Which Way Should I Place My Rocks?!?! - Pics - Build Thread

Spent a stupid amount of money on rocks today. I wish they had one more small, but I bought all the “dragon stone” they had. I think it looks better in odd numbers, so I’ll be looking for a 5th piece. Likely only use 3 until I find the 5th.

Option 1. Rolling hills
I could see doing plants on the hill side on the right. It should give me a nice slope with my medium dark fluorite substrate. Tons of open space to be filled with plants.
Front


Left (nice depth)


Right



Option 2. Aggressive mountains
I just like the way it looks. I could also completely hide the heater behind the big one on the left

Front (think it would look better with 2 smaller stones)


Left (I’d cover the support rock behind big mountain)



Right (not as pretty as other side of stone)

 

If you plan on live plants I like option 1. Gives you room for a carpet or anything to grow nice and flat along the rock surface as well. Allows the back to have room for taller plants and really give depth to the foreground

 

I personally like aggressive mountains more. I'd stick some small driftwood pieces with moss or subwassertang on them to make 'trees' on the mountains. But that's just me.
I appreciate vertical height in decoration so the top of the tank still has things going on instead of everything being in the bottom third of the tank.

 

I like option two. I personally might push the rock group on the right further back closer to the glass than the rock on the left to help give a little depth. Still at the same angle so you could put some tall plants behind it if you plan on live plants. Also a couple smaller stones both either in the front right or front left would help offset the scape to keep things from being too symmetrical. That's just what I would do but it's your tank!

 

Thanks. I also just reversed the aggressive mountain.


And a hill mountain

 

If you plan on live plants I like option 1. Gives you room for a carpet or anything to grow nice and flat along the rock surface as well. Allows the back to have room for taller plants and really give depth to the foreground

Definitely live plants. Don’t want co2 but want plants. Carpet looks awesome but not sure if I can do. Heard it is high light, co2, maintenance. Thoughts?

I personally like aggressive mountains more. I'd stick some small driftwood pieces with moss or subwassertang on them to make 'trees' on the mountains. But that's just me.
I appreciate vertical height in decoration so the top of the tank still has things going on instead of everything being in the bottom third of the tank.

Thanks for the thoughts. My lfs sells some nice small juniper drift wood. Mostly trunks, some java moss on top might make a decent tree.

I like option two. I personally might push the rock group on the right further back closer to the glass than the rock on the left to help give a little depth. Still at the same angle so you could put some tall plants behind it if you plan on live plants. Also a couple smaller stones both either in the front right or front left would help offset the scape to keep things from being too symmetrical. That's just what I would do but it's your tank!

I like the smaller stone suggestion and I will play with moving the stones into the foreground and background. Thanks for the ideas.

 

I like the reverse a lot

 

I like aggressive mountain and reverse aggressive mountain

 

I like the reverse a lot

Thanks!

I like aggressive mountain and reverse aggressive mountain

I’m having a hard time trying to decide.

 

I like aggressive mountains and its reverse.
I think it comes down to wanting more of a wider 'path' between the two as in aggressive mountains or a narrower 'channel' as in its reverse.
What stock do you plan on going with in this tank?

 

Aggressive mountains, both because I like it better, and because you like the way it looks. Could you do pictures with something under the rocks that’s a similar color to your proposed substrate? I actually thought that towel was light sand at first, which is why I ask.
In general I like the ones with the dramatic verticals and space, like a deep valley or canyon. It also emphasizes that lovely stone. Still plenty of room for plants. I do agree that another small stone would make the composition easier to balance.

 

I plan on doing a school of same fish. Most likely neon tetras. I might be convinced of other ones. I want something active and on the easier side to care for.

I have the medium brown fluorite. I’ll take a pic when I get back home.

 

 

I like the reverse aggressive mountain since it makes your tank look more open than the aggressive mountain

 

Love the aggressive mountains! But the fantastic thing about it is you can always change it up! My tanks never really the same! Each second-third water change something’s being moved around, keeps it fresh and different for the fish too

 

Thanks for the replies. It seems everything is at a standstill. For some reason my wife is not liking any stand I’m suggesting. She wants furniture (like a buffet or something I guess) but seems unwilling to shop or anything. I’ve made some suggestions but she isn’t listening. Ugh. We have one now but it is glass top so putting 250 lbs on it seems like a bad idea. My tank seems like it’ll never start at this pace. I so wanted to do it this long weekend.

 

Thanks for the replies. It seems everything is at a standstill. For some reason my wife is not liking any stand I’m suggesting. She wants furniture (like a buffet or something I guess) but seems unwilling to shop or anything. I’ve made some suggestions but she isn’t listening. Ugh. We have one now but it is glass top so putting 250 lbs on it seems like a bad idea. My tank seems like it’ll never start at this pace. I so wanted to do it this long weekend.

View attachment 474159

I agree that you shouldn’t put the tank on your glass top. Hopefully you two can decide on something because I’m excited to see which set up you choose (please give us an update so we can see your fish with whichever set up you choose

 

So I managed to get her to agree to me just buying a small metal stand. Said, let me get my feet wet before we buy a $500+ piece of furniture.

Well I both won and lost. She ended up buying a couch and a chair for our formal living room. I got a $100 stand.....

Oh well, should be here on Thursday. In the meantime I washed my rocks today and figured I’d keep them wet so the are soaking in a bucket. A good amount of dust/dirt came off those dragon stones.

 

Getting closer. Got my
Light and my stand comes tomorrow! So close. I can’t wait for the weekend.

 

Finally the stand and a place to put it. Office it is.

 

I’ll keep posting.

 

The aggressive mountains option is quite pleasing to the eye. At least to me. Can't wait to see more

 

RO water is slow.


Kids helping

 

Mid fill.

 

Finally the stand and a place to put it. Office it is.
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I have that same stand! I love it if it’s the one sized for a 20 long or 29 standard on top then you can fit a 10 gallon or 15 long on the bottom too... just FYI

 

Well done !!! By pla ting some plants behind them you'll get the optical effect the tank is deeper.

 

I have that same stand! I love it if it’s the one sized for a 20 long or 29 standard on top then you can fit a 10 gallon or 15 long on the bottom too... just FYI

Yeah, that's why I got. Planning a 10 gallon pre-tank below for quarantine and trying things out.

Well done !!! By pla ting some plants behind them you'll get the optical effect the tank is deeper.

Thanks the plan! Thanks

Also, here is the final fill.

Lights on


No lights

 

So, I added a couple more small rocks (5 now). I tried a 7 rock setup but it looked wrong somehow. I also added a Java Fern and Amazon Sword. I'm mid cycle right now. Hopefully a couple more weeks to fishy time!

 

Following

Loving this build so far

 

Yeahhhh great

 

I like the aggressive mountain layout but I would have had one big Rock more toward the front and one toward the back so they're not in the same z-axis plane. I would also angle the tall rock on the right down so the two tall rocks aren't at the same height

My two cents.

Otherwise it's looking good

 

I like the aggressive mountain layout but I would have had one big Rock more toward the front and one toward the back so they're not in the same z-axis plane. I would also angle the tall rock on the right down so the two tall rocks aren't at the same height

My two cents.

Otherwise it's looking good

I don't have any pics, but I did try doing different planes and both me and the wife were like "eh". The big left one isn't as thick as right. Also the way I have the tank placed on the wall (a small 45 degree wall) you can't really see it from right or left. I did try though. Many variations not posted here. Actually the very first pic in the thread (rolling hills) looked much better in real life than in the picture but the aggressive mountain won.

 

This is sort of what I was thinking in terms of moving one side in front of the other, if you slope the substrate toward the back you can get a for shortened effect but you can actually see the stones so you know better than me if this would work in real life

 

This is sort of what I was thinking in terms of moving one side in front of the other, if you slope the substrate toward the back you can get a for shortened effect but you can actually see the stones so you know better than me if this would work in real life

Really great picture. It does look good, but I can't lay the right rock that flat. The way it is cut, I'd have to add another 10lb's of substrate to cover. I do like the look.

 

You could chip off some of the rock so that it lays down more... Or shift the left side rock down?

Or leave it as is if you like it

 

This waiting for the cycle to complete is so hard! I went out and bought a pothos that I plan to eventually use to remove nitrates for lower volume water changes. Plus it looks good growing out of HOB. Reading up on balancing tank to lessen water changes (% wise)

 

Are you still happy with the rock configuration?

Any more plants going in? I think you could use some midsize to small plants around the bases of your rocks to soften those edges.

I love pothos. I've got three cuttings growing at my office desk.

 

I have pothos hanging out the lid on both ends of my 40 gal tank

 

Are you still happy with the rock configuration?

Any more plants going in? I think you could use some midsize to small plants around the bases of your rocks to soften those edges.

I love pothos. I've got three cuttings growing at my office desk.

Yeah on the rocks. I don't want to add any more plants until cycle is more complete. Reason being, the LFS guy told me not to add fertilizer during cycle. I need to add flourish and root tabs. I’m using RO water that is reminerailzed. I’m open to suggestions on plants. I can’t go high tech yet. So it needs to be moderate to low care. I like the look of Pearl grass but it might be to advanced.

If I can get this tank running with minimal work I’ve been cleared for a bigger thank. Wife doesn’t want tons of small tanks. Would rather have a big ‘un.

 

Well, I haven't posted here in a bit. I'm going to add some wisteria and/or frogbit if I can get some. Also got some fish in now, but not sure how strong they are doing. Doing my best to keep 'em going but I lost 3 already.... I've posted some questions on this, but most here are saying it is typical to lose neon tetras. They don't seem so tough.