Pebble for Africans

[KarEn]

Found some nice large pebble at a local Garden Centre here in Ottawa (Bank Street). Planning on buying it, "cooking on my BBQ" and then using them in the african tank. I wonder how much of the pebble I can have in there without overloading/cracking the glass. I plan on loading approx 2-3 inches of pebble from the bottom.
If that's ok, do I just place them on the glass, or should I put styrofoam(or any other material) first?

Thank you!

[elk]

I find the problem with larger pebbles is its difficult to vacumm with gravel sucker.

[1macuser]

I agree with Elk. Adding styrofoam under the tank is a good idea to help support any extra weight.
I had rocks in my first tank but when I upgraded to my new tank I changed my sub straight to sand,
The fish like better and it's easy to vacuum up. The sub straight that I am using is real cheap (silica sand) from pool filter about $8 for 50lbs a bag. Thanks a lot of rinsing but once done looks great.

[sas]

I used a larger sized pebble as well, but it was in an oscar tank and they would pick them up rearranging and sometimes you could hear them drop them against the glass, so just be careful.

[elk]

go to Merkley supply,they sell all kinds of pebble sizes and sand.

60 pounds for 20.00

[KarEn]

Pebble I was thinking of is anywhere from 2.5 to 4 inches in size. I'm sure they won't easily pick them. 

Thanks for the tip re: Merkley Supplies - I'll check them out.
Re: Silica Sand - I currently have sand in my tank and it's good, but I just wanted to change the substrate as they keep moving sand around to the point where half of the tank is sand and another half is glass bottom.

P.S. Who has variety of silica sand in Ottawa?

[1macuser]

Yes they do move the sand around. I added an egg crate at the bottom of the tank so i never get to see the glass lol.

Not sure who would have a variety of silica sand in town? But I have seen some salt and pepper colored in pics on the net that I would like to get one day.