Originally Posted by
Kube
http:///forum/post/2668082
Hello
quick easy question for everyone i have been looking at all these peoples beautiful aquascaping of there tanks and think they look really nice, but i notice that it seems everyone has there live rock stacked against the back of the glass, but i thought that was not good because it would create a dead spot with little to no water flow is this true or is it something that i shouldn't worry about? have my new lighting coming and going to start adding some coral and want it to look great, so whats every on think?
Kube
You can stack your live rock however you'd like. You can also still have good flow behind the rocks by properly placing a powerhead. Most people stack it toward the back because it allows for ample swimming space and viewing in the front yet provides hiding spots for fish and places to attach corals. This also allows a decent area of the sandbed to show so you can place things in the sand in the future. You also want some parts of the rock to be near the surface so you can place corals requiring 'high light' more toward the top, thus offering a stronger light source. The choice is really a preference thing but with a functional structure and tank suitability in mind.
One way to do it, this is just the way I did mine, is to start the rockwork pile across center of the tank (or slightly back of center). Use the larger rocks as the base platform to build upward on. Make sure you twist them and wiggle them down in the sand, you want them very close to the bottom glass with just minimal sand in between. Reason for this is if the sand shifts or livestock, inverts or anemones displace or dig the sand underneath your rockpile wont come crashing down. If that happened it could obviously kill livestock, crush corals and worst of all scratch or even crack your glass.
With that said, you can start the rockwork slightly off-center horizontally across the tank. Build it 'up' and 'backward' slowly until your final top rocks are about 5-7 inches below the surface. This part is up to, whatever your particular setup/tank accomodates. You just want to have some high spots to place certain corals. Keep in mind that when doing water changes the water level will come down, so make sure that you can do a 20%-30% water change without having to adjust your rockwork much. Since these are 'routine' you'll want it to go as smooth and quickly as possible. Now your rockwork will be out toward the front in the lower section and angles to the back the higher it goes. This will give you maximum placement area for corals etc. and provides an adequate sized space behind the rocks for fish to swim and hide behind. On one side of the tank place a powerhead pointing behind the rocks where there is a reasonable sized opening for a current to flow through. When you feed flake watch where it travels in the tank to get an idea of flow throughout. If any of mine goes behind the rocks you'll then see it pass back out on the other side or in between rocks. This is the most efficient way IMO to stack the rocks. In larger or long tanks the setup my vary. Good luck
