Exiled
Fish Herder
Fishboy -- well as far as leveling -- this is easy. place a carpenter's level in the empty tank. Make adjustments as nesessary to the stand. I've never heard of using styrofoam to level a tank. This seems counterproductive to me since as soon as the tank is filled with water and rocks, it would compress the foam, altering whatever level you adjusted for. I would use wood. Make sure the the frame of the tank is supported all the way around on one even plane.
I have never used styrofoam inside the tank mainly because I'm concerned that its buoyancy would be more likely to disrupt the rockwork upon it, and also because I believe styrene leaches chemicals.
I use lighting grid/eggcrate in all my tanks and it works well to provide the "teeth" to keep the lower rocks from slipping or moving. What I do is set the rocks on top of the eggcrate, then fill in the tank with sand. This method prevents any amount of digging from disrupting the rockwork.
I suppose silicone would work to hold rocks together but I wouldn't rely to heavily on. I build the structure one rock at a time, then I try to jar it this way and that until it's really not going anywhere. Dr. Foster's and smith sell a product called a rock stick or something---it's just a non-soluble epoxy designed for rockscaping.
As far as distributing the rock evenly-- I meant that putting a mountain of rock on one side and having a sand field on the other would be questionable. It doesn't come down to ounces or anything... I get a feel for it as I'm putting big rocks in, like man this side has alot of the heavier rocks....better move a few over.... That's all.
I just got a new camera so I'll be posting pics of my setups soon.
Let us know when yours is up too.
Have Fun!
I have never used styrofoam inside the tank mainly because I'm concerned that its buoyancy would be more likely to disrupt the rockwork upon it, and also because I believe styrene leaches chemicals.
I use lighting grid/eggcrate in all my tanks and it works well to provide the "teeth" to keep the lower rocks from slipping or moving. What I do is set the rocks on top of the eggcrate, then fill in the tank with sand. This method prevents any amount of digging from disrupting the rockwork.
I suppose silicone would work to hold rocks together but I wouldn't rely to heavily on. I build the structure one rock at a time, then I try to jar it this way and that until it's really not going anywhere. Dr. Foster's and smith sell a product called a rock stick or something---it's just a non-soluble epoxy designed for rockscaping.
As far as distributing the rock evenly-- I meant that putting a mountain of rock on one side and having a sand field on the other would be questionable. It doesn't come down to ounces or anything... I get a feel for it as I'm putting big rocks in, like man this side has alot of the heavier rocks....better move a few over.... That's all.
I just got a new camera so I'll be posting pics of my setups soon.
Let us know when yours is up too.
Have Fun!
