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Rocks: Placement (002)


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Should i consider putting some kind of weight dispursement in my tank??? i have 3 large rocks with others stacked on top. I have placed them above the braces under the tank. should this do? or should i try something else also???

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hey fishy bits

if your 3 rocks put pressure points on the glass you risk busting your tank, the weight needs to be disbursed across the bottom of the tank. Im not sure if the under tank supports would lessen or worsen the effect of pressure, it may put pressure on from inside and outside the tank.

A good way to disburse weight is with the use of plastic eggcrate material , commonly used in airconditioning and flouro lighting applications.

hth

Bob

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Styrophome under the rocks??? inside the tank? i didn't think that would be safe? no i haven't. I just put em in on top of the gravel. how can i disburse the weight then? and what can i do to take the pressure points off the galss?

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They are better off directly on the glass than over the gravel. If the fish dig in such a way as to undermine the rock even slightly, the weight of the rock shifting is worse than the point loading of the rock directly on the glass. I wouldn't want styro in the tank, what if the fish eat it? blink.gif The eggcrate stuff would be the go IMHO. I put mine directly onto the glass & then added substrate after the rocks. They are already on the bottom so they can't fall any further. I have a 1" sheet of ply under my tank, then 10mm of styro, so the whole base is evenly supported.

The eggcrate is the 10mm grid stuff that is sometimes used as fluro light diffusers or inlets for in-roof ducted A/C setups. It's hard to explain but it's basically a sheet of plastic approx 10mm thick & whatever dimentions that is mostly square holes.

Think this sort of pattern -->

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Bunnings wouldnt know.... (did someone mention fire).

For eggcrate plastic try an aircon installation co or maybe MM electrical or a demolition yard. If you don't know the material we are talking about have a look at an aircon duct in an office or factory and if the duct is covered with a plastic grate with about 1cm x 1 cm sq holes, thats the stuff. Im still trying to locate a supplier in perth, because, like bunnings, most stores seem to say "huh", it seems we aquarists are the only ones to call it eggcrate.

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Ok i might try the styrophome trick then. Never really thought about putting it in the tank as i thought for sure that the fish would find a way to shift the gravel and may take a bite out of it. won't release any toxins into the water????

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Yea...that's exactly what those guys in Bunnings reacted ----> "HUH?" they sounded very puzzle, I know what eggcrate is but just that they had no idea on what I was saying... dry.gif I reckon eggcrate looks better than styrofoam, here's a pic of what egg crate would looks like in an aquarium. Egg crate

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