Toxic enigma Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 A few weeks back I saw a video of a guy building a reef tank aquascape using a hammer and chisel to break the rock into smaller pieces and super glue to hold it together, creating a rock structure that look like it was all one piece. I knew going into the build of this I wanted the rock work held together somehow, and being that aquascaping is one of the things I like about the hobby I had to give it a try. So for about the past five days I've been playing aroun with the rock trying to get something that looked good, left alot of room for mounting corals and had lots of places for my firefish and possibl a goby to hide. I also wanted it to look as seamless as possible and leave people wondering I did it. Now I'm reaching a point where I'm wondering if I should leave it alone and be happy with it, or if it still needs some work. So I figured it would be a good idea to post some pics and see what others thought. 4 Quote Link to comment
jamescstein Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 That looks alot better than most of the crap I come up with. 3 Quote Link to comment
mitten_reef Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 8 minutes ago, Toxic enigma said: A few weeks back I saw a video of a guy building a reef tank aquascape using a hammer and chisel to break the rock into smaller pieces and super glue to hold it together, creating a rock structure that look like it was all one piece. I knew going into the build of this I wanted the rock work held together somehow, and being that aquascaping is one of the things I like about the hobby I had to give it a try. So for about the past five days I've been playing aroun with the rock trying to get something that looked good, left alot of room for mounting corals and had lots of places for my firefish and possibl a goby to hide. I also wanted it to look as seamless as possible and leave people wondering I did it. Now I'm reaching a point where I'm wondering if I should leave it alone and be happy with it, or if it still needs some work. So I figured it would be a good idea to post some pics and see what others thought. Looks really good. Especially love the slope going up the left side ramp on the last pic. IMHO: I think the low-lying area in the left-ish half could use a bit more visual break, a little lighter mass. Even though you said you're going for the seamless look, the overall feel is a bit two-island. Perhaps think of the low-lying areas as dotted islands in an archipelago, instead of true two island? Quote Link to comment
Kellie in CA Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 I hate aquascaping so much!!! I legitimately have OCD and I really do think this hobby has helped me to work through some of it. I used to drive myself absolutely insane with the re-arranging. I've gotten much better about it, but it's still my least favorite part of the process. I think your scape looks great. As long as you can clean around it, I'd leave it alone! 1 Quote Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 Looks good. I feel like you never know for sure till you get coral on there. It will look so different then. What do you really think? You will have to look at it. I agree no matter what check that the mag float fits. I like the look and say get it wet! 1 Quote Link to comment
dvs1986 Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 1 hour ago, Kellie in CA said: I hate aquascaping so much!!! I legitimately have OCD and I really do think this hobby has helped me to work through some of it. I used to drive myself absolutely insane with the re-arranging. I've gotten much better about it, but it's still my least favorite part of the process. I think your scape looks great. As long as you can clean around it, I'd leave it alone! aquascaping is the best part! Quote Link to comment
NanoRox Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 I think it looks great. Appears that you can clean around it and flow should be able to travel around it as well so I would leave as is and now add the corals and let Mother Nature take over. Quote Link to comment
jamescstein Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 3 hours ago, Kellie in CA said: I legitimately have OCD I have CDO. OCD with the letters in alphabetical order. 1 Quote Link to comment
ffoott Posted May 9, 2018 Share Posted May 9, 2018 As John Lennon once sang: Let it Be... Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 Looks good. As long as you can clean around it. Once corals start growing, the rockwork disappears. Quote Link to comment
Toxic enigma Posted May 10, 2018 Author Share Posted May 10, 2018 Thanks everyone for the replies. And for everyone that brought up making sure I had room to clean around the rock, I made sure that I was able to get my hand between the glass and rock before glueing anything in place, and the small island piece in the front is left unglued so it can be moved if need for cleaning, not leaving room to clean around the rock and nothing holding it in place when bumped into are two of the biggest mistakes I made on my first reef. After reading the responses and spending some time away from the tank I decided to finnish adding sand, fill with water and start the return pump. I'll give it a few days to see how everything runs then add salt and start cycling if all seems good. 3 Quote Link to comment
ffoott Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 Can anyone else "see" a semi headless person, belly up, knees bent on this aquascape? Haha 1 Quote Link to comment
NanoRox Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 57 minutes ago, ffoott said: Can anyone else "see" a semi headless person, belly up, knees bent on this aquascape? Haha now that you mention it..torso on the right propped up on shoulders? cool. 🙂 Quote Link to comment
nsousa Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 Picasso! Aquascape looks great. 1 Quote Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 My only suggestion would be to perhaps add an element that has more height. The two sides don’t have to be the same height, and it would be great for corals that want some more light 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 So what are your goals with this tank? Artsy fartsy with aquascape always evident, or covered in coral goodness (my bias might be showing just a tad here). If the latter, then the scape doesn't matter much in the end, otherwise the general rule is to have some kind of valley off center to add interest. What's around that corner, something like that. Hard to do in a tall narrow tank. 2 Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 Love it, and looks like a dragon head on the right to me. I do like the idea of adding more height on the right so the two sides aren’t as level, for more visual interest, but you could accomplish that by adding a coral colony that comes on a rock later on rather than adding more rock now. Quote Link to comment
Toxic enigma Posted May 10, 2018 Author Share Posted May 10, 2018 5 hours ago, markalot said: So what are your goals with this tank? Artsy fartsy with aquascape always evident, or covered in coral goodness (my bias might be showing just a tad here). If the latter, then the scape doesn't matter much in the end, otherwise the general rule is to have some kind of valley off center to add interest. What's around that corner, something like that. Hard to do in a tall narrow tank. Mostly an upgrade / reboot for my first tank, doing things the way I quickly started to wish I had the first time. It will be a mixed reef with macros in both display and sump, trying to stay somewhat minimalist with coral stocking keeping the rockwork a visual element of the tank rather than just a place for mounting frags Quote Link to comment
Toxic enigma Posted May 10, 2018 Author Share Posted May 10, 2018 5 hours ago, HarryPotter said: My only suggestion would be to perhaps add an element that has more height. The two sides don’t have to be the same height, and it would be great for corals that want some more light I had thought about getting another piece of rock and trying to do a floating piece on the back wall of the tank something similar to the magnetic frag racks designed to look like a rock. Basically creating a floating shelf or island over the valley between the two sides held up with magnets so it can be moved for cleaning and such. Might take some experimenting to pull off though 1 Quote Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 I admit I have never been diving or snorkeling but are floating rocks common? 1 Quote Link to comment
ffoott Posted May 10, 2018 Share Posted May 10, 2018 It's what divers commonly refer to as Unidentified Floating Objects, UFO's for short... 1 1 Quote Link to comment
Toxic enigma Posted May 11, 2018 Author Share Posted May 11, 2018 3 hours ago, debbeach13 said: I admit I have never been diving or snorkeling but are floating rocks common? Yes, just like gsp coverd walls they are common along the Great Barrier Frag Rack lol 1 Quote Link to comment
ffoott Posted May 11, 2018 Share Posted May 11, 2018 Might just be the last remaining Great Barrier Anything pretty soon... Quote Link to comment
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