[shermdawg]

Hey everyone brand new here and setting up my first tank. This is the first post for Shemdawgs RB career. On some freshwater forums so not new to fishkeeping just plan on setting up my first reef here very soon.

So I read that triple getting started thread/post and he mentioned something about attaching rock to pipe to make them more upright and spread out was, I think, the general idea. This of course is what we want and I for sure am aiming for but he never mentioned how. Can I get some ideas and different ways some you RB'ers have done it in the past?

Thanks all and looking forward to some more RB'ing with ya.

[NATIVEVAMAN]

Yuo would use a masonary bit to drill holes in the rock and run pvc thru the wholes to stack it.Use a large piece of rock or build a pvc frame to keep the "stack" from falling over.While some of the tanks look cool after doing this it has always seemed sort of unatural to me.It is not a requirement that you do it.

[boba40]

i have to agree with nativeaman on the unnatural look.i just set my tank up a month ago and had purchased pvc and epoxy to frame out my rock.there is a great how to article in the Marine and Fish 2008 annual magazine on this topic.after getting started,i found that the structures were going to be uunnatural looking so i stopped.i wound up just piecing my rock together kind of interlocking it like a puzzle.if you look further in this forum you can see pictures of my rock in the "pics of my 90 gal tank" thread.

[shermdawg]

Awesome thanks for the quick response and I think I will take your advice and leave the pipe out to keep it more natural and just find an interesting way to stack the rocks. I now have a question about which Live Rock everyone thinks is the best and maybe a lil bit of a scale of best to worst so I can have a bit of know. But I think I will start a new post for this.

[IceMan]

every rock will be different, that's the beauty of it, i ordered fiji prem. and kadavu. i like my rock but i didn't get to pick and choose like i would have liked to. as to arranging it, go to your LFS and get some AquaStik epoxy, if you have poor linking to position a rock you can join them more securely and prevent tumbling

[Ross87]

As far as setting up your rocks..

A few things you will want are different levels for your corals to sit on ( because some corals and inverts like more or less light than others).

You'll also want to try to crate some hiding places or caves for some of the fish you may buy.

I recently purchased the last few pounds of live rock for my fish tank that I needed and re-arranged them as I have said. my flame angel LOVES to swim in and out of all of the hiding places and caves I've made for him.