Encouragement needed!

[Frisco Reef]

Holy shnickies! Setting up live rock is tough...
I've got about half of my 300 Lbs set, only spent a full day so far :eek2:
It's our first aquarium & all, but am I slow, or does it take most people a long time to set it up?

[chemisfun11]

I only have a 90 gallon tank, but my first time adding live rock took a while. I constantly change around my aquascaping as I get new animals or get bored with my setup. I usually cause more harm then good and of course that takes more time to fix whatever I screwed up.

As long as you're happy with the setup, the time will be worth it. Also, if you can prevent rockslides from happening, even better. Good luck, post a pic when you're done :)

[Michelle L]

Nothing gets under my skin more than setting up live rock. I think I went through every foul word known to man (at least twice) and got into about four arguments with my husband as we built our structure. It was the worst experience I have had with my tank, by far. It took at least a couple of weekends to get it the way we wanted it, plus the tweaking we did later on.

We built our structure by drilling the rocks and zip tying them into place, and our tank is 30 inches deep, so it was quite a chore. I think my whole upper body was pruned by the time we were finished.

The final product was worth it, though, because it's nice to have a structure for fish to swim through. It's hard to see the arches and caves in this picture because it's a little dark, but that was why we went through the hassle.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b55/mspontiac/tank12-30-06.jpg

[rodgod20]

Michelle L.

Love the aquascaping!!

Frisco...yeah I am sure its tought....I am going to know sooner than later....seting up my 65. ONly have a 6 right now, so aqua scaping.....well lets just say there isn't much room for it

[Frisco Reef]

Michelle, that's a SWEET setup...fortunately, me & my lovely bride haven't had any "words" on this project !
Mine's a 30" deep as well. My chest & back are killing me.

[Michelle L]

Thanks for the compliments, guys. I think the worst part about it for me were the bristleworm hairs in my fingers. For some reason I get mild breakouts on the backs of my fingers and hands every time I mess with my rocks, and the only thing I can think of is bristleworms. It almost looks and feels like poison ivy.

Just stick with it; in the end it's entirely worth it. :) How are you doing it? Stacking, epoxy, ties...? Please post pics when you're done!!

[Aaarrrggg]

Aquacaping drove me mad as well, and that was just with a 57g!

It's like trying to make a jigsaw that doesn't necessary have an answer! :) My hands were so shriveled and torn up afterwards… I did it over 3 times, swearing though all of it! But the end result is worth it, esp once you get the fish in there and they start swimming though the caves you’ve built!

Good luck! You’ll get there! ;)

[Jetdrvr]

My tank has been up for 6 years and I'm still not done. You're doing fine.

[Aaarrrggg]

If you'd like some inspiration for arrangements theres an excellent thread going on here: http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1001929&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

[nib420247]

I rearanged mine 3-4 times in the begining till I was happy then I started lookin at peoples gallery photos and sudenly my setup looked horable, had to redoo it again, but last time I found a small colony of zoo's that was hidden in the back, didnt even know it was there, now I'm about to frag it to trade at my lfs, so its not all bad

[pony_killer]

awesome tank michelle

[poppin_fresh]

Aquascaping sux... I have never been able to get what I want.

I bought some of those armlength purple gloves for working in my tank a few weeks ago (while setting up my new 180). I would never 'scape without those again. I too used to get a little rashy when dealing with SW, but those gloves are awesome.

[Michelle L]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8874277#post8874277 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pony_killer
awesome tank michelle

Thanks very much!!!

Poppin' Fresh, I may get some of those gloves after my last outbreak. It was terrible...my co-workers probably thought I had scabes or mange or something. :eek1:

[Frisco Reef]

Well, finshed late Sunday. Pics are posted in my gallery. Not 100% happy as most seemed to be. I like the South end, it's got a great cave & just the area I wanted for clams down the road...
Thanks for the encouragement, it helped.