lastlight's 225

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by lastlight

I think the problem is we try and make our tanks look good before there is coral in them. A real reef is often a pretty boring boulder or two underneath all the splendor isn't it?

Exactly! Rockwork doesn't matter much long term in my opinion. Its more about the layout (ie. islands, rockwall, ect.) but in time, its all about the CORALSCAPE to get the look you want. I don't think as many people are good with placing corals as doing their rockwork. Getting a good aesthetic balance with coral shapes, sizes, ect. is much harder. Especially when going for the Japanese garden style or less is more look. Tanks jam packed with huge colonies always look impressive for the talent it has taken to grow and keep those corals alive but in my opinion have little to no real visual interest...but I work with design all day long and that's pretty much all I look for now lol.

Did you ever see Leonardo's Formosa Forest rockwork? That became such a "famous" and beautiful tank but if you look at the initial rockswork, you wouldn't think much of the tank.

But I agree with the rest that the second is a better layout.