Rock Stacking

boulderman1

AC Members
Aug 8, 2006
237
1
0
Chicago, IL
in every nice reef tank i see, the live rock on which all the corals are placed are always stacked to almost the top of the tank without the piles sloping back from the front of the tank, they just go straight up, i can't figure out how all you guys get these piles to stay, why don't they fall, i want to stack rocks like i see in all these tanks but need help

thanks
 
In my tank I have 2 stacks of rocks. It's hard to see in the picture, but with the large rocks on the right I set up a base of 1 rock at each corner to form a rectangle. Then I had a very large flat rock to lay on top of them to create a solid and stable shelf. This made a cave-like area at the bottom, and left room at the top to stack a few more smaller rocks and to make some space for corals. Everything is stacked in a way that it gently slopes towards the top. On the left I have a vertical stack of the reef rock - the fingery type of rocks that I believe are actually just dead calcified corals. I started with a solid flat piece that is mostly buried. If you find a few tall pieces that also have horizontal branches, it makes it very easy to stack without the use of putty or plastic ties and the short little flat appendages gives some nice niches for corals. I went into this knowing exactly what kind of rock piles I wanted, and choose my rocks based upon that.


1hg3.jpg
 
Cavalier- nice tank. How many gallons is that?

Does anyone know where to get the reef stacks- I see some for sale but they're over in the UK. Anyone know of a US place?
 
My tank is a 90g. I was going to add that I haven't had any luck at all using putty with securing rocks. I've tried to putty in small little flat pieces into my reef rock on the left and it never works because it just won't stick to the slimey surface of live rock. I guess if I were to take the rocks out and prepare a contact area with a dremel tool it might work, but that's too much trouble :)
 
Anyone?
 
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