Base rock placement stategy

[Foredababy2]

We are begining a reef and fish tank with more emphasis on reef. I was wondering if anyone had suggestions on how to build or start a reef with base rock (arrangement). The picture isn't great but hopefully you can see my set-up so far.

[Teeka]

It looks good to me. How much live rock and base rock do you have?

[Foredababy2]

Thanks for replying Teeka. This is my first time on this website. We have all base rock at this point. (90 lbs) Our tank is 80 gallons. I am worried that we may have much rock and/or the way I have it set up there may be too many dead spaces.The picture is horrible. I haven't figured out the best camera setting's for aquariums pics. My wife and I are total newbies. We have no live rock yet. Our nitrogen cycle isn't mature yet, no ammonia spike yet. (water is 4 weeks old with 7 damsels) We were under the impression to wait on the live rock until the PH is more normal and the nitrogen cycle is fully functional. Any tips are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[GlobaLPimP]

WELCOME to RC!
It looks alright, but if it was me - I would try and place the rocks so that there are a lot of holes. This will give the fish more places to swim and hide which may reduce stress. It will also give you better flow and allow for more creatures and growth to live. It seems that you're goal is reef... If so, you may want to get rid of the damsels while you have the chance before you start stocking it with corals and other fish. Also, I would go ahead and get your live rock as soon as you can so that your "cycle" will start in your tank.

Give a list of ALL of you equipment and goals for your set-up so we can help you better and give more suggestions/opinions!

[Shagsbeard]

Holes and caves are good for fish, bad for viewing. If you want to design a hideout for your fish, make sure that you can see into it if you really try. That way you can check on their health and what not. If you are selfish, and always want your fish in view, you should avoid caves and hiding places.

[Foredababy2]

Thanks GP. I will take your advice on making the reef more porous. We have a Bakpak Biofilter, protein skimmer, and temperature regulator. We also have salinity, ph, nitrate, amonnia tester ect. That is it. The damsels have been in there for 4 weeks. We are waiting for the ammonia to spike. We are going week by week as far as developing our goals. We will take the damsels out when the ammonia spikes and then start introducing least aggressive to most aggressive fish slowly that we like. (Fish that are reef friendly). We are learning as we go. Thanks.

[Avi]

I'd suggest that you do something to stabilize the bottom of the rockwork more. You could do that by having bigger rock on the bottom onto which you place the smaller rock. Another suggestion I'd make is that you broaden the rockscape so that you have more flatter areas onto which you can place coral. As it appears now, it seems that the only place you have for placing coral is on the top of the topmost rock and you'd only be able to place some very small pieces in between the lower rock.

[ChunksInClemson]

You will also want to get some pieces of live rock so it can seed the baserock. The baserock isnt really helping as far as water quality. Live rock is an important step in a saltwater aquarium as far as being a biological filter.

I also wouldn't suggest learning as you go. It can get very expensive if you make a mistake and it can ruin the whole tank. I'm just letting you know from my experience!! Good luck with it.

[Foredababy2]

Bumping this post.... Thanks all that have replied. It seems that most of my base rock are larger pieces. Anyone know a reason I couldn't break it up. Sounds like a dumb question, but what I have learned so far is that nothing can be over looked. We are going to get some live rock this week. I also plan on stabilizing the bottom of the reef and therefore making more platforms for coral. This site is fantastic!

[lux_06]

im suprised no one has stated that if you are yet to get an amonia spike, or even a nitrite spike then if you go and add live rock now your just gonna kill the fish? if you have readings of ammonia even just small ones it means the bacteria have not collonised in your biofilter yet in numbers sufficeint to deal with the waste. and after the ammonia spike you have to wait for the nitrite to spike then disapeer before adding fish.

did you use live sand or just normal sand?

and yes just break up the rock with a chisel, i just droped mine on the edges i wanted it to break on but it was just makin caves in a qt tank so didnt care what it looked like.

good luck

adam

[Foredababy2]

I used some of the suggestions and revamped my base rock. Do you think this is better?

[Avi]

Looks a lot better to me and it appears that you now have some additional places on which to put some coral that would make viewing them easier. Still, I'd think that when you can, you ought to get some larger pieces for the bottom of the rockwork...maybe two pieces of rock three or even four times the size of the average sized piece of rock that you have there now.