Aquascaping live rock in your saltwater aquarium can be a difficult task, especially for the novice saltwater aquarist. If you didn’t plan ahead, chances are you don’t have live rock with all the ideal features. If you have a bunch of pieces that are shaped like boulders you’ve discovered this rock is impossible to stack, and if you have aquarium live rock from Florida chances are you have several flat pieces that look unnatural when placed on top of other pieces as arches. To correct this problem replace a few of these pieces with premium rock from Fiji, Tonga, Pukani or Marshall Islands.
Aquascaping Live Rock Tips
Rocks from these locations traditionally have more unique shapes. For example, rock from Tonga has thick finger like branches and rock from Pukani is very porous and is filled with caves for fish to hide in. Pukani aquarium rock is one of the easiest types of live rock to aquascape.
Here are a few more tips for aquascaping live rock in your aquarium. As tempting as it is, do not rest the rock against the back of your aquarium. Putting the rock against the glass can put extra pressure on the seams and cause the aquarium to break. Putting the rock along the back wall or sides also prevents you from being able to clean the aquarium effectively. It also makes it difficult if a fish dies and you need to remove it before it starts to decompose. A good rule of thumb is to leave six inches of room.
Aquascaping Live Rock Strategies
If you plan to keep corals, you need to plan out several arches and heights. That way you’ll be able to keep a wide variety of corals with different lighting requirements. Be sure to give the corals enough room to grow and also visualize how different species of coral will affect water flow. After building your rock structure double check to make sure it’s sturdy. If it feels wobbly it will eventually fall over. If you follow these tips, you will be on your way successfully aquascaping live rock.