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Rockscaping 125 tank... I SUCK! Help please you guys with "The Eye"

  • Thread starter adnedarn
  • Start date

adnedarn

I'm growing CPs in the Desert of Tucson, Az
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Hello everyone! I've been trying a couple days now to get the rocks set up in a decent way, and I'm not sure I'm making any progress... So please let me know what you think of these, or what I'm doing wrong. haha! The tank is a 125gallong meaning 6' long and only 18" deep (front to back) which makes showing depth difficult. It's going to be mixed reef and fish, if that helps you.
Thanks!
Andrew

My first "final" attempt...
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This is my second "final" attempt....
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Top view since I was really working the depth concept.
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And my third "final" attempt... (dunno why it's blury :-\ )
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Also, please take note in my teddy bear on the right. :-))
 
im liking the second and third pics. they give the space to make the tank appear even larger than it is , also gives the option for two different zones for your fish .
are you doing fish too ?
 
oops you said fish sorry .
its going to be very nice. i want one like this.
your first?
 
My first salt, yes! I've had the tank since high school but got tired of the community fresh fish thing. I have a planted freshwater tank too, and a few smaller tanks with annual killifish too.

The sump under the tank is a 55gal tank. Really excited to get some water flowing through it!
 
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That's gonna be awesome! Will you be filling it with corals and inverts?

I personally like the second setup where there's two separate "reefs" with a pathway in between, seems to give the eyes more places to explore.
 
Yep, corals, fish, inverts, all that neato stuff. :) You guys may recall RamPuppy? It's his fault, he's making me do it. haha!
 
Oh yes I remember him, does he ever come round TF anymore?
 
Nah, reefing took over his time. I think I've got him talked into getting just a couple though- we'll see how that goes for my master plan! bwahahahhaha :-D

Added in a cave, moved the right structure right, and added the curves in the middle back in....


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  • #10
Looks cool! Are they sturdy when setup?

I can see how reefing would consume a lot of time, I love studying setting them up but always afraid to take the huge financial plunge! LOL
 
  • #11
yeah, takes a lot of flipping and switching rocks to find ones that stack really good- but truth be told, I purchased these rocks because of how well they interact with each other making the look fairly seamless. I believe the same reason they can look seamless is whey they're so sturdy.
Yeah, it's a bit pricey to get started, but taxes and my wife's bonus made it possible this year. :)
 
  • #12
Are you gonna pick up some live rock pieces to seed the rock you have now? I've always wanted the fresh stuff ordered direct from the coast aquafarms, picked & packed day of your order arriving at the airport for pickup within 4-6 hours. Some folks say it'll all be dead but others say you can end up with some really cool stuff by curing your own live rock.

My tax man said "you're getting a good refund this year but I don't want you spending it!" Well I put 50% of it in savings... :lol:
 
  • #13
No, don't think I'm going to do any live ocean rock... too much risk of getting some stuff you don't want. That was another huge bonus of getting this rock, it's not out of the ocean so it's very clean... and it doesn't impact natural reefs at all (it's gotten from some land based ancient reef that's been buried a long time). Maybe I'll get Steve to send me a rock or something, otherwise it'll all seed by itself (I do have 2 bags of "live sand" too to get it going).

Well, we're having the last door switched out to an energy efficient one (last door/window in the place to be done) and solar is supposed to be installed within the next 2 weeks. So that was our investments for the year, we do 401k and buy stock all year though.
 
  • #14
Oh, the stuff I'm talking about is taken from land reefs, some companies even "make" their own rock with coral aggregate and sand. Then it's replaced into the ocean in leased plots, allowed to become seeded naturally over time and then collected. I wouldn't want rocks torn out of a natural reef formation.
 
  • #15
The 2nd setup looks very similar to my sister's reef tank once you have it established with a lot of SPS and fish. She's "Jadette" on reefcentral. Her tank is a 140 rimless.

 
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  • #16
Something I always did in my tanks was build arches. I was always a conformist with my aquascapes, and I still was until last week actually. I'm beginning to set up a planted tank and I'm doing it 100% differently... Different substrate, different substrate aquascape, different kind of driftwood, and I'm going to start it up dry so the ground cover plant can spread faster (so basically I'm making a terrarium that I'll fill with water)... I digress.

Another thing I like to do is to make little "islands" out in the sandbed, which gives me room to grow out frags or isolate things like anemones. It's also gives burrowing fish good areas to make holes. BTW I recommend you get a jawfish, they're literally the coolest fish ever. I'd get 3 pearly jawfish for a tank the size of yours, they'd SOOO FUUN TO WATCH OMG.

Example of my rock structure style... (Mute the volume, I hate the music I used. Also, excuse the horrendous editing, I was literally like 10...)

 
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  • #17
The 2nd setup looks very similar to my sister's reef tank once you have it established with a lot of SPS and fish. She's "Jadette" on reefcentral. Her tank is a 140 rimless.


That is an amazing tank. It looks flawless and reminds me of the deep sea. The coral and the fish look beautiful.
 
  • #18
Here is tonight's attempt after trying to take 3 websites worth of criticism/critique and without loosing myself much. :p

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  • #19
how much rock do you have?
here's what i see:
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  • #20
I have 200 lbs. I end up not using about 10 pieces each time. (which puts me over the 1lb/gallon thing... but this is reef saver rock which is heavier than typical reef rock).
 
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