NC24
- Thread starter aromano
- Start date
mikeguerrero
Active Member
I love the bottom two pics, good shots.... They look so clean... Fish are so hard to take...
MK
MK
mr.bearhasyourlady
New Member
yea props with the picture taking...
aromano
New Member
Thanks a lot for the compliment DJCONN. Yes, I upgraded the hood with four 36W 50/50 - 10,000K/Actinic 03 and a T5 Actinic light. I use the standard JBJ ballast for the original lights and a Fulham WH7-120-L Workhorse 7 Electronic Ballast for the other two 36W PC lights. The T5 and the moon light have their independent power cords. I also run the fans through a separate power cord to have more control over the cooling.
Abarnswell
New Member
Wow! Wonderful photos! I love the Watchman Goby. I got one myself today. They are such little characters.
How did you get your rock/corals to look so good? Mine look like a junkyard pile of rubbish. Yours is so vertical. Do you attach/glue/epoxy your corals to the rock? Is that one big rock, or many smaller ones? Are they glued together? I really need a tutorial on rock/coral aquascaping.
How did you get your rock/corals to look so good? Mine look like a junkyard pile of rubbish. Yours is so vertical. Do you attach/glue/epoxy your corals to the rock? Is that one big rock, or many smaller ones? Are they glued together? I really need a tutorial on rock/coral aquascaping.
Abarnswell
New Member
My tank doesn't look nearly as nice as all the photos I've seen. Mine's a real hodge podge! Maybe because it's so relatively new. I never know where to stick things in it. I go for current and/or light, depending on what coral it is... and it all looks like I'm having a garage sale or something. :cry: I am aquascaping challenged. :sad:
I should try taking a pic just to show everybody how bad it looks. But my clowns are darling, my Watchman Goby is gorgeous, and my Xenias are very happy.
Some tanks are just more easy to aquascape. The tall narrow ones are a lot more challenging, than ones that have a wider foot print. Don't be afraid to take a hammer to the rocks if you're pieces are large and difficult to work with. I think that having a variety of types/shapes makes things more intersting, but it also makes it easier to find an arrangement that I like. With nanos it's just a bit more challenging to find small pieces of branch, and table rock. I think it's easier to use a bunch of fist-sized rocks than a few large ones.
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aromano
New Member
Definitely by having a variety of sizes, types and shapes will make it easier for a vertical aquascape. Large pieces can be used to hold the base rock structure like a shelf, so the corals that come attached to smaller pieces of LR can have space to lay on top of the large rocks, creating an interesting pyramid shape.
The rocks kind of fit like a puzzle there is no glue or epoxy holding them together. There are two large pieces of LR at each corner, a large bottom piece and a very large piece filled with ricordea mushrooms that lays on top of the corner rocks. The other corals and mushrooms came attached to smaller rocks and lay on top of the large pieces.
The rocks kind of fit like a puzzle there is no glue or epoxy holding them together. There are two large pieces of LR at each corner, a large bottom piece and a very large piece filled with ricordea mushrooms that lays on top of the corner rocks. The other corals and mushrooms came attached to smaller rocks and lay on top of the large pieces.
Attachments
wow how cool is that
It just takes time you need to play with it , besides I am sure its not that bad . What I do is look at lots of pictures then when I decide to rescape I drain all the water into a bucket take the corals out put them in a holding tank remove the rocks, even out the sand make sure all my hermits snails ect are out then I play put rock in pull rock out put rock in pull rock out ( feel like doing the hokey pokey) all in all it usually takes 15 or so minutes to get it where I like it . Then I drain the water in via a tube so not to create a sand storm just to cover the rocks and I start working with the corals ( one thing that I failed to mention is that we keep every thing under water as we are scaping even the sand is in2 inches of water) once the corals are in I use a back up filter and run 3 filters to help clear the water, it is usually clear within 2 hours then I drip the fishes back to the tank after I drip them back I add new salt water to compleate the circle almost like a medium water change . Believe me I am sure that your aqua scaping is no worse than my first time
besides mine still doesnt look as good as alot of peoples here Abarnswell
New Member
aromano, thanks for the model. That's really cool, and it shows very well what you're talking about. So, no glue or epoxy. That sounds good. I don't like the idea of glueing things. I guess I was worrying that the rocks would fall. I do try to find a spot where they sort of wedge in tightly enough that they hopefully wouldn't slip.
By the way, is there such a thing as a QUICK 3D model? Thanks for putting it together. I picture is indeed worth 1,000 words.
By the way, is there such a thing as a QUICK 3D model?
Thanks for putting it together. I picture is indeed worth 1,000 words.I've never used epoxy to glue my rocks. I just stack them very carefully and keep adjusting them to make sure that they are snug, and balanced well, and don't shift around. Sometimes it's easier to do than other times. I recently added some rock that I thought would look good in my 6g work tank. I didn't have time to bother scaping it, and just threw it in and arranged it well enough that all the corals got light. About 3 days later on a Friday, just before I was gonna leave I decided I'd rearrange everything so it didn't look like a big pile. I called my wife to tell her that I was gonna leave in about 20mins. Luckily we hadn't planned on doing much that night except renting movies. I called her back about an hour later, told her I was having problems, and that she should just go pick out some movies. I ended up having to drain the tank, remove all the rock and corals and critters, and start from scratch. It took me nearly 3hrs. :angry7:
It was frustating and infuriating. I just could NOT get the rocks back in the tank in any way that looked good and allowed all the corals to get plenty of light. I'm still not completely happy with it, but I'll need to wait until I have several hours to spare one evening if I want to mess with it.
So don't feel like you're the only one that has issues with aquascaping. ;-)
Oh...And Kick ass model Aromano.
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It was frustating and infuriating. I just could NOT get the rocks back in the tank in any way that looked good and allowed all the corals to get plenty of light. I'm still not completely happy with it, but I'll need to wait until I have several hours to spare one evening if I want to mess with it.
So don't feel like you're the only one that has issues with aquascaping. ;-)
Oh...And Kick ass model Aromano.
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aromano
New Member
Thanks for the comments guys.
Abarnswell,
I am sure with time your aquascaping is going to start looking much better as you start to play with it.
I takes time and many times draining and rescaping the tank is necessary until you are happy with the results.
I used a program called Maya to model the tank, so I could vizualize the mods I wanted to do with it.
Yesterday after I saw Abarnswell's post, I got a little inspired to do a quick mock up of the aquascape since I had the tank already modeled.
I hope it helped to visualize things better
Abarnswell,
I am sure with time your aquascaping is going to start looking much better as you start to play with it.
I takes time and many times draining and rescaping the tank is necessary until you are happy with the results.
I used a program called Maya to model the tank, so I could vizualize the mods I wanted to do with it.
Yesterday after I saw Abarnswell's post, I got a little inspired to do a quick mock up of the aquascape since I had the tank already modeled.
I hope it helped to visualize things better