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IM Nuvo 20 mixed reef aquascaping advice


Nell

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Hi everyone,

 

I'm making the jump into a reef tank after doing planted freshwater tanks for a number of years. I spent a few days mulling over different options with the dry rock I have before settling on this, which has the three pieces on the left forming the bridge (they are pretty well wedged and epoxy to keep them there). The right side is one larger piece and a few smaller bits to make the two sides feel a bit more cohesive. FYI for lighting I have one AI Prime HD at the moment but I'd like to do two soon to light the tank more evenly.

 

Now that I have it set up and it's been cycling for a few weeks, I am second guessing a few things.

 

Is the left too close to the surface to put any corals on top of it? I think the original idea was this could host a high light demand coral or two but it feels a little imposing for the height of tank.

 

Do you think this mostly steep inclined surface on the left side will be hard to place some corals on eventually?

 

Thank you for any opinions and advice!

 

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Right and left sides:

 

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Top down (should have turned the pump off for this one, oops):

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Way to much rock.  It would look great removing that big rock on top. When I plan a tank I think about how the corals will grow and leave space for them. From what I understand you should be able to grow just about any coral under the center of that light. 

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I like a lot of rock. Rock is where the action is for my money. If you want a lot of rock in your aquascape then go for it, I says.

 

But if you want more shape you can smash one of the rocks into smaller (hopefully interestingly shaped) pieces and make some more delicate rockwork around the edge of the "main pile".

 

My 40g is jammed with rock and I love it. It just depends on if you want a clean-looking zen garden of swimming fish or not. But if you don't add too much coral at first you can just try it on for a while and then rearrange it.

 

In the past I have made the mistake of using only large chunks. Big chunks are cool, but if you smash one or two up (and try to make some weird, elongated pieces) you can make cool smaller-scale formations/arches/offshoots around the margins of the large chunks. I have always counted on bracing them against each other, but if I was building one from scratch today I would probably use some kind of adhesive in order to remove perfect balance as a necessity and allow some crazier formations.

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burtbollinger

If your concern is that the left side is too vertical and steep to place corals on...I agree that it is.

 

it does look nice, but as the tank matures, real estate becomes a primary concern IME

 

id day give it a try and don’t epoxy it all together.  Change it later if you find it problematic 

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1 hour ago, WhatsReef said:

I like a lot of rock. Rock is where the action is for my money. If you want a lot of rock in your aquascape then go for it, I says.

 

But if you want more shape you can smash one of the rocks into smaller (hopefully interestingly shaped) pieces and make some more delicate rockwork around the edge of the "main pile".

 

My 40g is jammed with rock and I love it. It just depends on if you want a clean-looking zen garden of swimming fish or not. But if you don't add too much coral at first you can just try it on for a while and then rearrange it.

 

In the past I have made the mistake of using only large chunks. Big chunks are cool, but if you smash one or two up (and try to make some weird, elongated pieces) you can make cool smaller-scale formations/arches/offshoots around the margins of the large chunks. I have always counted on bracing them against each other, but if I was building one from scratch today I would probably use some kind of adhesive in order to remove perfect balance as a necessity and allow some crazier formations.

 

I did saw or chisel all the rocks that originally arrived since they were clearly too large - I got 40 pounds of rock so I would have a lot of options but it arrived in three 12 pound mostly spherical chunks. Another round of breaking them up might be needed but it was quite a challenge getting it to break up at all. This rock is from Nature's Ocean, aragonite coral base rock.

 

I might just order some alternative dry rock that is easier to work with and might arrive in smaller more interesting pieces.

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Thank you everyone for the advice and feedback, I cut up rocks I had and ended up with this, which isn't too different from the initial version but it's a significantly lower volume of rock with a lot less vertical faces. I think I'm happier with this!

 

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Most obvious from the side view:

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And still not the nicest but a more visible top view:

 

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And now the cycling continues...

 

 

 

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