# Hardscape Suggestions



## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

Getting closer to setting up my 125. I've got a plie of rocks, but not sure how to set them up to look natural. I plan on using this thread to try out some formations and post them for opinions.
This is as far as I made it yesterday:

Rock Pile - right side is medium sized rocks, middle is the largest rocks, left side in the shadows is a small pile of smaller rocks.









Tank footprint - outside edge of the blue tape is roughly the inside edge of the glass and corner overflows. I want to keep all my rocks INSIDE the blue tape so I have room to go the entire way around with the vac.









So, any tips for getting started with creating something the fish can utilize yet still looks natural? By the way, this is a mbuna tank.

What would you think about maybe some strategically placed fake plants hot glued onto the rocks? My 55g tank currently is rock only, but I like the looks of some of the tanks with lots of rock and a couple plants spread around.

Hopefully later tonight, I'll post a pic of what my 55 is currently for reference, and hopefully get in a first attempt at a layout that I'll post here for opinions.

Thanks for looking.


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## Imaconvict (Feb 1, 2010)

Rhinox, I'm pretty much doing the same modeling only on top of the egg crate I'm going to use. Myself, I've pulled every picture of the Lake Malawi floor that I could find off the internet and I'm using those pictures to structure the rocks. I like the idea of taking some of the flat rocks and standing them on edge sandwiched between other rocks to keep a more natural look, I,m not really into stacking rock too high because I feel it begins to look un-natural at some point. Since we're both going thru the same concept I would appreciate seeing what you come up with so I might steal some of your ideas :drooling:


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## JimA (Nov 7, 2009)

I know one thing as well as you guys probably do, know matter what configuration of rocks I come up with it will never come out the same twice. :lol: Never fails, I had to remove some fish for another tank, had to take all the rocks out just to catch the buggers, took pictures and tried to remember what went where :roll: It came out good but never quite the same every time.

The pic in my tank is not even close to what it is now, which is ok, that was many changes ago. :lol:


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## Imaconvict (Feb 1, 2010)

Thats a very good point JimA, I have already experienced that while doing these mock layouts. I have had it where I like it and took pics and moved the rocks around then could not get them back to what the pic shows. With that said my main objective is to find natural looking sizes that work well together while creating caves and grooves for the fish to swim in. As far as the layout go's nothing will ever be final, I want to place them in the tank as if I threw them in and let them float into place I'm trying to avoid making them look as if I placed them in position. I don't know if I will ever accomplish this but if anything it keeps me out of the wife's hair.


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## whitedevil13 (Apr 28, 2010)

Imaconvict said:


> Thats a very good point JimA, I have already experienced that while doing these mock layouts. I have had it where I like it and took pics and moved the rocks around then could not get them back to what the pic shows. With that said my main objective is to find natural looking sizes that work well together while creating caves and grooves for the fish to swim in. As far as the layout go's nothing will ever be final, I want to place them in the tank as if I threw them in and let them float into place I'm trying to avoid making them look as if I placed them in position. I don't know if I will ever accomplish this but if anything it keeps me out of the wife's hair.


lucky you, mine comes looking for me.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I've gotten pretty good at getting the rocks back in the same position. It becomes like a puzzle you've done a million times. Helps if the rocks are mostly large and distinctive colors/shapes. And I remove them onto a towel in the original groupings.


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## kriskm (Dec 1, 2009)

First off, I like your rocks, they should work well for making rock piles. I like to see natural-looking piles, with the biggest rocks at the bottom, and the piles built higher at the back of the tank. Worry more about stability than creating caves (the caves should still be there). Some asymmetry from left to right is good. Here are a couple of nice examples of rock work:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/tanks/inde ... er&u=55177


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## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

So here are my 2 tanks - cell phone pics. This is sort of my current benchmark for aquascaping that I'm trying to improve on.

33XL:









55g:









For both tanks, I basically just started with a pile of rocks and just started throwing them in. It worked, and looks nice, but I wanna be a bit more organized about it this time. My rocks never go back in the exact same way either, but I get the rough placement about the same. Thats what I'm hoping to accomplish by practicing out in the garage before just throwing rocks in the tank all willy nilly. I'll have the basic idea of what rocks I want to use from my pile and where to place them. A little better than clean them all, and drag them all in the house, and then spend an hour putting rocks in and out of the tank, and then have a bunch of leftover rocks in the house (my wife hates the rubbemaid container I have full of rocks like the ones in my 33 :lol: ) Also, if I wanna try to bust any rocks apart into smaller pieces, not is the time to do it, not when I'm trying to set up the tank.

kriskm, I've seen those tanks before, but thanks for bringing them back to my attention. I think the second pic is roughly what I want to try to mimic with my new rocks, only I don't want any rocks leaning on or close to the glass. I've tried that already in my 55 and the parts of the glass and substrate I couldn't get to to clean because of the rocks drove me nutty. I know it limits my options a little, but this is a point where practicality is better for me.

Thanks for all the input so far, and hopefully I'll get the first trial layout up this weekend for critiques.


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## Imaconvict (Feb 1, 2010)

Rhinox, here is what I have come up with for my first try. I hope it can help you with some ideas.


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## apex82 (Jul 16, 2010)

updated pics on setups please!


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## Rhinox (Sep 10, 2009)

I've been dragging my feet setting up my 125, so unfortunately can't update the setup yet. I've got the pile of rocks out in my garage, and some of them stacked in my outline as a first attempt. I should take a pic of that and post on here to see what you think.


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## apex82 (Jul 16, 2010)

still waiting...


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