newbie: how to build rock structures in tank

[new2ovas]

Hey all,
love the site thus far from all the advice that I am getting on questions, even dumb ones like this one.

I just got a 90 gal and am setting it up for cichlids. I have been told that that means that I shoul have a lot of rock work for hiding places for them and so on.  That is all good in theory, but in reality it is difficult to build up a significant pile of rocks with hiding places and so on that won't fall down & is not leaning against the glass.

any suggestions would be helpful, and am I alright leaning rocks again the side glass of the aquarium or is there a way around this,

thanks again and very much appreciated,

cheers,

Alex

[matt]

Certain types of rocks stack better than others. Tufa, lava and lace rock all have irregular shapes and are relatively light so they stack very well. Round heavy boulders tend to not stack as high unless you can manage to have a very wide base like a pyramid.

I personally love lace rock, I had my 75 gallon filled almost to the brim with it and none of it touched the glass.
Here's an earlier picture of this tank so you can get an idea of the rock. This is when I had just started out so it still had only alittle bit of rock in it.

[dan2x38]

Before you start stacking rock get some egg crate from Home Depot. It is very cheap. Not to insult you but if you don't know it is that white plastic stuff with small square holes. This prevents rocks sitting directly on the glass bottom. A small pepple or lg. piece of gravel or sand under that rock creates a lot of press on a very small area can result in a crack.

You can use pieces of flat rock like slate. If collecting rocks be careful where you collect them and clean them throughly no soap or cleaners - boil each piece if you can. This is basically my entire African set-up knowledge.

By the way welcome aboard nice to meet you. We hold regular meetings where lots of of us gather and talk about fish and aquatic stuff of all kinds. Oh and this time of year even some hockey talk...  Next meeting is Oct. 27th 7pm-9pm Jack Parcell Community Centre. I hear rumors some folks are showing up in costumes should be very interesting... LOL

[gmann]

as mentioned above, get some egg crate and if u decide to place them touching the glass, just ensure that they cant fall or move too much. here is one of my african setups and the rocks are not touching the glass. The fish have room on both sides. As for the rocks, clean them really well, pour boiling water(in a bucket is good) on them and you should be good. you can bake them but i just recently read not to do that you can also search for aquarium aquascaping on the net and theres lots of info there. For africans, limestone, granite is good. Try to get rocks that have smooth edges. Ridged edges should be hammered or dremmelled smooth to prevent injury or dremmeling them can make it easier to stack. good luck. Aquascaping is one of the joys of the hobby so have fun with it.

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[Adam]

There isn't really a secret to doing it.  You can put eggcrate.  I've used it and not used it and found no real difference.  Leaning rocks against the glass only means that you won't be able to clean the glass there.  It bothers me when that happens, so I don't do it.

As for stacking the rocks, I find you need to make a solid base as wide as you would like your rockscape.  Make sure the bottom stones are touching the bottom glass/eggcrate as africans will dig under it and it will collapse otherwise.  Then just make sure that rocks are reasonably secure and not teetering around and build up.  A wide base will allow a taller structure.  You can lean it against any glass to make it more stable, but again you won't be able to clean around it.

[RoxyDog]

I haven't used eggcrate AND I lean my rocks against the glass.   No problems yet. 
I used lava rock and I just adjusted each piece as I put it in until it seemed to be stable and voila!

[barefoot_golfer]

I've constructed staggered height fish caves along the back and side perimeter of my tank.
This method allowed me to hide alot of my air lines, return piping, multi shelves for plants while not eating up my tank real estate for planting.   

The rock structure was construction of plastic rain gutters, tie wrapped together with a slate stone finish.
A picture of the fish cave can be found in my gallery under 220G.

I'll try to take more recent pics to show how it looks after 7 months of occupancy.
Fish do love the setup.