stacking live rock

[rrobbieboy]

should stacking live rock be this hard.... how long does it take?

 

[ryangrieder]

Well it depends, how hard of a time are you having? Stacking it usually is pretty simple and one of the most fun things you can do for your tank IMO. Its your own design on how you want to do it. Fill the tank up and slowly stack it. If a piece does not fit correctly, chip the rock a bit until it does. Make sure its decently sturdy by pressing down on it in several areas. sometimes just throwing it in randomly and quick can turn out pretty decent as well.

 

[KathyC]

should stacking live rock be this hard.... how long does it take?

Lol, coming up with an aquascape that you like can be difficult if you judge it by how many times a lot of the folks around here re-arrange their live rock!

It takes a lot of patience (to some), arrange rock, step back and see if you like it, move it around a little more until you get it the way you like it.

A couple of suggestions...you want to try your best to keep it off the sides of the tank as that makes it really hard to clean the glass.

Very important that the rock goes all the way to the bottom of the tank - NEVER balance your rock on TOP of your sand! Eventually you will end up with a fish or a critter in your tank that will tunnel under that rock and knock the whole structure down..many a broken tank has come to an end this way

Ideally you also want to keep it off the rear wall of the tank as well to aid in circulation of the flow in the tank. Doing this helps minimize detritus (crud) from getting trapped in your rock work.

You want to build a 'playground' for your fish to swim in & out of that also has a cave or 3 for your fish to sleep in/feel safe in as this minimizes stress to your fish.

It is usually a good idea to look through the 'Tank Threads Forum' to find other tanks the size of yours and take a look at how those folks aquascaped their tanks to get some ideas

 

[rrobbieboy]

idk if im being to picky, i had a set up i wasnt happy with but kinda did the job, and today my lemon peel angelfish need to come out of the tank. so i moved some rocks and it was a huge mistake... if my hands are in their to much is it going to strees the fish out....

 

[basiab]

so i moved some rocks and it was a huge mistake... if my hands are in their to much is it going to strees the fish out....

Stress from a few minutes of your hand in there is not going to hurt. They will probably just hide. Just make sure you don't crush or bury any fish as you move stuff around. You didn't like the way the rock looked and you moved them around and now it is worse. So just move them some more till you get the look you want. And after that if you still don't like it try again. As long as you don't glue it down you can rearange it just like women do with furniture. And the same goes for coral.

 

[fishman1069]

stress from a few minutes of your hand in there is not going to hurt. They will probably just hide. Just make sure you don't crush or bury any fish as you move stuff around. You didn't like the way the rock looked and you moved them around and now it is worse. So just move them some more till you get the look you want. And after that if you still don't like it try again. As long as you don't glue it down you can rearange it just like women do with furniture. and the same goes for coral.

lol!!