Aquascaping question...

[Gatorfreak]

About to setup my 90 gal. Planning to order 60 or 90# of base rock from hirocks.com and then get about 40-60# live rock from liverocks.com. I will use the base rock as the platform to put my live rock on top of. My question is, would it be better to get the smaller base rock (golfball to baseball size) or the larger rocks to build my platform for the live rock?

[Sam]

Since you will use the base rocks to form the foundation for your live rock, I would suggest that you get these in a larger size. This will allow you to properly aquascape the tank and for stability too. 8)

[OneBowl]

I'm taking the same approach for my 72 gallon. My 60# of large base rock was ordered last week from hirocks.com. Hirocks.com may not be particularly special request friendly, as some posts here have indicated, but I'll let you know how mine look upon receipt. FYI, I did include a note providing the footprint dimensions of my tank and stated the rocks will be for base aquascaping. We'll see what the results are in a couple of days.

[Sam]

One tip. Hi-Rocks runs auctions for their base rock on E-bay. That's where I got it from for about half the cost posted on their website.

[RocketSeason]

larger rocks will let you build larger, more interesting reefscapes. use the small rocks to pepper your sand floor.

[fishman]

Onebowl is right. I oirdered the 45 lbs from Hirocks and all I got was rubble rock. if you want "base rock" as I thought I had ordered, then order the $80 portion. Otherwise you will end up like me and some others here with a bunch of less than golfball size crap! I even wrote the owner previously and told him exactly what I wanted to do and needed as far as rock, and not one time did he ever lead me to think I was getting anything less than "base rock". I got base rock alright....pebbles and lots of them. I find it very frustrating to order something, clarify what you need/want beforehand, and then get something totally different. Life goes on...sorry for the venting!!

[Sam]

Sorry to hear about your experienced Fishman. I had ordered 120Lbs from them, so I got some asesome rocks. It's funny, they had shipped it via ups in 2 - not too great boxes. I just remember the straining red face of the UPS driver who was really huffing when he brought them in. I could not help but burst out laughing when he innocently asked "what the heck you got in there, rocks?"

[Gatorfreak]

Thanks everyone. I went ahead and ordered 60# of the large and 60# of the small. I'm going to use some of the small stuff in the sump and the rest to scatter around the tank. Thanks again.