Aqua-scaping

[kien]

Originally Posted by Doug

Some look like a bean pole sitting in the middle of a playground though. Now thats sparse.

True. I have seen people take it to the extreme. I guess it's up to you to decide where to draw the line. It's one part aesthetics and one part functionality.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by kien

True. I have seen people take it to the extreme. I guess it's up to you to decide where to draw the line. It's one part aesthetics and one part functionality.

Yours looks very nice. I would have a bit more on the right side in mine but overall, looks good.

Plus I wont have any tangs, just smaller fish.

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by kien

If you have smaller fish then giving them a nook or cranny to hide/sleep in will definitely be appreciated, but you don't need to build mount everest to achieve this. Even one porous boulder can house lots of small fish.

For my tangs, they are ok under an overhang, although I do have an open(ish) cave area that they retreat to as well.

Also, an open aquascape doesn't necessarily mean sparse. You can have a decent a mount of rock in there with nooks and crannies and even caves, while still maintaining an open aquascape with lots of negative space.

+ 1! I aquascaped my tank so that when I was done on day one, there was as much negative space as I wanted, I barely accounted for corals. Now that things are growing in I would like nothing more than to remove about 1/3 of my rock, but at this point there's too much coral too well encrusted and interwoven to do that safely. I feel like you can always add more rock later, but removing it once the system grows in is a much larger kind of surgery

[Aquattro]

Doug, as an example, look at the 2011 full tank shots thread. You can see where i started with 1/2lb per gallon. Then find one of my more recent pics and you can see that all that space is now gone.
Try to envision what the corals will take up in a year or two.

[nickguay]

I always thought that more than 1 pound of live rock per 1 gallon of water simply meant extra filtration, with no real disadvantage other than some loss of space obviously... Does this make any sense?

[Doug]

Wow. Your comparison shot on the 2013 thread shows all that coral growth. Mine never grow like that....

Guess I need t-5,s....

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by nickguay

I always thought that more than 1 pound of live rock per 1 gallon of water simply meant extra filtration, with no real disadvantage other than some loss of space obviously... Does this make any sense?

I found the more rock, the more space for crap to build up. I've been running 1/2lb per gallon (roughly) for the last 6 or 7 years in various tanks, and have much better results than my old 150g that had over 200 pounds of rock in it. When I dismantled that one, it was like a sewer under the rock!

[Doug]

Originally Posted by nickguay

I always thought that more than 1 pound of live rock per 1 gallon of water simply meant extra filtration, with no real disadvantage other than some loss of space obviously... Does this make any sense?

There was a time way back when it was suggested at 2lb per gal. Now thats old school.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I found the more rock, the more space for crap to build up. I've been running 1/2lb per gallon (roughly) for the last 6 or 7 years in various tanks, and have much better results than my old 150g that had over 200 pounds of rock in it. When I dismantled that one, it was like a sewer under the rock!

Fair point. Cant disagree with that. And thats from my experience in other tanks to.

[kien]

Originally Posted by nickguay

I always thought that more than 1 pound of live rock per 1 gallon of water simply meant extra filtration, with no real disadvantage other than some loss of space obviously... Does this make any sense?

I'm probably somewhere at around 1/4 a pound per gallon of rock

Also, it really isn't how much rock you have in weight. Some rocks can be ridiculously porous and light, which is more important, rather than a giant bolder that weights 3 times as much.