Rocks are Heavy!

[Scottw68TN]

I posted this in fresh and then realized you guys pile a ton of weight into your tanks.

How do you prepare / protect your tanks from heavy reefs / rocks.
Foam? Styro? Just a deep substrate? And do tanks ever crack from the weight?

 

[fishfreek]

If all the wight was on one specific spot (ie 1sq inch) then yes the tank woudl probably crack or something. The weight of the rocks is acutally spred out over a larger area so the weight of the rocks is just slightly more than the wight of the water.

I have over 200lbs of sand and 100lbs of rock in my 80 gal tank along with the 650lbs of water.

 

[MACATUA]

Aquascape is very important because you wanna build a well distributed base with the heavy rocks at bottom, and build up to the lighter rocks. That way if something falls, no major harm .

 

[Flipper]

AFA keeping your stack intact, plastic ties or epoxies are also an option. I'd say that with your rocks distributed across the length of your tank, you've got no reason to fear damage from their weight.

 

[Scottw68TN]

Cool. The rocks would be spread out and flat on the bottom. Probable a slate and rocks / caves I will form. Do you use egg crate and place the rocks on it. Or Eggcrate substrate then rock? or just a substrate alone?

 

[Biggen]

Most just put the rocks on the substrate. Actually most of us push the rocks into the substrate a little to give them better stability.

I actually glued PVC to the bottom of my tank, added the sand, and then put the rocks on top of the PVC. That way at least I am assured the dissolving sand would never cause a "rock slide".

But if I had to do it again, I would just push the rocks into the sand. I don't like it when the ugly PVC pipes show through the top of the sand at times.