Leaning LR on back glass?

I've noticed that a lot of tank pictures showing the rocks are leaning on the back glass, especially the bigger tanks and they all look very nice as well. So, the question is to lean or not to lean.

 

don't do it. As sand slowly disolves and critters shift sand around the weight may change and put too much pressure on the glass. More than one tank has busted becuase of a LR avalanche.

 

At first I didn't lean. However, since I've picked up more LR I've had no choice BUT to lean. I think it's safe. Just place them carefully. Plus, if you lean up against the back you don't have to worry about getting flow around back. I just aimed 1 of my powerheads directly at the rocks.

 

as of right now i dont have any touching the back glass, but theres no way i can get as much live rock as i'm "supposed to have" unless some of it is against the back glass.. so i plan to set mine up so that its against the back... i'm just not there yet...

 

you can have some on the glass but try to keep as much of the back open is you can so crap does not get trapped back there

 

I also have my rock on the bottom glass. That way it is a nice sturdy support. If the sand gets moved, it wont move the rocks.

Brian

 

I have my rocks up against the back glass too.

 

I go against the grain. I do not have any rocks touching any glass.

The main reason I have chosen this is to give my fish more room to swim around the rocks. I prefer an island of rocks. I takes a bit move moving them around to get them stable, but my fish are much happier.

Happy fish make for happy fish keepers!

 

Interesting. I've heard so many times on this and other websites that sand will slowly dissolve over time although not as fast as it would if the Ph were low.

 

i think many people think it dissolves but in reality it is being taken out little by little every water change. sand will not dissolve unless the ph is very low. in a very deep sand bed as far as i know the ph has a chance to get that low but that i dont know for shure.

 

Interesting view. I do notice that my fish some times like to chase around and going through the rocks and go to the back and then circle back and again and again a few times.

I'm going to try to do it half and half. Probably stack up the LR on the left where my water return column is, while leaving the middle and the right hand side of the LR staying in the middle and leave room behind the rock.

 

Just found this. Ccapt, according to this you are wrong.

Marine Reef Aquarium Handbook - Google Books

 

I also lean my rocks against the glass...but only halfway and above. The lower part of the tank in the back is clear, so that the fish can swim back there, and also crap doesn't get trapped back there on the sand.

 

go to 3reef's website and search on 'faint of heart'. Open the first link & look at the pics, then tell me if you want to stack the rock against the glass or in any way that doesn't stable the rock on the bottom of the tank.

 

My rock is also touching the back glass, in my tanks that are against the wall. My built ins back glass and sides have rock leaning on them. My tanks that I have sand sifting gobies and such I also make sure the rock is stable touching the bottom glass.

I always make caves and things the fish are alot more secure that way and will actually swim more if they can go in and out of caves and it provides more sleeping area's so less aggresion.

 

i was wondering, if you put down a layer of the eggcrate material, then put down your rocks, and then filled in with sand, and also stand up a sheet of the eggcrate up on the back wall, and then lean(and even tie to if you wanted to) the rocks to it...would that help stop some of the worries about the rocks hitting, breaking and or scratching a tank?

 

Thats a very interesting thought.... I would imagine that it would deffinatly help with keeping things stable and the fact that you could tie your rock to it, to keep it from tumbling.

You could also glue your rocks together, my husband and I have drilled holes in our rocks and doweld them before (put them together like legos) this seemed to give them tons of support, you can make towers etc. this way. We have also used zipties to hold them in place.

 

HOORAAA for the ziptie! hehehe my wife swears that we should buy stock in a ziptie company, cause of how many i use...

dowling them would also be a pretty neat idea, my only reservation is what if i'm not happy in 2 months, or 2 years, or whatever, once thier dowled together, your gonna be somewhat limited in how you can re-arrange them...

Something else that i was wondering, what if you glued some loops, or some kind of an attacment device to the rock, so that you could then use something like a ziptie to tie it to the eggcrate stuff on the back wall,

I guess i keep hearing thick superglue for frags and stuff, will it stick good to LR? and is there any of the "super glues" to stay away from for use in the tank? or will standard old cyanoacralate be ok?

before i hit post, i googled it, and found this on wiki:

Cyanoacrylate glue's ability to resist water has made it popular with marine aquarium hobbyists for fragging corals. The cut branches of hard corals such as Acropora can be glued to a piece of live rock or Milliput substrate to allow the new frag to grow out.[citation needed]