Weight of rocks in tank

StreetCypher

StreetCypher

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Apr 18, 2004
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Hi peeps,

I want to put a large rock in a 185g tank. Right in the middle against the back wall with a few smaller rocks around it. I'm thinking about the size of a large watermelon or a computer moniter. Would that be adding too much stress to the bottom pane of glass?
I'm thinking it may increase the risk of breaking of cracking. Eggcrate?
 
The rock will displace a lot of water which means is much 'lighter' in the tank than out. Assuming that the base of the tank is well supported on solid board and you have plenty of small gravel under the rock to distribute the weight then you should have no problem - IMHO only. I have a couple of fairly large chunks of basalt in my 50g... Though not as big as the bit you are talking about... The rock you are talking about does sound on the large size, so you'd need to take a bit of care getting it in the tank...
 
A large tank can easily support lots of weight from rocks; I have hundreds of pounds of rocks in my 180 g. Malawi tank. The most important think is to make sure the rocks are stable (so you don't have a rockslide) and to put something between the glass and rocks (I like plexiglass) to avoid too much weight being put on a tiny area of the glass.

Also, if you have digging fish, NEVER put substrate under the rocks. Put the rocks on the tank bottom (with plexiglass or similar, as noted above) and then add substrate around it. Otherwise, the fish are likely to excavate under the rocks and cause problems as the weight shifts.

HTH,
Jim
 
Oh man, that'd be terrible if it shifted and a fish was underneath it. It'd take a LONG time to find out what that awful smell and ammonia spike are from.
 
With large rocks, a rock slide is more of danger to the tank (glass breaking, etc.) than to the fish. 180 gallons of water rushing onto your floor would make an ammonia spike look like a walk in the park...

You can't glue really large rocks together and it really isn't a good idea. Using glue works for small rockwork, but the last thing you want when you have to change/clean/move a large tank is to worry about how you'll move several big rocks without them breaking apart and smashing the glass. Also, most glues won't hold together anything but small rocks.

HTH,
Jim
 
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