My husband and I are long time nano keepers and reefs.org lurkers, but we finally set up an Oceanic 144 gallon bowfront, and have gone through all the preliminary boring stuff. We finally added some critters from our nanos and bought a little shoal of blue green chromises. We spent a lot of time (mostly me pointing and my husband doing) trying to come up with something natural and cave-ish with the rocks we had. Keep in mind, the tank is still bare because it's newly set up! It's not the greatest picture because bowfronts are sort of difficult to capture from he bow. What do you think?
whaddya think of my aquascaping?
- Thread starter anemonelover
- Start date
i think its pretty. I like the 2 high points on both sides with a trench in the middle "swim through the trench NOT OVER IT". The one rock on the left has lots of fingers on it which will prove useful for sticking frags of SPSs on. I guess you could even try to bridge the big gap in the middle wiht a nice big flat rock then build on top of that if u wanted to get closer to your light!
BTW.. that angel... is it reef safe???
B
BTW.. that angel... is it reef safe???
B
SnowManSnow":3mqr1qik said:
Hahaha... I really liked that movie, but I hate to admit it. Yes, the flame angel is 80-90% reef safe. They are generally a tad bit of a nipper, but ours has always been pretty passive and friendly, I guess maybe because he's always the last one we add in a tank because they can easily get a pretty big ego from what I understand. From marinedepot.com:
the Flame Angel, is a staple in the ornamental marine trade. The flame angel is one of the most beautiful & hardiest. Able to get along with other Pygmy Angels in a tank of at least 75 Gallons or more, due to territoriality. A beautiful peaceful angel, the Flame Angel adapts well to captivity, and can be kept in either a community tank or in Reef tanks so long as caution is noted with Tridacnid species of Clams, and possibly Scallops. Might possibly nip at LPS/SPS Coral Polyps as well.
I have had no real issues with my flame. I added him in the middle. I had the tang first(which is bigger than the flame), the flame next and then my pair of clowns. he chased the clowns for an hour or 48 until the clowns fought back..."The clowns fight back episode 5" it is where the clowns find out the flame is their father. ANYWAY....no real issues since. Ok no more beer for me tonight. Remeber to use the schwartz. lol
I think it looks very nice. But since you are looking for critics :wink: , I can give you some advice to make it better.
My LFS guy has the nicest aquascaped tanks I have ever seen. When my tank broke and I had to switch, AGA paid the bill to have my LFS come do it for me. 8) So I watched him set up my aquascaping and it was 20 times better than what I had done myself before.
The secret? He leans everything against the back! I would never have done this. He just builds up and up and uses the overflow and the back of the tank as a wall to lean rocks against.
Anyway, here's a picture of my tank in its best days....those days are long gone though and half of what you see is dead.
But I still have a great frame of rock to look at. :lol:
My LFS guy has the nicest aquascaped tanks I have ever seen. When my tank broke and I had to switch, AGA paid the bill to have my LFS come do it for me. 8) So I watched him set up my aquascaping and it was 20 times better than what I had done myself before.
The secret? He leans everything against the back! I would never have done this. He just builds up and up and uses the overflow and the back of the tank as a wall to lean rocks against.
Anyway, here's a picture of my tank in its best days....those days are long gone though and half of what you see is dead.
But I still have a great frame of rock to look at. :lol:Attachments
Wow, your aquascaping is (was?) very creative. I love all the bridgework. I think that must be pretty difficult to do without bolts or lots of putty. We did lean a bunch of stuff against the back to partially mask the overflows, although in time I do want to make them substantially bigger. I sort of had this vision of an outcropping edge of a reef, sort of shallow and extremely crevicey (not a word, I know). It's hard to see from the pictures, but all those rocks at the bottom have large gaps between them that even the flame can navigate, and the sand drops down in the back middle and is filled with caves. I'm pretty happy with the bottom... but not too sure about the "hills." I think it will get a better rounded look once it's ready for corals. I have lots of rock in the refugium, so maybe we'll take some out and put it in there and see how it does.
More comments welcome! If you think it's not so hot, please tell me what you would do
More comments welcome! If you think it's not so hot, please tell me what you would do
SnowManSnow":2wei8mms said:hehe i always like the Use caution statement. Gotta judge whether or not its worth POSSIBLY having to chase down later because he's nipping at somthing. Your call
That's true, but no problems yet, so maybe we're lucky! I really love him. He's full of personality. It's weird... he never hides from me or my husband or even my 1 year old who makes lots of movements and likes to rub his hands on the glass, but hides when someone else is looking in. Think he can recognize us, or is that wishful thinking? :lol:
anemonelover":1y8xgkl3 said:Wow, your aquascaping is (was?) very creative. I love all the bridgework. I think that must be pretty difficult to do without bolts or lots of putty. We did lean a bunch of stuff against the back to partially mask the overflows, although in time I do want to make them substantially bigger. I sort of had this vision of an outcropping edge of a reef, sort of shallow and extremely crevicey (not a word, I know). It's hard to see from the pictures, but all those rocks at the bottom have large gaps between them that even the flame can navigate, and the sand drops down in the back middle and is filled with caves. I'm pretty happy with the bottom... but not too sure about the "hills." I think it will get a better rounded look once it's ready for corals. I have lots of rock in the refugium, so maybe we'll take some out and put it in there and see how it does.
More comments welcome! If you think it's not so hot, please tell me what you would do
I think it's hot. Certainly better than I could do on my own. It's just that my LFS guy has 30 years experience and builds tanks for people.
All that bridgework is done without any bolts or glue. And it is rock solid, if you can believe it. When he set it up, I was sure anything would topple it, but I've had a couple of snails the size of tennis balls in there that didn't budge a rock. 8)
I dred the day I have to move the tank, because there is no way I cuold do that again. :lol:
What I like about yours is the two peaks. I like that look because it gives central space for fish to swim up in the water column and be seen in all their fishy glory. :lol:
Ranger":3sdsx861 said:
lmao... that's... um... creative.
We'll probably add a few more fish, but I'm thinking just a blenny (how can you not have one), and a tang. Otherwise I think we're good on fish and will concentrate on corals. At the moment there are:
- flame angel
- 2 false percs
- 2 maroons, although they don't seem to be faring well from the move
- 5 blue green chromises
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