Rock Stacking

[Guest clownfish4]

Very curious on this one.  I have heard so many different things that I have turned for your imput.*

[Sph2sail]

Just make sure that the rock is well supported and not going to slide around or fall into the glass.  This is true no matter if you build pinnacles or lean against the glass.

 

Water flow tunnels are a good idea.  Otherwise you will get a dead area w/no water flow around the live rock.

 

s

[Grav]

Agree, critical thing is not dropping a 20 # rock into the glass... little crack = big trouble.

 

Either can work. Depends on tank size, amt of rock and what looks good to you.

[Guest clownfish4]

Water flow tunnels?

[Lee Stearns]

My main reason for not stacking against the back glass is that I wanted to ensure I had a large amount of water flow back there. That is the one place you will not get to check out regularly once the tank has been running and do not want it collecting detrius. I put a couple of 1200 maxi jets back there behind the rocks, and wanted them to have unobstructed flow to push anything out from behind there.

[michaelg]

Personally, I put that I do stack against the glass.  However, if I had a tank with enough front to back room, I would not do it for the reasons Lee mentions.  My next dream tank will be a 60"x30"x24" high linked to the 58.  The big boy will be for sps, and the 58 for anenomes and lps.  Going to be a while though.  Would love to run a surge tank on it as well.

[Sph2sail]

Water flow tunnels?

I tried to stack my rocks with caves/tunnels to allow water flow.

 

As others have said, avoid dead spaces if you can.

 

s

[Guest drgnchk]

I have done this very successfully in all sizes from my 5gallon to my 110gallon with no problems just don't hit the glass can cause BIG problem, Like cracks and flooding your whole house.  ::

[Caribbean Jake]

It all depends on the tank size and setup in my opinion.  If the tank is small you have no choice but to stack against glass to maximize swiming space.  If tank is large enough I suggest you create caves and mountains inside the area without stacking against glass.  Also, when is time to clean red coraline off from glass, it will be easier if rocks are not stacked against glass.

 

One more thing... there is no glass in the ocean reef, so why create something artificial?  and will rock or living micro-organism be affected by glass temperature changes if it sits against glass?  after all it is live rock, right?

 

just my humble opinion.

Jacob