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Aquascape opinions/advice

merickson45

merickson45

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Hey everyone! I'm starting up an SPS dominant Red Sea Reefer 170 which hopefully will be home to a lot of acropora. I just finished putting together the aquascape (not cemented yet) and thought I'd see if anyone had any suggestions for improvement. This is the first time I've built a custom aquascape, but I tried to balance appearance, openness (for flow), and illuminated surface area. I think I did a decent job, what do you guys think? I'm open to modifying it if there's something I haven't considered. The cardboard base is 23" x 18", which is pretty much the interior footprint of the RSR 170 (excluding the two little sections on either side of the overflow box). The tape measure is open to 12", leaving around 6" of space for growth between the top of the rockwork and the waterline.
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Thanks for the replies. I like it so I think I'm going to go for it and maybe drill some frag plug holes after the cement sets. When I said "a lot of acropora" I now realize that's open to interpretation. What I meant was I would like this tank to be acropora dominant, not that I want to have tons of individual acropora.
 
depending in what lights you will using, you might not need it that high (for par) and can sacrifice a few bottom pieces to make an island next to it for more real estate.

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Also consider that if the acros at the top take off, they will shade corals below - so you may want a longer stretch at the top rather than a peak.
 
where u located? I have a few pieces of stak that's left over and wont be using. maybe u can try to incorporate it in your scape.

edit: 9 pcs. see pic

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I like the look. And yes, the suggestion to drill holes for plugs is a good one. I didn't think of it until after my tank was setup and had to use an 18" long drill bit to reach the rock. Would have been much easier when the rock was dry and not in the tank.
 
Alright, here's what I came up with. I really liked the arches I originally had, so I modified them a bit and added the shelf pieces up top to create more of a plateau. I think this will give more space for acropora up top while also leaving space for some LPS/softies towards the bottom (want this to be SPS dominant, but I would also like to have some non SPS too).

Thanks to jhuynh for providing the shelf pieces!
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It looks great, those shelves provide some nice real estate. one concern I have is your front rock structure looks close to the glass, just make sure you’ll have clearance for a glass cleaner. And maybe add an extra rock as an island if you want to add something semi invasive like gsp, Xenia, or some zoas. But that could be added later of course
 
max_nano said:
It looks great, those shelves provide some nice real estate. one concern I have is your front rock structure looks close to the glass, just make sure you’ll have clearance for a glass cleaner. And maybe add an extra rock as an island if you want to add something semi invasive like gsp, Xenia, or some zoas. But that could be added later of course
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Thanks! Yea I thought of the same thing about the front rock. There's some space to move the whole structure back a bit, but I'm going to test it with a cleaning magnet. If it's still an issue I'm going to chisel off a little from the front. I'm not planning on any fast growing, invasive corals for this tank and I don't want to overfill it with rock, but we'll see how it goes!
 
looks awesome. those extra stak pieces really added more personality to your structure. I prefer the shelves and random tier levels myself.

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