Suspend rocks from above

[paul b]

I am not sure if many people do this but for years I have helped support rock from above. My tank is in an enclosure so it is easy for me and it makes it possable to aquascape in ways that do not seem possable like having rock tilt toward the front of the tank without falling into the front glass. Or having large rocks barely touching the rest of the structure, something you could not do unless you cemented the rock together.

It is hard to tell from this picture but the entire structure is only touching the substrait in a few places. The structure is suspended from the top in 3 places. This lets me have a very open design that I would not be able to do if I depended on the bottom rock to support the top rock.

All of the rocks that go above the water surface are supported from above or the back wall.

 

 

Here with the front of the wall opened up you can see three strings going up to the ceiling or the rear wall. It is just another way to aquascape.

If I had a light behind the tank you would see very open rockwork that is not apparent in the pictures.

 

[Coral Hind]

What kind of string do you use? I have seen people using heavy fishing line before but not string.

[paul b]

That is some nylon string, it is very strong and I can't break it. You can use fishing line as I sometimes do but it stretches.

[iangibby]

I love that idea especially for tall tanks. Even for redundency incase the rock tips.

[Coral Hind]

That is some nylon string, it is very strong and I can't break it. You can use fishing line as I sometimes do but it stretches.

 

Good point about the fishing line stretching, The nylon does sound like a better choice.

[Origami]

I wonder if you could do the same with string trimmer string? That's some pretty tough stuff you know.

[Aurora]

Nylon string may degrade overtime from UV/light exposure if you have MH but the algea encrusting the string would also protect it. I like the idea of suspended rockwork. I achieved mine by building a tripod using Tonga branches and suspend my rock on this tripod pushed into the sand like what the OP is doing with his Tonga branches and leaned the rest against the suspended rock and the back/side walls. I have eurobracing and had thoughts about buillding a net using thick nylon lines attached the the back and side kinda like a hammock and suspending my rocks over this nylon net. The only trouble is I won't have a central clearing and it'll have to be one continuous group of rocks. My coral love ledges and overhangs and seem to grow best at the adges of my rockwork.