To Much rock in Display?

[highaltitude]

120 gallon tall , 30 gallon sump , i bought 200 lbs of live rock and put most in my tank , the small pieces in my sump , just a question of flow restrictions ? i have a jebao wp 60 in the tank and a jebao dc 9000 as a return pump i get small waterspouts in my tank sometimes ! rock was set up with lots of caves for my future tangs and lots and lots of rock space for corals , the main purpose of the tank . Friendly mixed reef

 

[Smiley]

thats a lot of rock... if youre doing a mixed reef with sps, remember that they grow...and if youre doing it right, they grow a lot!

 

[highaltitude]

That's what I'm being told lol

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

I like the cave at the bottom towards the left of center. Looks like you have some space in your sump, maybe pull a few pieces and put in sump? Do a Google search for reef rockscapes and look at some of those images for inspiration. I like your shelf pieces too, use those for sure!

 

[highaltitude]

well this is my 3rd reef tank , i have messed with rock quite a bi on them, i hand picked rock pieces that i could stack because i ended up with this 120 tall tank and wanted to build upward with the rock , can you glue rock together , maybe just a few cliffs built up would be better

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

I have a 150 tall, it's 30 inches tall and hard to rockscape. I think you do what looks appealing to you. It seems like the trend now is to go for a more minimalist rockscape, but I think it is all a matter of personal preference.

 

[sethsolomon]

IMO thats too much rock. Fred is right and things will grow.

 

[highaltitude]

ok first picture in the album is the NEW layout , just ripped my tank apart and redid the rock , my sump is now overflowing with live rock lol NEED a bigger sump now ! Anyone have a 36 " long sump ?

 

[highaltitude]

the copepods i have on the way will love the rock in the sump !

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

I like the new look much better, plenty of space for fish to swim and corals to grow out. Nice work!

 

[highaltitude]

thank you !

 

[Roscoe]

It's looking good brother!

 

[highaltitude]

looking for a bigger sump have a 29 gallon , looking for a 36 x 15 wide tank to make a bigger refugium in it, mine is overflowing , anyone growing mangroves ? really wanting to get a nice algae growing refugium going with 4-5 different things growing for my future tangs, I'm reading mangroves eat the nitrates up really nicely.

 

[Texco]

looking for a bigger sump have a 29 gallon , looking for a 36 x 15 wide tank to make a bigger refugium in it, mine is overflowing , anyone growing mangroves ? really wanting to get a nice algae growing refugium going with 4-5 different things growing for my future tangs, I'm reading mangroves eat the nitrates up really nicely.

My mangroves are slow growing but I am a huge fan of them. About 1.5' at approximately 24 months old, I just pruned their tops for the first time my thought is this causes them to grow outward and branch. I also just transferred them from an acrylic box in my AIO overflow into the top rock work of the display because they had become root bound and needed more space. This is a bookmarked link I learned a lot from it if you want to read - http://moon.ouhsc.edu/pwhitby/mangrove.htm

 

[highaltitude]

My mangroves are slow growing but I am a huge fan of them. About 1.5' at approximately 24 months old, I just pruned their tops for the first time my thought is this causes them to grow outward and branch. I also just transferred them from an acrylic box in my AIO overflow into the top rock work of the display because they had become root bound and needed more space. This is a bookmarked link I learned a lot from it if you want to read - http://moon.ouhsc.edu/pwhitby/mangrove.htm

Your link did not work Texco , So your man groves are sticking out of the top of your display? i have seen that in a 4' x 4' cube reef tank they made an island in the middle with mangroves sticking out looked really cool .

 

[Texco]

Your link did not work Texco , So your man groves are sticking out of the top of your display? i have seen that in a 4' x 4' cube reef tank they made an island in the middle with mangroves sticking out looked really cool .

I can't believe it, the link worked the other day and it looks like it has been taken down now. Here is another one that provides some general information: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/4/aafeature

I also made a similar 'island' where my mangroves are growing in about 1 inch of calm water at the top of the rock scape and sticking out of the tank, and to the right it is protected by the rock wall protruding from the water and breaking the wave of the power head return.

Rock looks bare in photos because I rebuilt the tank to allow the mangroves to grow better and haven't transferred everything back in it yet but you can roughly see my design

 

[highaltitude]

that looks sweet ! thanks for the link , good info , so problems with them in the sump is the height right from the start huh

 

[Balz3352]

Looks great.. Only question how are you planning on ridding the mangroves of the salt they sweat

 

[Texco]

that looks sweet ! thanks for the link , good info , so problems with them in the sump is the height right from the start huh

Yep just have to prune them and control the height, but you can plant them very deep in the sand bed as long as the tip shoot is above water

 

[Texco]

Looks great.. Only question how are you planning on ridding the mangroves of the salt they sweat

a small spray bottle of RODI once a week does the trick, from my personal observation they really don't export much salt (it won't be cached on the leaves or anything- just a very fine layer. If you forget a week or two or four of spraying mine have been just fine)