Originally Posted by David24
There's a good article in Aquarium Fish International Magazine this month about aquascaping. Basically it says that most reef aquariums today are unnatural because of the stacking of rocks vertically on the total surface area of the back glass. It says that this doesn’t occur in the wild so why do it in your tank?
I think basically it's saying to find a real picture of the reef and try to replicate that rather than stacking rocks on top of one another in some intricate patterns that are unnatural. It aslo says less rock and more surface area on the bottom and back of the tank. So fish stay above the reef rather then in it.
It's made me rethink my aquascaping. I know my intricate pattern of rocks I have stacked would never occur on the reef.
i actually did this almost by accident when i changed from 140g to 180g setup. during the transition (which was occurring due to a carpeting change), i had to put all the rocks and corals into a huge 150g rubbermaid thing that i bought from a tractor supply store. i think they use it to feed cattle. anyway, everything was pretty much on the bottom and they swam above "the reef" for the vast majority of the time. kind of reminded me of the way the reef looked when i was snorkeling in hawaii. looked really good from above.
my new setup is longer and not as tall, and the rocks are all on the lower half of the tank, so it is sort of as you describe. i'm hoping that eventually the sps grow up towards the light, but the fish really do swim actively a lot more than they used to in the previous setup. and they do tend to swim in the open water part of the tank (except for the pajama wrasse who likes to dart in and out of the rockwork).