Aquascaping

[Jiddy]

Okay. couple of things. I will be aqauscapin my aquarium AGAIN for a couple of reasons, hopefully this weekend. (Im sure PufferPrincess is reading this like "WHAT?") but i had to ask some questions. I am redo'ing it because the way it is setup now, you can only put corals on top, its not like a "slope" where you can put corals at any level, plus i got some of that "putty" and it works nice, so maybe i can make a neat bridge or something. But im also doing this to catch three stoges named Emerald Crab's, since i cant catch them with the rocks, you know i told myself when it took me 5hrs to catch the damsel that i was going to research more before adding somthing to the tank, of course they were already in there, anyways..... My questions are, can you put rocks on the backwall of a tank, i know this will be a "Nitrate trap" but how is it any differant then rock on the bottom of the tank??? That way i can put the rock on the back wall and add a nice slope down to the front. Also, since a big reason ill be takin my rock out is to catch anything that i think killed my two clowns i need some suggestions on that, should i take the rock out or set it in some FW, i have some nice coralline growth, but that is the least of my priorities, would like some suggestions on that, i doubt i have a mantis, but would like to go throu the motions as thou i did. I had more but i started ramblin to much, thank you for you time

Jiddy Bang Bang

 

[Krish]

Yo Jiffy! I think the tank should look nice once you are finished. You have alot of rock, and even though they are small pieces, I think you can make them work out just fine with the putty. I did the rock against the backwall thing before because I wanted more swimming space in the front of the tank for my fish, and because of improper flow, had really bad and big issues with it. A lot of junk settled in the back there and I had no way of removing it unless I removed all of the rocks to siphon. If you are planning to do the same thing regardless of the fact that people suggest not to, I think it would be best if you had maybe a spray bar of some kind behind there to blow off the rocks and push the detritus forward where you can remove it by siphoning or where your filters may be able to pick it up. I don't know if using powerheads in the heart of your rockwork would be a good idea as they will have to be cleaned periodically or if one stops working, you'll have to pull down your rockwork just to get to it. With something like a spray bar, you don't need to really get to it for anything and I think you may get more coverage with a spray bar than using nozzles in the same fashion. Also, if you want to do the backwall rock thing maybe you can implement some sort of mechanical filtration back there (or suction)where you'd have an intake tube sucking out any loose detritus/debris from in the back and if you want, it doesn't necessarily have to be a filter per say where you have the water running through some sort of sponge of filter sock. Even if it just sucks up water from the back of the rockwork and shoots it out into the water column, you'd have a better chance of removing any detritus there via an overflow, siphoning etc. than having it just settling in the back of your tank. Just a few thoughts I thought I would throw out for you. Good luck with your project!

 

[spongebob lover]

Jiddy Bang Bang? ok dood.
man you got a lot of work to do dood, you have just to many little pieces.
hmm one thing that i did to get mine to work is i took some rocks out and put them in a bucket full of saltwater then i slowly started working it, i don't knwo how much you wanna put on your back wall but if it's just one small one, i really don't see the problem, i have one one the back wall
i agree with Krish about the powerheads, i have one powerhead almost at the back and sometimes it's quite hard to move it because i gotta move the rocks around to just get to there.
i think it'd be awesome if you could make a little bridge or like a little cave.
Anyways, i really hope your rock situation gets better and don't be that serious dood .. just kidding

 

[Kensn]

Jiddy I think it is ok to prop rocks againts the back wall, just don't lay rocks against the back wall. Try to have the least amount of contact you can with the rock and the back wall, this will keep water flow good.

 

[clayswim]

I don't really worry all that much about flow; that can be fixed with some well thought out plumbing. My biggest reason for not stacking rocks against the back wall is accessibility. If a coral falls behind the wall it's kind of screwed; and by the same token if a fish dies you're pretty much left with a rotting fish polluting your tank. That is unless you tear down the wall. I prefer designing a nice looking reef in the middle of the tank. That's why you have a wide tank after all.

Clayton

 

[NaH2O]

krish - you have to remember when using spray bars, they may need maintenance, too, so if your aquascaping is around it, then you have the same problem as powerheads. I'm not a fan of placing rock up against the back of the tank. As stated, you'll get dead spots that will collect detritus and be perfect spots for algae growth. You have to be very honost with yourself and how dilligent you would be maintaining that area, if you do decide to stack your rock against the back. I have a ton of room behind my rockwork, and it also makes it nice for the fish to swim back there, too. With regards to it being the same as the rocks on the bottom - I disagree. You can plumb the tank to blow detritus off the bottom. I get only a couple of areas where detritus collects. My rock is placed to where it isn't a solid mass on the bottom. Use acrylic rods, drill into the rock, and hold different pieces together. Don't be afraid to bust up the rock into different shapes either.

I don't know what to tell you about the FW dipping. I'm afraid you would end up killing a lot of the beneficial life on there, if you did all of your rock. Now, if you were to isolate to a particular area, then I'd say go ahead, but to dip all of your rock, I'm not sure I'd do that. It's too early in the morning for me to think that hard .

Let's Talk About ~Aquascaping~

 

[Woodstock]

I just fw dipped every rock in my tank to get rid of 'clickers'. I was able to find/remove 2 pistol shrimps. My rocks are encrusted with corals and coralline so I was hesitant to do the fw dip... I am glad I did. My corals, coralline algae are doing great. I did not have a nitrogen cycle afterwards either.

Yes, you can lay rocks against the back glass. You can stack the bottom rocks to allow for regular maintenance under and behind them. Just design the rocks on the bottom to have caves.. this way you can remove any diterus build up using a siphon hose and an occassional power head.I have this same design and it works great. JME~

Here is a quick sketch that will hopefully show you what I mean...

 

[Angelscrx]

I have my rock work along the back wall. With a spray along the bottom and lots of caves and spaces that go through clear to the back. The fish love swimming all around back there. The rock isn't piled on the back wall I used the back wall more of a lean to support for certain spots. Lots of flow from a closed loop and powerheads.

 

[Jiddy]

Thanks for that beautiful picture Doni! And thanks for your help everyone, i guess my plan to AS got veto by the senate, so i will just wait until she buys me a house and we have to move, lol. Thanks for all the advice and i will keep it in my collection of smart people sayin smart things (sept for Kricks big long thing i didnt read) box!

 

[Krish]

keep it in my collection of smart people sayin smart things (sept for Kricks big long thing i didnt read) box!

Don't get mad at me Jiffy if you never learned how to read, but I think it's funny though because you know how type.(LOL)

 

[spongebob lover]

ohh woodstock i love your design, did you use glue in any of the pieces?
well Jiddy one of my rocks is leaned on the back wall because first of all it's like a gigant tortilla (all flat and rounded) and second one because my mushrooms,xenias, and kenya trees are on top of it and well they like it since they are closed to the lights.
Jiddy, i guess wait to do all this dood like you said until she buys you a house and you move because you don't wanna have a beautiful aquascaping and put it down because you gotta move .
Take care Jiddy Bam Bam , we miss you here

 

[Woodstock]

Thanks for that beautiful picture Doni!

You should see my crayon work... untouchable!!

ohh woodstock i love your design, did you use glue in any of the pieces?

Thanks~ No, no glue nor rods... I was going create 'permanent' scaping but I decided against it. I wasn't fond of the idea of not being able to remove or move rocks when needed ... like this past weekend when I had to move stuff around to make room for a huge candycane colony.

 

[spongebob lover]

in that case wwouuu !!
sometimes i can't get my rocks to stay the way i want them

 

[NaH2O]

Gabby - check out this thread: The New Aquascaping. It shows how Mike put his aquascaping together in his tank re-do. You can see how he created some pretty amazing shapes that wouldn't be possible without zip ties or acrylic dowels. Here's an example of an overhang that made a great coral ledge using zip ties. If you look through the photo gallery in the link, you can see examples of acrylic dowels, too.

And just because Mike's tank is huge, doesn't mean you can't use the acrylic rods. Nick/Maxx has a 58 gallon tank and has his rock held in some cool shapes with rods. It was really easy to take apart and put back together when we took his tank down to move it. It actually made it easier to put the live rock back together the way it was set-up prior to the move.

 

[Krish]

That's a really cool and neat idea there Nikki! Beats rocks tipping over!

 

[big t]

I have to admit that I have always dreaded messing around w/ my rocks much because of the whole having my arms deep into the water and messing around w/ my rocks, and creating rock slides, scratching the front and all that. I have never really been all that happy w/ it because it has always been a ballance act, and i always have problems w/ a big snail, or urchin. I almost have my frag tank up and running and am really looking forward to being able to take my time w/ my corals and rocks somewhere safe while I take my time and drill, zip and glue rocks together to get a really nice 'scape.

 

[Jiddy]

Man, that Mike (who is the greatest guy in the world) definatly knows how you have to aquascape, holymoly ay. Thanks for the nik linkii, especially since it brought me to a thread that had a link to were i needed to go, lol, just messin with yoU!

 

[spongebob lover]

Thanks Nikki !!
i saw how much sweat Mike had to do to have his tank the way he has it .
i wish i could do that on my tank, but right now there's corals attached to the rocks and they don't wanna work with me :doubt: i don't even know how am i gonna cook my rocks when the time comes but thank you so much for the link

 

[Jiddy]

And thanks for your help everyone, i guess my plan to AS got veto by the senate, so i will just wait until she buys me a house and we have to move, lol. !

Well its 8mo's later and i have the house. Now i still need aquascaping help. I had one bar of putty, i guess you need a lot of buddy to hold the rocks together, its no miracle strength stuff, so maybe ill run to the LFS and buy a dozen bars, I dont see how the zipTie method is going to help me because most of my rock is that cheap baseRock and is pretty dense/heavy. I guess the putty method is the only way to go, any help would be appreciated.

And can you use aquarium safe sealant?

How long can i leave my rock out of water?

Should i build this stuff in tank or buckets or can i take it out?

thanks is advance
Jiddy

PS Feel free to come over and move my house belongings while i play in the tank

 

[NaH2O]

Jiddy - I never liked the putty stuff. Didn't hold an ounce of my rock. I'm not sure about sealant....do you mean silicone? I don't think that will hold rock together. If you want to use the zip ties, then just get yourself a long drill bit and make holes in the rocks to run the zip tie through. You can do the same with acrylic rods...make holes in the rock and put the rod in to hold pieces together.

If you don't want a large die off, then I wouldn't leave the rock out of the water too long. You should be able to work on some pieces then get them back in the water and work on some other pieces. You can build it anywhere you are most comfortable. On the floor fitting the pieces together, or in the tank, so you can see the placement, or in buckets...it really doesn't matter. Just be sure the tank is not going through an ammonia spike prior to livestock.

My 2¢