Question about live rock setup..

[Kittikity]

I should be getting my lights this weekend (about $100 total) and then will start with the water, salt, sand, and live rock the next weekend.. I eventually want to get some gobies which will be making burrows in the sand.. But as I acquire pieces of live rock I am afraid of the rockwork toppling, especially once I get the gobies.. I know that I will have to set the first pieces of rock on the bottom of the aquarium and then add the sand..

But is there anything else I will need to do to make sure of the security of the live rock? Or will the weight of the rock itself make it stable enough?

 

[Anonymous]

You should make sure your rocks are sitting on the tank bottom and not the sand. If properly stacked the weight of the rock should hold itself inplace, unless you are going for a really steep pile or one with lots of large overhangs. To make your pile more stable you can do a couple of things. First would be to epoxy the rocks together. You can also use tie wraps. If you are going for really interesting shape you can drill your rocks and insert acrylic or PVC rod/pipe to hold them together.

I'm not really creative so all I have ever done is just pile them up.

 

[pcardone]

Invest on some larger pieces at first for the bottom. The bigger the better. I like the drilling Idea although I've never done it.

 

[shavo]

I drilled, it looks great and is very stable.
what size tank is this? 100 for lights???

 

[Kittikity]

It's only a 20gal tank.. Buying four of the nova t-5 retrofit lights at my LFS.. They're $25 each, which isn't bad because the only place I've seen them online was for $20 each, but that's without shipping of course.. It's going to have to wait a month or more though since some additional bills have come up that take priority..

I thought about the drilled thing.. But I don't have the confidence to attempt it.. I was thinking more along the lines of gluing the liverock together.. But if they'll be ok just stacked then that'd be the easiest way to go..