gerbilbox

My rocks arrived! Creating an aquascape was a little more challenging than I expected. My first attempts at stacking a bunch of rocks looked exactly like a stacked bunch of rocks. I had a specific vision in my head, but my early attempts were not cohesive. After an hour of playing with them and some great suggestions from my roommate, I got something I like, but not quite final:



My basic vision is to be mindful of negative space, use the rule of thirds for guidance, create plenty of open sand for certain corals, include an overhang, and most importantly, have plenty of space for corals. It may be hard to tell but the piece of rock to the right of center is at the very front of the tank, creating an island. It divides the sand bed in two, with the left side being larger than the right. It'll be easier to see once I add the sand.

I'll tweak everything in the coming days, but this is the direction I am headed. Your comments are welcome! When I'm 123% satisfied, I'll secure key pieces with PC-11 epoxy, add the sand and saltwater. It was freshwater when this photo was taken (to test flow around the aquascape). I'm going with the base rock and dry sand route, from Marco Rocks and Caribsea Fiji Pink, respectively. I'll acquire a small piece of live rock to seed it with bacteria and other goodies, most likely this weekend.

Since my last update, I spray painted the background black with Krylon Fusion Flat Black (thanks bryman!). I also shortened the filter intake to fit with the aquascape. The next step will be the saltwater and adding a piece of live rock, so it's about to get exciting!