# How much rock work....



## RaizedWICKED (Feb 10, 2010)

Curious as to how much rock work is needed for a tank housing africans

I searched the net and and a good number pics I have seen, have tremendous amounts of rock work, almost filling the tank.

2 things I am wondering about actuallly.

1 - amount of rock required (tufa rock/ texas holey rock)
2 - and would I need to put someting like egg crate on the the bottom glass to support the rock..

here is an example of what i may do.. 90g sand substrate, housing 6x yellow labs and 15 x demasoni, now this was a recommendation from the guy at big als. So do not flame me on the stocking. 

Thanks in advance.

RW


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

do you have the 90? if not i'd say go 75, same footprint, you can stock the same fish, but not as tall so it's actually easier to deal with when it comes to mbuna, and cheaper to buy

this was my 55 mbuna, i had to move some rock around, but i have found that it's still not quite enough rock, i know it's not the same size tank but just think of it as a comparative ratio of rocked area to free area


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## RaizedWICKED (Feb 10, 2010)

cjacob316 your tank looks awesome, and thanks for the input..

I have a 90G and that is a lot of rock and you are adding more? By the looks of the rock you use, I am assuming that any type of rock would work. Meaning I necessarily do not need texas holey rock or anything like that. The ph in my tanks is usually 8.0 to 8.5 extremely hard water.

So I could avoid having to use any type of crushed coral as a buffer. Becasue I want a black substrate (taitian moon sand)

As for rocks I would prefer to get them from a landscape place rather than LFS as they charge a fortune., and I am on a budget. 

What about the bottom of the tank, with that much rock work it must be putting a tremendous amount of stress on the bottom glass. Do you have anyting to help with that under your substrate?

RW


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

no you don't need thr, personally i am not a fan of it in my tanks, others make it look good though
a big part of it is price to me, thr is expensive, i get my rocks at a local landscape yard and it costs me about 16 cents a pound so that 200 lbs of rock in there cost me about $30

this tank does have egg crate, but only because i bought the tank used and it already had in in there, my other tanks don't have egg crate and they do fine, not as much rock, but i trust the tank


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

> What about the bottom of the tank, with that much rock work it must be putting a tremendous amount of stress on the bottom glass. Do you have anyting to help with that under your substrate?


Tank bottoms are generally made of tempered glass that can handle any amount of rock that you can put it in. It's been field tested countless times.

Your question about rock required for africans is very general. Consider the species. Some require none at all. Some prefer open sand, some prefer shells, etc. The ones that do inhabit rocks will prefer enough to provide caves/crevices is sufficient quantity for the number of fish you keep. Most don't stack all the way up, but I tend to stack pretty high as I prefer how it looks.

Here's a tank that houses sand dwellers, rock dwellers, and shell dwellers. I added shells to each end after the pic was taken.










HTH


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## ASTYLIN (Feb 24, 2010)

We used Holey Rock and Lace Rock in ours......fist it was just holey rock........Not enough hiding places and looked dull........So we added some lace and the Mbunas love it!!!! We also put egg crate at bottom so that the holey rock would be stable...........


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## ilcichlids (Aug 20, 2009)

just askin i dont use eggcrate at the bottom and my rocks are fine and stable
however wuld my tank glass brake at the bottom if i dont use eggcrate where the sand might scratch it
but my rocks are on top of sand im jus worried about sand cuttin through the glass and leaking
:?


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## Dego510 (Mar 9, 2009)

I have a mixture of THR and some big round rocks. As you can see in my picture, it's almost filled to the top. It allows many territories and "forces" my mbuna (demasoni and yellow labs) to swim throughout the tank. It also keeps aggression down.

If you get Demasoni, you'll want a lot of rocks . . . trust me.










Also, I don't use egg crate and haven't had any issues.


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

Point loading can be a problem if you are using gravel, not likely with sand. I know a guy who lost 2 tanks to point loading while using gravel. He now puts styro under his rocks.


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## scrubjay (Oct 25, 2009)

Dego510 said:


>


I usually don't even like holey rock, but this tank is beautiful! It really looks like a coral reef type tank. I'm trying to figure out why I like the holey rock in this one and not others, and I think it is because you matched the sand to the rock, which makes it look natural (sand originating from white rocks would not be black), and also because you stacked the rocks up to the top. And the other rocks match too and create some great caves. Sweet. 
=D>

oh, and the water is pretty darn clear too


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## AaronAllan (Jan 8, 2010)

I second that I love the look of this tank it really makes your fish pop out =D>


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