Anyone with tips for stacking rocks?

[Zulaab]

please DONT epoxy your rocks. They are going to stay in place once settled down. If you have rock movement later on seldom does it cause problems. Another positive is your not using round boulders therefore movement is not going to be problematic.

Now this is how I setup my rockscapes and works well.
I install the crate in my tank.
Then I put all the rocks I want to use on the living room floor and in my mind look for the size of tank I am going to want to build around.
Then I stack rocks on the carpet (if it wont stack there, then how is going to stack in your tank)
Once I have a nice stack I break it down carefully and put them in my tank.
Once everything is where I want it, I ADD SAND LAST..
Sand used to stabilize rock work, ends up being your bane of your rock work, as your cichlid ALWAYS decides to dig where things are the most UNSTABLE.

Now if sand is already in the tank.. I would recommend strongly as you place your bottom rocks you dig them DOWN into the sand.. even if they are being covered with sand in the end. Having a stable bottom works better than anything else I have found over time. :)

[Complexity]

No sand in the tank yet. I wasn't going to add that until after the rocks were in for the reasons you gave. The rocks need to be solid on their own without any sand.

I've been working with the rocks, and if I work with them long enough, I can find rocks that seem to interlock together. And their heavy weight seems to help keep them stable.

What I think I'll do is start with the largest rocks, and work my way smaller as the rock piles get taller. In some places, I will need to add smaller rocks to fill in gaps in between the larger rocks, but as long as I maintain a brick style pattern by covering joints between two rocks with one rock, I think I can get it to work.

I just need to work very slowly and carefully until I get it the way I want.

[myjohnson]

Is this the post with the dark rocks you were talking about?

http://www.houstonfishbox.com/vforums/showthread.php?p=374137#post374137

I don't think those rocks are the same as the ones I got.

They are the exact same ones. I'm sure of it. I help him a bunch of times getting the rocks in and out of the tank.

They don't look black/gray like yours because they have all that algae on them.

[myjohnson]

Here's a sketch of the design I have in mind:

I was thinking the same thing. Use the big ones for the main pile on each side. Surround them with the medium size ones and surround that with the smaller rocks.

From looking at the rocks you collected, I think it's going to be a bad@$$ looking rocksacpe.

[Complexity]

I don't know how well I'll be able to hold true to the sketch. The biggest problem is stacking the rocks that high while still keeping them stable. I just measured the stack I've been playing with, and it's still one row of rocks too low and the base of the stack is as wide as I can make it (it's probably wider than I want already). If I make the base wider, then I won't have the space to add the rocks in front that creates a design. This is going to be quite a challenge!

I need to move the 29g so I can put the new stand in its place, but it's too heavy for me to do alone, and my husband is saying his back hurts. I really don't want to have to do a complete tear down of that tank! But I may have to. :(

So the plan is:

Move the 29g.
Get the 90g stand in place.
Clean rocks.
Put 90g tank in place.
Stack the rocks.
Add sand.

And then I'll be in good shape! As soon as my new filters arrive, I can swap out media to seed the new tank with bacteria. I hope to have fish in the tank soon after that, depending on the cycling.

I may have to add an extra day in my plans since I can't move the 29g tonight without help, but that's okay. I'm still in good shape towards my goal of having all the tanks in good order in the next two weeks before the Fall semester at UofH starts.

[PhishPhreek]

You can always drill a hole in the rocks and incert a pin to keep them alligned & stable.

[myjohnson]

not these rocks.....

[Mzungu]

Hooray! I'm so happy you FINALLY got your tank!! :)

I'm excited to see the progress. You'd better take lots of pictures! From empty to full.

[Complexity]

Yeah, I got it on Friday. Fish Ranch II got it in for me.

I'm excited too, but right now, I'm so exhausted, it's hard to feel the excitement.

I let the rocks soak in bleach water overnight. Cleaned and dechlorinated them this morning, set to dry. They're ready to come inside the house now. I'm going to follow Jesper's suggestion of bringing the rocks into my living room to figure out how to stack them. Then it'll just be a matter of tearing it down and putting it back together inside the tank.

I got the 29g tank moved. One of the filters had leaked, and the carpet underneath is a mess. I'm trying to decide on whether I should work hard to clean it up before putting my 90g in place or not. If I try to clean it, I'll have to wait for the carpet to dry before setting up my 90g which might set me back. It's what I should do, but my body is already aching so I might be lazy on this one.

Excluding the carpet, I'm ready to move the stand in place and put the tank on it! The problem is my husband isn't being of much help. He's thinking he can help me move it tomorrow evening. Ugh. More setbacks on my time.

Once all this heavy work is done, then the real fun will begin! I can't wait to get it up and running with fish in it.

[DUHK]

I went to nepco today to buy some rocks :) I bought a couple of zebra rocks but I wasn't sure how to do the layout. I wanted an iwagumi but the rocks didn't really satisfy me :\ They all look really nice but I just didn't find the right size rocks I guess.

Nice place though!

[Complexity]

Sorry you didn't find the rocks you were wanting. I know that feeling.

Did you ask when they'd be getting more? Or maybe there's another rock yard that will have what you want?

Good luck in finding them. It seems like something as simple as rocks would be easy to find, but it's actually very difficult!

[DUHK]

Actually I'm going back tomorrow! The rocks there are beautiful, I just didn't know which size would work. It's easy to visualize what you want, but when you are actually at the yard it isn't easy at all. But now that I know, I hopefully will get it together tomorrow. :)

Thanks for the suggestion!

If anyone else is interested in an iwagumi set up and need help, I got some good advice here: http://www.aquatic-eden.com/2007_02_01_archive.html

Hope that helps someone!

[Complexity]

Best of luck on your rock hunting tomorrow. Show us pics of what you find!

[DUHK]

Will do! Thanks!

[DUHK]

I found out I couldn't exchange the rocks I had for bigger ones. The one's I had were too small to look nice in an iwagumi set up. :\