creative with a bunch of smaller rocks can look better / easier to play with than just a couple large rocks. Epoxy and acrylic rod are fun to add into the mix.

 

Have a basic idea of what you want prior.....not that it won't evolve as you go.

[Clown79]

Its hard to purchase rocks to a design so I'd say get the rocks, then design.

 

Get some smaller to mid size pieces and either epoxy or silicone them together.

 

Once you have the rocks you can draw out some ideas.

 

When working with the rock to formulate the design, take pics of each aquascape. After go back and see which you like the best or post them on here for votes

[teenyreef]

After doing three tanks, I've found it best to start with a basic idea of the scape - real basic. Like lots of sand vs. lots of rocks, tall scape vs. not tall, islands vs a big clump of rocks. But beyond that, I started with the rocks.

 

I've learned not to be afraid to break them up, but it helps to build around one or two good sized, interesting shapes.

 

And I've also learned that almost any rock looks much smaller than it really is inside the tank. And lets face it, in the long run, it's about the corals, not the rocks, so I try to use just enough rock to support the bioload, and leave all the room to stuff in more corals

 

In my last tank (the IM40) I did a combination of 10lbs of uncured live rock from KPA, and a bunch of dry rock from reefcleaners. By having lots of cheap dry rock to build around the live rock, I felt really free to break up the cheap dry rock to fit around the live rock pieces.

 

Good luck with TOTM! There's nothing wrong with going for it from the start, and if your tank makes you happy, it will probably make lots of other people happy too

Additional edit: what Jack said. Don't be afraid to evolve once you start actually putting the rocks together. I had a detailed plan in my IM10 that was carefully mocked up on a piece of cardboard. Then I realized all my live rock was dying in my cold garage during the mock up process, and I frantically threw everything into the tank in a completely random scape. I think it turned out great - I never had to change a thing after that

[reefhound]

I have found some great pieces, and traded them out in my tank until I was happy with it.

for me it was a process

[Nano sapiens]

Picked appropriately sized rock from my 55g and jumbled it together until I liked the scape, it was stable and I was able to easily clean all the sides/back.

 

As mentioned, smaller sized rocks allow more flexibility. An read up on the 'Rule of Thirds' concept

[Mikeymikemike]

I run aquascaping workshops in Australia with Aqua Design Amano (ADA)

 

 

Some things I tell anyone who wants set up new tanks is.

Both. Hardscape and vision are important

 

Understand that a foundational scape is just as important as the end product.

Step 1: A good aquascape gives you direction and shape. It can accentuate lines, horizons, negative space foregrounds, backgrounds or even zones.

 

Step 2: Select your corals or plants based on the shape and direction(physical movement and orientation) you want to go. Some corals are round, some are tall, others are flat.

 

Tips:

Play with colour and texture. In reefing, I believe texture is more important as aquascapes look less natural when organised into colour groups.

 

Bring the foreground forward for more sense of depth. look at all the winners of the IAPLC, their foreground is no more than 4cm deep in most cases.

 

Slope your scape for depth and use smaller corals and fish for scale. You cannot do this with sand but try to do it with rock or coral placement.

 

When in doubt, more rock is ok.

 

This was a speed scape I made in 5 minutes. Someone purchased it straight away on the day of the demo. See how the foreground is close to the front allowing for depth. rocks allow for horizontal direction. Branches fill vertical space and empty negative space is found above the sand.

 

 

 

A tank one of my fellow aquascapers mocked up with my shared advice (this also became an ADA winning work)

 

 

The left tank was the hardscape for what would later become an ADA winning work.

 

 

Add a sense of scale by juxtaposing large rocks with small ones.

 

I hope this advice helps

[Clown79]

Love those scapes!