live rock- sand ?

[Reefplumber13]

ok i have a deep sand bed about 4". i have been told that if i sit the rock on the sand it could fall later on. i want to know if i need to get some base rock as some have said for me to. or will it be ok to put the rock down in the sand. i have been told by doing this it will kill the rock and could crash the tank? so plz help

 

[Reefplumber13]

hey help me plz if i put this in the wrong sec let me know

 

[sagent3000]

IMHO get some base rock and drill holes in all your rocks so you can put PVC pipes through them that way they will be firm and not all over. the only problem is you won't be able to shift your rock work every week like some people do

 

[Reefplumber13]

yeah i dont think i will be redoing it all the time but might add more later so dont think i will do that but thanks for the idea

 

[raisingtwo2006]

I've always just wiggled the LR around so that it stood in the sand by itself, then added up.. I've never had a tank crash from it, or showed any bad effects. I have also never had any rock fall or shift very far.


But I wouldn't recommend doing it that way unless you were going to make sure after every rock added that it was still stable. My rockwork took a while, but it ain't going nowhere soon.

 

[Reefplumber13]

well i was told that if you put it down in the sand it would kill of all the good stuff that you put in the sand and might crash the tank i think illl try to find some base rock cheap and do it that way but any one else have any input

 

[raisingtwo2006]

I suppose if you buried it completely in the sand it would kill it- but I dont' see where putting one small piece of a rock down in the sand would do that. With all of the holes, tunnels, and crevises in the rocks, I'm betting a lot of the life would be able to get out, swim out, or dig out. You could argue that having rocks touching or overlapping could cause the same problem, but it's not enough to notice.

 

[raisingtwo2006]

But, yes- putting Base rock in the bottom would be safer if you are worried about it.

 

[Reefplumber13]

yeah do you know where i can get it cheap i hope its not the same price as live rock

 

[raisingtwo2006]

Sorry, I'm no help there. I haven't been in that market for quite a while. Don't know who has what anymore as far as rock.

 

[Reefplumber13]

thanks for the help maybe ill ask sal

 

[fish scales2]

I think the concern is the disruption of the sand bed, I would be more concerned with that than the live rock die off. When I am working on a setup that has this issue I just push the live rock in a little at a time over a period of time. It could even take a month with a 4" sand bed. With base rock you are still going to destruct the sand bed and create serious issue.

 

[Reefplumber13]

well ill just get some base rock

 

[crew]

ya when you have a deep sand bed like you do you will have ammonia and other toxins build up in the lower half of sand bed (which is fine because you will have things eating it) however, if you were to push a rock down into the sand to make it stable, you will release all of the ammonia at once... making the tank crash

If I were you I would rest the rock on top of the sand or slowly move the sand away from where you want the rock to sit so that you wont have a huge burst in ammonia

 

[reefage518]

mine are kind of touching the bottom, but barely. i have a small eel, and nothing has caved in yet. every rock has a passage going under it. but i also have a smaller tank so less rock to fall.

 

[soarin']

You definitely do want to watch out for covering up live rock with sand -- I made that mistake when I had some live rock rubble in a skimming chamber and added sand to it to create a deep sand bed in that area.

I dumped the sand over the rock, and everything was fine until I decided to take the rock out. It was only a few weeks or a month later, but when I did I noticed a really bad smell, turned off the pumps, and checked for ammonia -- sure enough, some was there.


I had covered up some animals, which died and rotted in the sand bed, and then let it all out by stirring it up.

You can always just use some pvc pieces as a base to lift the live rock above the sand. Some people like to do this to allow water to flow underneath so detritus does not accumulate against the rock.

 

[Reefplumber13]

thanks guys