Rock work advice.....

[Dtilton]

Hi all-

Getting ready to put the marco rock in my 90 g tank. The tank has a megaflow box in the back left corner and I've been looking at pictures here for the past 2 days. We're thinking of stacking the rock up pretty high to cover the overflow, about 20" high in a 24" tank, then lower in the middle, then high again on the right side- 20" or so. We want to have some high spots so we're flexible with what we may want to put in later. We have 2x250 MH lights and we're doing 4-6" sandbed with eggcrate under the rock. Eggcrate,then rock,then add sand. I drew out the dimensions of the tank on some cardboard and we've been fiddling with the rock all afternoon. We have some nice ledges,some caves, and some pools. Some of the caves open right to the back wall- no rock actually touching the wall- so fish can hideout back there. Is that good? I know folks say build it how you like it, but I want to make sure I'm providing a good habitat for my finned friends as well. Pictures attached- recommendations and suggestions appreciated.....

Danny and Janet

 

[Behrmon]

I'd be nervous about this one:

 

[Dtilton]

Yeah- we haven't done any attachment yet- using a bit of aquamend and cut up coat hanger drilled drilled in to some for support when they go in the tank. That's where the overflow is so we'll probably cover that all up instead of leaving a cave there- just couldn't balance it on the cardboard....

 

[Dave]

Looks good. What kind of rock did you get from Mark? One thing I wish I had done before I setup my rock is drill some holes for frag plugs.
Good luck!

 

[Dtilton]

Marco rock is awesome! We got some tonga branch and some fiji.... some extra to go in the basement sump when we get that running.

 

[Brad S]

Make sure your rock base is well buried in the sand so nothing can tunnel under and compromise the structure. I like to buy that play-doh style epoxy and stick a gob of that ontop of each rock I'm planning to cover with another piece. When it hardens it locks the rocks up pretty well.

I also like to leave enough room 360 around the aqua-scaped structure for cleaning, none of my rocks touch anything but the overflow.

Everything in my tank seems happy with the arrangement.

Is this coat hanger material you're planning to use metal? As in a metal coat hanger you're going to use as wire? If so don't do that, that will ruin your tank as the metal rusts or maybe I'm just confused???

 

[Dtilton]

Thanks for the reply Brad. The coat hanger is the rigid plastic coat hangers. Cut them into 3" pieces or so and drill corresponding holes in the adjoining rocks and insert the 3" peg to provide some additional support. I may use the fiberglass driveway markers instead from HD. They seem a little thinner, yet stronger, so I won't have to drill as big a hole.......

 

[Ifferfish]

We used the fiberglass driveway markers, they worked great. We also used some epoxy. Drilled the holes, put some epoxy in the bottom hole, pushed it in with the driveway marker (already cut to length) and the topped off the other end with more epoxy. You may see some of the marker through some of the rockwork, but it will all be purple soon enough!

 

[pufferfish]

Here's a link of what i did with marco rocks. http://www.dropshots.com/92corner

I used black cable ties from HD to tie them up together. The black ties eventually get covered up in corraline algae. I would recommend stacking them on pvc instead of just on top of sand.

 

[mikede]

Cool idea Puffer. Can I ask what size pvc you used?