Honest opinion on my first aquascape?

[Muffin87]

I went with AF Rock -- very heavy on plates and shelves. This is good for my shallow 5ft 100G tank.
Except for the two bases, All the other rocks are suspended (i.e. overhangs and the like).
Looking for honest, constructive, non-hurtful criticism, and opinions.

Is this supposedly minimalistic?

 

[JumboShrimp]

I think that is truly an excellent job! Personally I would place one fairly small free-standing rock on the bottom, off-centered in front of either the right or left stack, for a touch of asymmetry.

 

[ReefCheef]

Looks amazing!

 

[Billldg]

I like it!!! I wouldn't change a thing.

 

[ScottB]

That is really a great 'scape. What are the tank dimensions?

 

[Muffin87]

That is really a great 'scape. What are the tank dimensions?

Thanks! It's a 5 ft Water Box Frag 145.5

 

[Muffin87]

I think that is truly an excellent job! Personally I would place one fairly small free-standing rock on the bottom, off-centered in front of either the right or left stack, for a touch of asymmetry.

Thanks! I Wanted to make it more asymmetrical actually, but the overflow box is in the middle, and if I put overhangs extending over the overflow box, the rocks become much more difficult to move around for cleaning.

 

[Kiwi reefer]

Looks very cool! i like the large amount of area for coral placement

 

[MaxTremors]

This is really well done. A lot of the time people get completely out of control with flat pieces/shelves and negative space scapes, but this is natural looking and has a lot of great places to mount corals and will still look dynamic when they grow out.

 

[Yazannreef]

Looks great. I would have put another smaller but same height structure in betweenteeen the two. You will want more real estate for more corals eventually!!!

 

[RJinPV]

I vote for more asymmetry. Make one side higher than the other and/or make some kind of extension from one rock pile toward the other the fill the middle a bit. Whats your focal point going to be? Whatever that striking rock or coral is, it needs to not be smack dab in the middle. Check out the photography rule of thirds.

Excellent job on the gluing and overall general engineering of the pieces!

 

[thereefhotspot]

I went with AF Rock -- very heavy on plates and shelves. This is good for my shallow 5ft 100G tank.
Except for the two bases, All the other rocks are suspended (i.e. overhangs and the like).
Looking for honest, constructive, non-hurtful criticism, and opinions.

Is this supposedly minimalistic?

It looks great! I think you definitely have achieved minimalistic if that is what you are looking for. You will have a lot of space to place different kinds of corals in all ranges of the tank. However, like many have said, you might want to consider adding a few islands to the bottom. This can be a way to isolate the more "invasive" species like zoanthids or star polyps. Or, another way to do it would be to just fill the bottom up with plate corals, scolymia, meat corals and all other kinds of show pieces like that once the tank is cycled. If you chose that route, you may just want to be careful with your light settings since it is a shallow tank.

 

[GHOSTLY]

Very nice!

 

[J1a]

I went with AF Rock -- very heavy on plates and shelves. This is good for my shallow 5ft 100G tank.
Except for the two bases, All the other rocks are suspended (i.e. overhangs and the like).
Looking for honest, constructive, non-hurtful criticism, and opinions.

Is this supposedly minimalistic?

Looks great with many places for the corals!

It may be difficult to clean under those low lying plates though.

 

[Muffin87]

It may be difficult to clean under those low lying plates though.

I have maxspect gyres for that!

 

[J1a]

I have maxspect gyres for that!

In my experience, the effect of gyre weakens greatly after the first rockwork it encounters. Say if your gyre is on the left, the flow is perfect at the top, down on the right side, pass the right rock. After that, the gyre effect is much weaker.

I also find that having it running at constant mode is more effective to "sweep" out the detritus, as compared to random mode.

 

[MONTANTK]

That looks incredible! I would maybe move each stack a hair closer to the center just to maximize the room along the glass once your corals grow in. Fantastic job even if it wasn’t your first aquascape!!!

 

[captainbeardly]

It looks awesome!

 

[sp1187]

nicely done.
bonus points for asking before the tank is filled.

 

[ghazanfar.ansari]

I went with AF Rock -- very heavy on plates and shelves. This is good for my shallow 5ft 100G tank.
Except for the two bases, All the other rocks are suspended (i.e. overhangs and the like).
Looking for honest, constructive, non-hurtful criticism, and opinions.

Is this supposedly minimalistic?

Simply Excellent!!