What am I missing? Live Rock Tumbles!

[dme330i]

Other than buying big pieces of rock, what else do you guys do to prevent your aquascape from falling/collapsing when you want to move one little rock? I know . . . Don't touch it. My problem - I'm never satisfied.

Jon

[yousuredo]

yea me too................
is their a good-rule of thumb-way to aqua scape ?
is it better to out big pieces on bottom or top ?
or layered -small-big-small, heck i dont know ?
any advice is good advice

and sorry, not trying to high-jack the thread just trying to get more info....

[jesspaul]

I start with fist sized rock on the bottom, they need to be place befor the sand or at least forced down into the sand so that a goby can't dig under them and colasp the hole pile. I space the bottom rock so that the bigger rock have either 3 touch points or 2 touch points and the back glass. you keep building from there always pushing the rock around to ensure its stable. Snails and crabs can mover rocks many times bigger than themselves. you can also use reef expoxy to make the contact spots more stable.

[wildemon]

I would not think a lot of small rocks will ever be as stable as a few larger pieces. However you can epoxy some together for stability or you can use wire tie straps or even drill holes and string like beads on a pvc rod. Of course at some point you have already said you will rearrange so be sure and not weld all your rock into one huge piece. Fernback had all their rock cemented into place and found it impossible to change the landscape from rocks to GA's sandy coast.

The "AquaMend" epoxy at HomeDepot works very well with dry material if you can pull the rocks out and pat dry while applying.