Aquascaping

[Paul B]

I see a lot of Noob Threads asking to comment on their aquascape. That is a good idea but the scape is your preference. But I see in most of them too much rock, especially with flat surfaces sitting on the bottom. I know this is the easiest way to stack rock and it probably looks nicer, but it is not the way to go. IMO the contact areas should be as minimum as possible, maybe using the pointiest parts of the rock to contact the bottom so as not to restrict flow. It doesn't look like much but those stagnant areas add up and do nothing for tank health and maybe be detrimental as we want circulation in every area as much as possible.
My entire reef is sitting on DIY structures like this. You don't see these things in my tank because they are covered in rock and coral with just some of the "feet" visible.





It's hard to see in the picture but there is very little rock touching the gravel and water can circulate around, through and under the structure.
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[diana a]

I like the idea of using cement. I used lighting grate, 1/2 pvc with zip ties to elevate all my rocks except for one small rock that sits up front in my tank. I run a bare bottom but I love the look of sand. I am afraid of fish and snail poo buildup

 

[Paul B]

Diana, for some reason I don't get snail and fish poop building up. I keep my fish constipated so I don't get that problem.

 

[diana a]

This is the 40b I setup a month ago when I had to move my DT because the room was getting painted. It held only corals and 4 turbo snails for 3 days. I had a hob filter that I use for QT on it. Never would have thought those turbo snails poo soooo much. I was in the process of draining the tank after moving the corals back to the DT and decide to take a photo

 

[DangerDave]

I agree with this approach. I have a lot of rock in my display, some would say too much. That said, there are only a few spots actually touching the bottom of my tank. The flow allows there to be no areas where detritus has a spot to gather.

 

[Paul B]

Diana, Thats disgusting. Those snails need an internist.

 

[Mark Shelly]

Paul,
Here is one of my take 'son your approach. I got the idea from one of your posts earlier on the subject and did something similar, but this post expired this one. In my case, I used coral branches for the feet, pieces of coral usually too small for a tank, shells, and a white low-alkalinity cement I got from a pool company. The shells help keep cement in the right place and I hope add some interest to the new tank before it gets covered. I believe this rockwork will make 4 times as much swimming space for my fish as well in my new tank, which is only 1 foot longer than the last. p.s. I also started my pile of rocks too close to the glass in my current Noob tank. I leveled out the piece with a few shells.