Egg crate rock structure with PVC arm.

[kwirky]

So I've been trying to figure out a good way to "fill in" my rockwork without spending another $400 on liverock. I don't know how some people can afford to buy 1.5-2 pounds per gallon for their 180 gallon setups! I think I've finally found a good method that's nice and ballanced and doesn't look "fake".

Originally, I had a PVC "arm" that I used to build an arch of rock. It looked nice, and was strong, but I didn't like how the rest of my tank looked empty. The rest of my rock just barely reached 12" off the tank floor.

Here's a photo of my first rock setup:


The arch was nice, but it looked quite empty, and there wasn't enough space really for the coral to grow out.

So the other day, I built this hideous thing:


And my tank looked like a pile of rocks:


It dealt with the problem of filling out the rockwork, but the rack was too big from front to back, and too high. It was great for making a pile, but I couldn't even get my magnet cleaner past certain areas of the front pane of glass.

So I decided to go for a ballanced approach. Instead of making one huge rack that decided my tank's look before I even put it in the water, I made a few little racks that could be placed wherever I'd like. It would allow me to decide on the look as I go.


btw I love egg crate. You can build anything with just a pair of wirecutters and some zap straps

The largest one is 10" high, and the little one's only like 4". They allow for good water movement and are quite sturdy. The little racks worked so well because it doesn't take much to fill it all in. I only used three. I also decided to reuse the "arm" I had built the original arch with.

So here's my final rockwork layout. The picture doesn't really do it justice because I have the rocks placed so that there's foreground, middleground, and background. Some rocks block sight, while some areas open up. Finally figured out how to make 90 lbs of liverock look like 120+ without looking like ass (in my opinion anyways )

It's a 120g 48x24x24" tank btw.