Volume considerations on aqua scaping for fish space

[BigBurgassio]

Do you deduct the amount of aqua scaping materials that go in to work out your fish stocking levels ?,

Just curious as i watched a few aqua scaping videos online recently where i would say a large percentage of the space was taken up by huge rocks and hard scape, plus the idea of sloping the substrate back up the tank to make it look deep.

 

[GaryE]

At that point, you have to think through what fish go with what habitat. If I have a very "filled" tank with lots of plants, I'll pick fish that live in the tangles of roots along stream banks. I usually start with the fish and build the tank around it, but an aquascaper would reverse that.

I have no calculation, in a fish per gallon way. My rule is to use any of the popular calculations, figure out how many fish it allows you to have (by real water volume) and then get half that. All those calculations are for us to be able to buy more fish. They aren't for the good of the fish.

 

[BigBurgassio]

At that point, you have to think through what fish go with what habitat. If I have a very "filled" tank with lots of plants, I'll pick fish that live in the tangles of roots along stream banks. I usually start with the fish and build the tank around it, but an aquascaper would reverse that.

Yes i do similar, I try to focus on space to swim, i do have rocks and little caves etc., but i like my tank to be split into different areas that give the fish the chance to swim different routes and explore, when i look at some of these pro aqua scapers the hard scape is so big the fish have to swim around it, also the plants can be so dense that that also removes freedom to swim, i guess for me its a case of finding the right balance.

 

[Colin_T]

Do you deduct the amount of aqua scaping materials that go in to work out your fish stocking levels ?,

Just curious as i watched a few aqua scaping videos online recently where i would say a large percentage of the space was taken up by huge rocks and hard scape, plus the idea of sloping the substrate back up the tank to make it look deep.

If you have lots of rocks or large bits of wood in the tank, then yes you should deduct those to work out fish stocking levels.

Marine tanks have this exact issue when people build a coral or rocky reef in an aquarium. The rock and coral displaces a lot of water and to compensate for this, they use a sump/ refugium. The sump holds filter media, heaters, macro algae and maybe shrimp and snails, but it also holds water. The bigger the sump, the more water you have in the system. Since rocks can displace half the water or more, having a sump that is at least half the size of the display tank is advisable if you have a lot of rock or large ornaments in the tank.

 

[CassCats]

My train of thought is that the scape should always benefit the fish first and foremost. The scape materials must be usable by the fish.

A carefully scaped tank with a false slope (like a lot of those "forest" shaped tanks or such that create an illusion of depth by using a slope and such) does not benefit fish that would use a wider bottom, so usually only a school of upper level fish are there to enjoy that type of scape. It would not benefit bottom dwellers one bit.
A community setup is near impossible for this. A small shoal of upper level fish is really all that can use that space.

Opposite end of the spectrum are iwagumi setups. They're often open with just carpet plants and a couple rocks. They do not offer enough shelter for many fish and a lot of the fish choices the "scapers" use are often poor options who won't enjoy living in an open space like that. So that's also something to keep in mind with scaping. It's plausible to be too empty as well!

Lots of rocks can provide shelter and many fish enjoy utilizing rocks. Gobies, hillstream loaches, plecos, etc. But piling them too high in the tank takes up swim space for upper levels, so again, you'd not really want to put these.


Any time we scape our tanks, our focus should always be "how would my fish use this setup". If the hardscape takes up a lot of space, then yes, it is going to affect your stocking choices and limits.

It takes a lot of thought and practice to balance it out and learn it.