# Rocks



## Kalt (Sep 25, 2008)

I am planing on getting some rocks to make a cave for my cichlid in my 10 gallon tank. I am nervous about them shifting and falling. Would it be alright to silicone them in the position I want them before putting them in the tank? I am going to be using a sand substrate, not sure if that will make a difference.


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## Guest (Sep 26, 2008)

As long as you put them flat on the bottom of the tank and NOT on top of the substrate, and give them a good wiggle or shake and if they stay put and don't fall it should be fine.

Otherwise yes you could silicone them.


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## Kalt (Sep 25, 2008)

Thank you very much!


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## Neb (Sep 22, 2008)

I've got an all rock setup in my 75G. Like it was mentioned, just make sure it's sitting right on the bottom of the tank and give them a wiggle to make sure they're not going to fall over when a fish swims by and you'll be fine.


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## Matts_Cichlids (Jul 29, 2007)

Marduk said:


> As long as you put them flat on the bottom of the tank and NOT on top of the substrate, and give them a good wiggle or shake and if they stay put and don't fall it should be fine.
> 
> Otherwise yes you could silicone them.


Yes just make sure they are on the glass and not on the sand. I just wanted to stress that point because the fish will try to burrow under the rocks.

I wouldnt use sillicone because that just makes it harder to reposition and rearrage the rock setup.


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## k19smith (Sep 6, 2005)

I have tried to silicone rocks and in my experience it didn't hold very well. I just stack mine like everyone else much easier to move around and clean that way.


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## pmhunter (Oct 10, 2008)

Hi, I use silicone for my rocks all the time. I have created corner stacks, small arches, and vertical stacks. You have to use enough silicone to hold the stones. I use aquarium silicone. Sometimes I mount the rocks on to a piece of slate. The other posters are right, make sure you wiggle the rocks into the substrate. Also, be careful with large rocks. Putting some eggcrate under them will help give them support to protect the bottom glass. If you stack large rocks you can also silicone them together to prevent falling. I have tried the epoxy for live corals but it doesn't work as well. Probably not a good idea to attach the rocks to the bottom glass. Hope it works out for you. opcorn:


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## iceblue (Apr 27, 2004)

The wiggle method works well. Unless your keeping monster brute fish they shouldn't be able to dislodge a heavy stone that you wiggled around with your hand.

Let gravity be your guide when setting them in place and set them to the bottom of your tank or, as suggested earlier, on top of some eggcrate.

Do not use silicone to hold your structures together in lue of a proper, stable stack. It will eventually loose its adhesion to rock because of the stones rough or porous nature. Small pads of silicone may help to keep things from sliding around but cannot be depended on to fight gravity for an extended period of time.


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## pmhunter (Oct 10, 2008)

I agree with iceblue. You should take care that the rocks are properly stacked. They shouldn't move or wiggle at all. Then, you can add silicone to reinforce what you have done. If you are going to stack rocks high along the back, you have to be really careful, try using smaller stones to brace underneath.


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