advice on adding a rock formation to sand
- Thread starter kufan
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
mfdrookie516
Aquarium Free - 2+ Years
no it wont float... thats the nice thing about it... its heavy enough that ive never sucked one grain (that ive seen) in to my sink while doing a pwc...
Lexfirefighter
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Use the egg crate.
The purpose of the egg crate isn't to raise the structure higher. It is to take presure points of the stone off the glass of your aquarium. think of it this way. If you stood a sharp pencil on top of your leg it wouldn't hurt, if you put a 50 pound block on your leg you could easily hold it. Now if you put the pencil on your leg and then put the 50 pound block on top of it, it is going to sink that sharp pencil into your leg. Even though you maybe cant see it almost all stones have higher or lower points that make contact with your glass, and putting the pressure of even 50 pounds of rock (which isn't much really) can pinpoint all that weight on that small area of rock touching the glass causing your tank to crack. Take some foam egg crate on place it at the bottom of your tank where you are going to start building your formation so you will distribute the weight of the stone, and not put a sharp point directly onto your expensive aquariums glass. Then start with larger flatter stones/slate/whatever for the base of your formation crushing down the egg crate foam by putting downward pressure on your stones. Start stacking the stone from larger on the bottom to smaller as you work your way up. If your rock is flat and stable then you don't need to use silicone, but if your using odd shaped or roundish rocks then you want to put a little aquarium safe silicone in between them to work as "glue" so your formation doesnt fall onto your fish. Once you've built your formation up about 5 inches or so then put your sand into the tank. You want to ALWAYS put your rock down before your sand when your dealing with Cichlids. They tend to dig around in the sand and if your rock are on top the sand and they dig under the rocks then there is a chance that your formation could become unstable and come crashing down killing fish, or even crackin, or breaking your aquarium. As you build leave lots of gaps in the rock forming lots of caves. Trust me, your cichlids will love you for it. They may hide a little more often than you like, but they will show off their "happy" colors for you a lot more often.
The purpose of the egg crate isn't to raise the structure higher. It is to take presure points of the stone off the glass of your aquarium. think of it this way. If you stood a sharp pencil on top of your leg it wouldn't hurt, if you put a 50 pound block on your leg you could easily hold it. Now if you put the pencil on your leg and then put the 50 pound block on top of it, it is going to sink that sharp pencil into your leg. Even though you maybe cant see it almost all stones have higher or lower points that make contact with your glass, and putting the pressure of even 50 pounds of rock (which isn't much really) can pinpoint all that weight on that small area of rock touching the glass causing your tank to crack. Take some foam egg crate on place it at the bottom of your tank where you are going to start building your formation so you will distribute the weight of the stone, and not put a sharp point directly onto your expensive aquariums glass. Then start with larger flatter stones/slate/whatever for the base of your formation crushing down the egg crate foam by putting downward pressure on your stones. Start stacking the stone from larger on the bottom to smaller as you work your way up. If your rock is flat and stable then you don't need to use silicone, but if your using odd shaped or roundish rocks then you want to put a little aquarium safe silicone in between them to work as "glue" so your formation doesnt fall onto your fish. Once you've built your formation up about 5 inches or so then put your sand into the tank. You want to ALWAYS put your rock down before your sand when your dealing with Cichlids. They tend to dig around in the sand and if your rock are on top the sand and they dig under the rocks then there is a chance that your formation could become unstable and come crashing down killing fish, or even crackin, or breaking your aquarium. As you build leave lots of gaps in the rock forming lots of caves. Trust me, your cichlids will love you for it. They may hide a little more often than you like, but they will show off their "happy" colors for you a lot more often.
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