Should I glue these rocks?

[Kaliska]

I had to scrap my denitrification experiment and I'm wondering if the lava rocks would make a nice rock wall on my 10g. I am planning black sand and plants. I only have some micromeria brownei (aquatic creeping charlie), hornwort, and duckweed right now. The tank has a pennplax cascade internal with only the sponge chamber for now. If I put on the other chamber the spray bar gets too close to the surface and dunks the duckweed. Sometimes down to the filter intake. It's probably fixable as I get further into setup.

Anyway... rocks... I was trying to stack these lava rocks and they just kept shifting on me. Some would pop forward as I put weight on top so the stack got every wider and I'm not sure I want the bottom slanting into the tank. It wouldn't be as much of a problem if I was balancing them for small, mid swimming fish but I was going to growout some bristlenose in there. I don't know if the sand will brace the bottom enough to make everything more stable. I saw where someone else laid the rocks out on a table in the shape they wanted them, siliconed, left them to cure, and then applied their premade rock wall to the back of the tank. There are downsides to that though. I am partially setting this tank up fast enough for fish only because the lava rocks were already in a container being fed ammonia. It would also probably be easier with larger rocks but I like the look in the small tank.

 

[krytan]

I use epo putty for sticking my rocks together cures under water, sticks like cement and is fish safe. Any reef putty would work though.

 

[tanker]

I do not understand, Do you want the rocks for looks or filtration?

 

[Slappy*McFish]

Glue small groups of rocks together to make various sized bigger rock structures, then stack the bigger pieces together to form the wall. This will give you more building options and the ability to rearrange the overall structure to form holes, caves, etc.

 

[Kaliska]

I was thinking along those lines. Stick a base together, stick 2 other separate pieces together to go on top, and then fill in with loose rocks. I'm thinking java fern on the rocks rather than moss or anubias.