Aquascape Frustration!

After spending an hour trying to rearrange my live rock my hands are now pruined, itchy and sore and the rock still doesnt look good. I might just be picky but it just looks like a pile of rocks, my poor fish have no caves or anything. How do you guys get your tanks to look so good? Any suggestions would be great.

 

I just keep buying more rock till I find the pieces I want. But lets see a pic im sure it doesnt look bad

 

Here is my latest attempt and I still think it looks bad. It just looks I threw it together, when actually I have been trying for an hour. lol

 

Aquascaping can be frustrating depending on how picky you are. I'm uber OCD about it and always think mine could look better. Honestly, the best scapes I have made are usually not on purpose, but just by luck. I'm sure your scape looks nice, but you may just be a perfectionist, but "perfect" can be many scapes to different people .

A few suggestions, depending on your tank size. You could go with a wall of rock look, or do seperate islands of rock. Or do a cove with an area in the front and the rock pushed to the back of the tank. Also a U formation of rock, where you have higher piles on the left and right and the middle is lower, or even one big mountain of rock sloping down on the left and right.

Here's a link with some ideas: Reef Aquarium Aquascaping | Reef Aquarium Information - Brett's Reef Aquarium

 

You have the right idea. looks pretty good to me. You just have to work with what you got. I have gotten tons of compliments on mine, and I'm still not happy with it. The most important thing to me is the least amount of rock covering the surface area of the sand, but at the same time being very sturdy. This is hard to do and can be very frustrating. Somebody told me that you should have more rock than you think, and then when you start to stack them, get a general idea where you want it to go. But when you go to place them, don't look at the tank or the rock. This way you keep tweeking it til you find the most stable position.

 

don't forget, if your rocks are too close to the glass on the sides, your mag float isn't gonna fit in there.

otherwise, its looking good.

 

looks good to me, just might need more rock in the future depending on how you want it to look.

 

i like it the way it is . but i know the flustration in most cases i just gave up

 

Looks good to me, I just try and put together a scape that has caves and allows good water flow around and through it.

 

I think my main problem is I want it to look even, must be my ocd coming out lol but im realizing that its impossible to make rock look even, no matter how you stack it.

Im really tempted to take every piece out and start over, i know my fish and corals are freaking out..... dang it