The art of aquascaping is about arranging coral life strategically in an aquarium to create a beautiful underwater display. These designs can take many different forms and vary to suit a series of unique style choices and tastes. However, there’s a certain formula for positioning these scenes for the most aesthetic effect, and understanding this is the key to doing so successfully. In this beginner’s guide to aquascaping your aquarium, we’ll teach you how to start the process for saltwater tanks and discuss some important things to consider when tackling these projects.
Setting up the Aquascape of Your Saltwater Aquarium
The most popular saltwater aquarium styles are ones that directly mimic the appearance of natural oceanic coral reefs. This is the perfect way to bring nature indoors and represent it in the most authentic way. Fortunately, it still leaves plenty of room to be creative—since the ocean itself is full of different formations, sand mounds, and slopes to mirror.
So when it comes to setting up this aquascape, it’s best to take the process layer by layer. First, find the position you want for your live rock. These structures come in a plethora of shapes and sizes, so there are plenty of ways for you to experiment with your tank’s layout. Whether you like a more symmetrical display or would rather position the rocks toward one side, keep readjusting these features until you find something you like.
After this, pour in the sand, and let it settle to the bottom. Take this time to manipulate it as you see fit—creating divots in certain areas or evening it out for a flat appearance. Once your rock and sand formations are all in place, you can begin to stabilize the water’s chemical levels and prepare to add your corals.
What To Consider When Aquascaping an Aquarium
Next, in this beginner’s guide to aquascaping your aquarium, we’ll cover some other crucial factors to consider during the process.
Size of Your Tank
Unfortunately, at the end of the day, your design will only be possible if you can scale it properly to fit into your aquarium. Most common saltwater aquascaping designs can fit in any size tank with enough measuring and redesigning. But if you can’t reduce the scale and only have a nano tank, you may need to go back to the drawing board entirely.
Demands of Your Marine Life
Make sure to remember that your corals aren’t just beautiful centerpieces—they’re also living creatures with needs that their environment must meet. Otherwise, they won’t grow, much less achieve the colors you’re after. As such, make sure you research each type of organism you want to include in your saltwater tank and put in the effort to meet their desired conditions. For instance, some corals may require positioning higher up in the tank, while others may be content toward the bottom.
At World Wide Corals, we value aquarium aquascaping as a rich and fulfilling artform—one that can bring additional beauty to vibrant saltwater environments. This is why we seek to provide you with all the colorful corals you could need to complete your arrangement. We grow our corals for sale to be durable, accommodating, and, most importantly, wonderful to look at. As such, they’re the perfect addition to a well-thought-out design.
