Better Aquascape ... Don't Want to Get Zinged

Sarcasm Makes the World Go 'Round.

Water is circulating and live rock is cycling in the large reef tank I've been preparing for months.  I am ready to think about how I want my display to look.  Of course, I'd better be careful if I want to share my system with the world or I'll end up getting article's written with headlines like the following from reefbuilders.com, "ZEOvit’s first Dream Tank of the Quarter is full of color but lacking vision" (BAZINGA).

So, Something "Modern" Then?

Even if I don't follow every reef trend to the extent of my creditworthiness, I can appreciate the aesthetics involved with a well planned design.  I plan to use a limited amount of live rock in almost a tree like structure with a few islands of rock and shallow sand bed (something that I and a goby might be able to keep clean together).  I love the look of a nice white sand bed, but I hate sand storms and I'm not sold on a deep sand beds.  I'll have to be careful with the direction of my flow to avoid the sand storms.

For the Love of God Jim. This is a Reef not an Art Museum

How a system looks is not the only reason to choose a design for a reef aquarium.  There are core functions that the layout of a tank must be able to perform.

• Filtration - There must be enough live rock to filter the aquarium.
• Flow - There must be enough porosity (is that a word) in the design to allow for flow to keep detrius in the water column.
• Habitat - There must be a habitat that supports the livestock being kept.
  

Remember, Coral Grows!

If I want open space in the system, I'll have to be careful about coral placement.  I'll be dosing two part and running under some intense lighting with SPS coral.  There will be growth (so help me God).  It also means that I don't want my rock structures to be to high or to take up too much space.  I am trying to grow a coral display, not a rock display. 

A Note About Materials

Some of the materials that can be used to create displays are plastic rods onto which you place live rock.  I've seen available are threaded nylon rods and nuts such as those available from "Marco Rocks.com".  While researching Nylon rods vs. acrylic rods, I noted that the crystalline structure of nylon absorbs water and can dimensionally change because of it.[1]  However, I still think nylon is probably the safer choice due to it's non-brittle nature.[2]  Cracking under a load is not an issue I want to deal with when stacking live rock over plate glass!

1. "Relative Dimensional Change of Various Nylon Products Due to Moisture Absorption" by Steve Gerbig, http://www.ides.com/articles/polyamide_moisture_absorption.asp

2. "Poly(methyl methacrylate)", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymethyl_methacrylate