AquaScaping

[Ace25]

Ya, with only a 2" sandbed I would skip the PVC and just use eggcrate. Nothing wrong with a 2" sandbed, I just think PVC would be way overkill.

On my 29G I have rock against the back of the glass because the tank is so narrow, but on my 75G I made sure to leave the back open for flow reasons (learned this lesson from my 29G) as well as more swimming room. I also have a tunnel that goes through the center of my rocks all the way to the back, and when the lights go out my engineer goby turns my tank into a Figure 8 racetrack, he goes zooming all over the bottom of the tank in figure 8 patterns, but does it pretty fast when the other fish go to bed. Pretty cool to watch, never seen him do that in my 29G which he grew up in for about 6 years before getting a bigger home.

 

[GregAW]

How much room did you leave between the rock and the back glass? Got some photos?

 

[Ace25]

Just a few inches, enough for fish to swim and flow to pass by.

 

[GregAW]

Is this your 75 gal reef tank? The egg create is about ready to cut. What is that spotted blur of a fish there on the right?

 

[Ace25]

Yup, that is my 75G. I am guessing your talking about the red/blue one with white spots, that is the African Leopard Wrasse, aka. Spendid, Vermiculate, or Divided Leopard Wrasse (Macropharyngodon bipartitus bipartitus).

 

[GregAW]

That's the fish. It looks cool even though it's a blur. Is it pretty active?

 

[Ace25]

Very active.. very peaceful fish, doesn't like to be with aggressive fish (like damsels, clowns, etc), but will be out all day long "hunting" along the rocks looking for copepods. It is always hovering all around the rocks, eyes moving all over like an eagle looking for prey and every now and then getting something in the rocks.

They are a difficult fish to get established, and probably why they are classified as "expert" fish, but I think that has more to do with their collection methods and the fact that 75% of leopard wrasses come in from the wild with internal worms/parasites that usually is the cause of death in the first month or so. Once you get past the initial 30 days and it is acting good and eating well most people don't have a problem with them after that point.

Link to info on the African Leopard Wrasse.

 

[VanQvreef]

Aquascaping is the bane of my existence. I never feel happy with the way things are organized in my tank. One thing that bothers me is do you just pack all the live rock together in a mass in the middle (which can look great) and risk dead spots for watermovement.
Or try and keep as few points of live rock on the bottom and have caves and archways.
I have chosen the latter, but never seem to get a configuration that is totally pleasing to me.
And how bad is it to go in and change things around semi-frequently?

I wish I could imagine a design as beautiful as are being shown here.

..frustrated aquascaper.

 

[Amphiprion]

Aquascaping is the bane of my existence. I never feel happy with the way things are organized in my tank. One thing that bothers me is do you just pack all the live rock together in a mass in the middle (which can look great) and risk dead spots for watermovement.
Or try and keep as few points of live rock on the bottom and have caves and archways.
I have chosen the latter, but never seem to get a configuration that is totally pleasing to me.
And how bad is it to go in and change things around semi-frequently?

I wish I could imagine a design as beautiful as are being shown here.

..frustrated aquascaper.

Ideally, you want as open a structure as possible. That include minimal sand contact (besides the rock that acts as a structural base, which should be partially buried) with maximum flow-through. Also, if you have corals, or plan on getting corals, optimizing surface area is essential. Depending upon the types of corals you have (and their bases), you may want to emphasize spots with holes (for things like branching frogspawns, etc.), sand surface (open brains corals), flat and heavy flow/light exposed surfaces (many 'sps' type corals), etc. etc. Clams also prefer the latter, minus some of the flow. Also, unless lighting is lacking, don't build the structure to the surface--give the corals room to grow upward. You'll be happy with the result.

 

[reefbumgm333]

Currently all my rock sits against the back glass, a mistake I made several years ago. There is not much flow back there and I cannot tell you how many coral frags I have lost back there due to falling in the cracks. I will be tearing down my tank in the near future because of a warped floor from an accidental auto top off mishap. Once I set the tank back up I will definitely leave at least several inches to allow flow to reach back there as well as being able to retrieve lost frags.

Also if you plan on stacking rocks without a pvc support, make sure you use plenty of coral epoxy to help keep the rock stable and cannot be knocked over by large snails or urchins.

Over time my rock has somehow loosened and is very unstable. It has caused some minor scratching on my glass when fallen into it. So you definitely want to keep it stable to keep it from toppling.