Aquascaping

[ackermsb]

I decided to setup the live rock in my 180 on opposite sides. I split up the 110lbs or so of rock I had and put half on one side and the rest on the other. Just curious as to the pros and cons of this.
Inverts and fish can establish more territories and may go a long time or never without seeing another member of the tank. Therefore certain species may not fight since they may never co-exist with one another.
Will species (inverts mainly) be adventurous and head to the other end of the tank to check it out. For example, will a starfish leave its current area, cross a few feet of sand to check out another area.
Im asking b/c I have only seen a few people with this setup. Most people have lr in the entire tank or a big glob of rock in the middle. Thoughts?

 

[flydan]

Hey,
I don't see anything wrong with your plan. There are certain species that are territorial, but in 180gals that territory would be the whole tank. I have some shrimp that stay in one cave area almost all the time, but go out on little forays once in a while. If you set up two lr area's I think the biggest advantage would be keeping aggressive corals away from each other since they don't really move but over time they do spread out. (I have that problem now with hairy mushrooms stinging my finger leather. 2 years ago I placed them about a foot apart. Now I am removing shrooms and putting in bare lr back in between them. With your plan you wouldn't have this problem. BTW, I give the shrooms to friends or get a store credit for them at my lfs.)
Good luck with you set-up. I think it is a winner.
Dan'l

 

[ackermsb]

Thanks fly dan,
It really has been a joy to aquascape except for the part wher the whole tank clouds up and I have to wait till the next day to fix what I want to fix. When I get it setup I will post some pics. I took pics of the old setup but I couldnt cut them down to a size that swf would except them. I need to take them at a lower resolution since i do not have photoshop.

 

[blue dew]

Well my 30 gallon tank is a lot smaller than your 180, but I set my tank up the same way with two seperate islands of live rock. When I finally upgrade to a bigger tank in a few years, I plan on keeping that general layout. Some of my livestock seldom venture to the other side of my small tank, especially my peppermint shrimp and scarlet hermits. I can see where you could set up two seperate enclaves with different species. I wonder if that would work well for something like a dottyback? Thats one of the fish I'm interested in someday keeping.
Dew

 

[ackermsb]

I think it would be really cool to have like a two or three foot bridge connecting the two. Just to see who would have the courage to walk the plank to other side of the planet. haha
This wa you can be a little more flexible with what you keep i guess.

 

[clarkiiboi]

Your tank is beautiful!! I have had mine over a year and its no where near what you have---great job!
I took pics of the old setup but I couldnt cut them down to a size that swf would except them.
Here's a great, user friendly, and free download I use. resizer . Click download now, when done double click it (I believe). Here's the easy part---click on "open" (step 1) , find pic and open again, once pic is opened, click the "width" button below in "options" set it to 400 (height will set itself), leave everything else alone. Hit "resize" (step 2), then click "save as" (step 3)---then name it, BUT make sure you pull down the options below this new name and click the jpeg Bitmap format and then save. It is really easy, once you do it once. This detailed deal I gave you here wont seem so overwhelming. The only problem I run into at times is I now have 2 pics saved, but if you run the mouse over these and hold it there you see which one is 400X ? and the you can delete the other. HTH

 

[krunk]

lol clarkboi, wrong post eh?
anyways, thats the way i had my 55 gallon, it looks pretty cool that way.

 

[clarkiiboi]

nope, not wrong post. (You made me double check though, LOL). It was to something ackermsb said in the second response. How do you get it to say "originally posted by...." (or something like that) when you quote someone?

 

[jonathon0883]

does anyone have a picture of this kind of aquascaping..im really interested in it but cant picture what you mean in my head

 

[maxi]

I think your fish and inverts would venture from side to side. Asthetically speaking, I think you would want to have some rock connecting the 2 piles or you will have just that: 2 piles of rock. My fish really enjoy swimming through the spaces I have in between my rock scape. Be sure to create caves to hide in. I am sure you know that.