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Very first aquascape, how can I make it better??


jpmarine86

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Hi everyone! I am a 23 marine biology graduate and am very new to the hobby! It has been my dream for some time and I just recently purchased a 60 gallon acrylic tank! It had been established for more than a year from the previous owner and has quite a few mushrooms and a rose bubble tip in there already. Waiting at least a week before adding any fish or coral. 

 

I tried my hand at aquascaping it but am thinking I may need to change a few things. I feel like the wall on the left is too high, and I feel like there aren't enough hiding spots? I also feel like I should put more islands as I home hoping to put a lot of softies in there in the future. I just want to hear y'alls opinion.What did I do wrong, what did I do right (if any haha) and if you have any suggestions they are GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!!

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I agree. I would try to lower that area on the left. Also, move the rocks away from the glass- it's a pain to clean between rock and glass when they're so close together. Speaking from experience.

 

You might want to try to find a couple of flatter pieces of rock to use to make overhangs, or arrange your current rocks to allow for that. Caves and overhangs are great. You should make sure to always have more hiding places than you have fish. Don't necessarily try to build up- you want to build outward somewhat, to make more platform areas for corals and provide more fish hiding places underneath. 

 

Not just heaping all the rock in a pile is a good start. Multiple areas are good. 

 

What's that flat situation on the far right? Is that a rock? Looks kinda like a giant arrowhead.

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Awesome thanks for the help folks! I did a little rearranging and came up with this. And ya that arrowhead lookin thing on the far right was what looks like to be an old chunk of brain coral but I took it out after rearranging, way too big to find a good space. 

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I like the new scape much better.  You have some depth because you moved the rock away from the back wall some.  

 

The structure on the right I think is pretty good as-is.  On the left though it still feels a bit "stackey".  It might be that large lighter colored rock to the right of the left structure.  I would be curious to see what the tank looks like without that rock. 

 

If it looks great then as a final touch I would take an extra rock, and smash it up a bit.  See if you can break off some rubble to fill the cracks and gaps with in the other rock.  As you know you still need to leave plenty of hiding spots but the rubble really helps create a more seamless look so you don't see a rock pile. 

 

Finally is that a metal halide pendant ya got there?  Old school by today's standards but when I ran one the light quality was sooooo nice.  I converted to LED to keep my power usage down but as you could guess I designed my LED array to mimic the light output of my Hamilton MH. 

 

Good luck on your new hobby!

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