Cali Kid Corals

Re-scaping my 2 year old tank

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yngplo

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Hey everyone.

I have a lot of SPS varieties growing in my tank to the point where I've cut and placed a bunch on racks because my current aqua scape doesn't really have a lot of space for them, so I decided I would re-scape my tank entirely. Can anyone offer some advice on rescaping? I'm gonna move things as slow as possible for sure.


Thanks!
 
Aquascaping is a lot like interior design, everyone is going to have a different feel for what looks good, and while there are some things you should probably never do like put a TV above a fireplace build a rock wall, do what makes you feel happy. Only real advice I can give is if you really have that much stuff, don't be afraid to get rid (sell, trade, give away) some of the corals to make more space for stuff to grow.
 
For getting wet/live rocks to stick together, I am a fan of the stick two part epoxy, and lots of it. Keep rocks away from the glass enough to allow your glass cleaner to fit. Look at lots of pictures to see what you like, and go to town! If you are feeling extra diy, you can get a cheap hammer and flat heat screwdriver and shape your rocks how you like. I added a rock arch to my tank after it was set up and did a mix of the e-marco cement, and the epoxy. The cement takes a long time to cure, but is the strongest in the end.
 
H2OPlayar said:
For getting wet/live rocks to stick together, I am a fan of the stick two part epoxy, and lots of it. Keep rocks away from the glass enough to allow your glass cleaner to fit. Look at lots of pictures to see what you like, and go to town! If you are feeling extra diy, you can get a cheap hammer and flat heat screwdriver and shape your rocks how you like. I added a rock arch to my tank after it was set up and did a mix of the e-marco cement, and the epoxy. The cement takes a long time to cure, but is the strongest in the end.
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Thanks for the advice! I imagined making a tree that had a lot of branches so that way I could grow out some colonies and they won’t fight each other while encrusting the rock
 
E11361B0-6485-4BF3-90B8-BD7AE2A407C5.jpeg

Here’s the most recent photo of my tank lol
 
FYI:
For sticking rocks together, I have had the best luck mixing quality 2 part epoxy, like West System, with aragonite sand,
until it has a peanut butter like consistency.
The big downside is it takes overnight to fully set, so you have to prop everything up and let it sit.
But it looks like natural rock, is far better than those clay epeoxy sticks, and has none of the risks of cement.
Plus, epoxy obviously works great with fiberglass rods, if you need extra support.

Arch sculptures are fun, and add interesting shapes down below where it is usually boring.
Tree sculptures can end up looking rather fake, so be careful with that.
Pillars, each with their own coral on top, are very practical to keep corals separated, but do not always look as nice.
 
yngplo said:
View attachment 34452
Here’s the most recent photo of my tank lol
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I will say one good thing about what you have there is that you can't tell where the rock is since it seems to be heavily covered in coral just about everywhere. Now the down parts... doesn't look like that big of a tank such that you're going to be limited in what you do to the rock work. Also while having so many frag plugs on quite a lot of frag holders kind of detracts from anything you could do with the rock work, I mean hell I can't even tell you did an arch in here until I looked really hard due to the fact that big black frag holder just occupying my vision.
 
sfsuphysics said:
I will say one good thing about what you have there is that you can't tell where the rock is since it seems to be heavily covered in coral just about everywhere. Now the down parts... doesn't look like that big of a tank such that you're going to be limited in what you do to the rock work. Also while having so many frag plugs on quite a lot of frag holders kind of detracts from anything you could do with the rock work, I mean hell I can't even tell you did an arch in here until I looked really hard due to the fact that big black frag holder just occupying my vision.
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yeah, I was hoping I could try to make a rock scape to compensate and make more surface area for frags to be at for the next few months while I finish my schooling program. I'm slowly gathering the parts to put together a 60 or 72 inch tank by the end of the year. I've definitely run out of space by being too trigger happy with buying and cutting corals.
 
yngplo said:
Yea at this point I might just tough it out til I get my new tank lol
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Yes. What you have now is a frag tank, not a display tank.

Since you seem to be into fragging, when you get a new "system" you might want to include two tanks somehow.
One really nice neat and clean display tank.
One shallow dedicated frag tank.
 
rygh said:
Yes. What you have now is a frag tank, not a display tank.

Since you seem to be into fragging, when you get a new "system" you might want to include two tanks somehow.
One really nice neat and clean display tank.
One shallow dedicated frag tank.
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I was actually looking into getting a dedicated frag tank. What's a good brand that you recommend?
 
yngplo said:
I was actually looking into getting a dedicated frag tank. What's a good brand that you recommend?
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Don't have one. Since it is shallow, the forces are low, so brand is probably not so critical.
There was some online place that had tons of difference sizes and shapes. But can't remember the site.
Would you even scrape the front glass? If not, acrylic might be best.
 
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