Support under rock structure? building new aquascape

[ReefsandGeeks]

I'll be switching from my existing 65 gallon to a new 150 gallon tank that I am working on now, and will soon be starting on the aquascape. so far, I've relied solely on stacking my rocks to create my aquascape, but that's limited me to some pretty bulky aquascapes and I'd like to go a more open route for this new tank. I'm planning on building something with some arches and over hangs, maybe a pillar. I don't want to simply have a rock wall like I've done in the past. I've tried to stack up some caves like structures, but never had any luck making something stable. This time around I'm planning on using epoxy/cement and likely some acrylic rods to help stabilize everything and stick it all together.

Is there anything I should be putting under my aquascape to protect the bottom glass? It's been a while since I've read about it, but I think I've read something about egg crate? not sure if it's to protect the glass or some other purpose. Would a thin sheet of acrylic work as well? I just want to make sure I'm not going to damage the tank or anything with the new rock structures.

On another note, for those of you who have built up your own rock structures and cemented or epoxied them together, do you just lift up the whole rock structure and put it in the tank, or do you build it in place in the tank?

 

[tdlawdo]

I am building mine in the tank prior to sand and water. BRS sells and/or talks about the stuff they put on bare bottom tanks but I think the general consensus is that there is little to no risk of breaking the glass. If you are placing a rod you will have to drill etc outside the tank. Then after placement pour in the sands brush excess off the rock and add water. The open scapes look so much better I agree.


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[JWClark]

I'm using travertine tile from Lowes. Travertine is a metamorphic rock from limestone I believe, so CaCO3 based. Got the idea from someone here a few years ago but just started using this past week--finally did a system reboot because of colonial hydroids and vermetids (but mainly the hydroids).

I did try some simple aquascaping w/ JB water weld epoxy but it didn't hold together. Was originally making several sections that I planned to move, individually, to the tank. I was able to basically get the same thing though through creative trial and error stacking. Having large pieces of rock helps--if you can chisel out the shapes you need.

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Marco Rocks makes a product for this very purpose.

 

[tdlawdo]

I used the dry reef rock from BRS and it is curing now in my Brute containers. It locks together well. No hitchhikers at all since it was "œMined" from dry land.


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[Kevin Guthrie]

If your rock has holes or you can drill them, you can also tie things in with zip ties. They drill pretty easy with concrete drill bits. If I did it again I'd use the ties to hold things together while the epoxy cured so that I could remove the visible ties, but they get overgrown pretty quickly so you can't see them after a year or so.

 

[Fourstars]

I built a cement base about two inches thick and inserted three fiberglass rods. Then drilled holes in the rock and stacked. Just place the base directly on the glass.

 

[davocean]

I still swear by my acrylic pillar structures, super stable.

I can even lift the whole structure out of tank if swapping or moving, makes easy, and we've had some good quakes around here, pillars hold fine.

PVC works as well, but I prefer acrylic.

 

[albano]

If you look closely you'll notice that the large piece of LR on left, is not on the sand bed... It is elevated by 3 or 4 acrylic rods that were drilled and cemented into the bottom of the rock, which also makes it more stable to support LR stacked on top.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

all good ideas, I'm going to try going with the Macro rocks cement stuff and some fiberglass rods. I think that will work for what I'm trying to do. I'll be generous with te cement stuff so I can be a lottle more confident that the structure wont fall apart as I'm picking it up and putting it in the tank.

So I have a bit of a delema. With the new tank I got, I also got a good bit of dried out live rock. I was planning on building the rock structure out of that dead rock in advance originally, but I'm wondering how I'd incorporate truely live rock with attached corals into the structure. I will be moving over my current livestock and rock from my existing 65 gallon reef tank to the 150, so I can't take all of the rock out and build up all of the aquascape in advance. What should I do about this? I was thinking maybe build the main rock structure out of the dead rock, put that in the new tank and once I'm ready, move over a rock or two at a time from the existing tank to the new. If i want to cement any of them in place, I'd have to be ready to do that as soon as I took the rock out of the old tank, wait 20 minutes for the cement to cure while misting the coral and rock with tank water, then moving the structures to the new tank. Of course anything that doesn't get cemented in place will simply be moved over and placed in the new tank. Does that sound like a reasonable plan? will my coral be okay out of water for a full 20+ minutes if I do it this way? I certainly couldn't move the rock to the new tank untill the cement was cured enough to not melt away in the new tank water.

 

[Fourstars]

That sounds like a good plan. Corals should be fine. Another option is to build the main dry structure and use cable ties to attach the live rock. It will eventually cement itself to the structure.