African tank rock set up

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CharlieTuna

CharlieTuna

Gambusia
MFK Member
Sep 18, 2010
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Colorado
Well I'm finally ready to buy rocks for the 210g project tank that I have been working on for the past year.

I'm going to visit a couple of landscape supply yards this weekend and see what I can find in the way of some nice rocks.

Any suggestion for placing them in the tank? Do you guys typically epoxy or silicone the rocks together or just stack them in the tank? I'm thinking the base layer of rock should go directly on the tank bottom, not on the sand? The tank is acrylic if it make any difference.
 
stop at home depot first and get the light grating stuff. cut it to fit and lay in under the sand. if a rock falls it will crack the bottom of your tank (africans are notorious for digging so this is definitly a possibility). the lighting grid stuff will spread out the impact and save you alot of heartache.

i dont know the proper name for it but its the square grid stuff that they use in lights in offices and schools.

then stack the rocks. If you silicone them youll never be able to get them in or out without making a mess of everything. better to stack one at a time.
 
egg crate/light diffuser first as said above is an good way to go. Altough I don't do it myself . I basically just make sure my rockwork is locked in as best as possible.

Posted on mobile.monsterfishkeepers.com
 
I have had a tank of mbuna for a couple years now and I am glad I never glued the rocks together. After a while I like to change it up for aesthetic reasons or even to diffuse some intense territory issues. I would recommend trying out some different arrangements and not gluing the rocks. Just be mindful that if they are not glued, the rocks will shift some and I try to keep them from being in a position prone to smash the tank.

I found some nice sand stone at a local landscape/stone yard that looks pretty cool. I think it looks natural on top of the sand as oppose to slate or other common rocks at those yards. Also some brown river stone looks nice. Also varying sized rocks gives you more freedom when building the rock setup. Good luck!
 
Don't get anything too rough as they like to scratch on the rocks occasionally and heavily textured rock will sometimes injure scales/eyes.
 
I highly recommend using epoxy putty and AC glue to at least bond some it not most of your rocks. With africans the rocks will fall over! Also, the eggcrate is a must for the bottom IMO.

Here is a pic of a rock structure I made a couple of months ago:

ft fts no bubs.JPG
 
I agree, light diffuser, and I would try to get some large , stable rocks for your base layer. you don't want the tank sides or back holding up your rock piles, the acrylic will scratch very easily
 
Thanks for all of the feedback, much appreciated! I will post some pics once I start adding rocks.
 
I picked up about 500 lbs of gray to dark gray river rock from my local landscape yard, only spent about $15. I think the guy at the landscape yard thought I was nuts for digging through the rock pile, oh well! I need to wash them and see what I can do with arranging them in the tank. I tried to pick a variety of shape sand sizes, I hope this works out.
 
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