Keeping rocks off of sand in a re-scape

[mje113]

I'm working with a 13.5 EVO so very limited space. My current scape consists of two large flat rocks I have on the sandbed, and additional rocks stacked on top. I'd really like to free up more sandbed but can't figure out the best way to approach this. My current thinking is to take one of the based and break it into 6 pieces, place 3 each in a triangle pattern in the sand, against the glass, buried in the sand. Then stack other rock on top. Makes sense in my head but I can also imagine it being unstable and looking like crap again.

I was also thinking I could get some small dry rock and do something similar, but maybe one bigger, more stable piece per "island". Possibly epoxy them for more stability? I'm really scratching my head on this one... and I've been pouring through the forums and not finding good examples of how to get rock off of the sand bed.

 

[mje113]

Keeping the three rocks in green and thinking of breaking up the red.

 

[jabberwock]

Looks nice to me, if it ain't broke, don't fix it...

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Time to think about a tank upgrade dude ….

 

[Jekyl]

Over time inhabitants and current can remove the sand from under rocks, making the whole structure prone to falling.

 

[kindafun]

This floating scape is pretty cool.

 

[mje113]

This floating scape is pretty cool.

Very cool, but I think I'm a bit late to attempt that.

 

[mje113]

Looks nice to me, if it ain't broke, don't fix it...

Thanks, but there's just no room to place corals... all the rock is very vertical.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

Acrylic Peg Stand, comes to mind. Knew someone that had them. I think they were DIY from Acrylic Sheet, and Acrylic Rod.

 

[RichReef]

I used an acrylic rod. I cut the rod and used thin super glue with sand to attach the rod to the rocks. Mine were about 1 1/2 inches tall. When I broke the tank down I could not get the rods off the rocks. I ended up breaking the rocks and using the flat pieces for frags.

 

[Hooz]

I bought a few pieces of the Marco shelf rock, which is basically just a 1" thick sheet of rock, flat on the top and bottom. I broke them up and used them as "feet", then built my entire aquascape (glue/sand method) on top of them. It gives a nice, flat, stable base for the rockwork, but also leaves plenty of cool tunneling opportunities for my goby/pistol pair without risk of them destabilizing anything.

 

[mje113]

I bought a few pieces of the Marco shelf rock, which is basically just a 1" thick sheet of rock, flat on the top and bottom. I broke them up and used them as "feet", then built my entire aquascape (glue/sand method) on top of them. It gives a nice, flat, stable base for the rockwork, but also leaves plenty of cool tunneling opportunities for my goby/pistol pair without risk of them destabilizing anything.

I'm liking this idea as it's close to my original which was breaking up some existing rock, however without flat surfaces that would be hard to get it stable.

Now, the main question--if I went this direction--is, if I have some existing soft corals (mostly mushrooms and zoas) on some rock, how long can I have them out of water while gluing the new structure up? I'm thinking if I have everything staged well I could pull a rock out of bucket and sandwich onto the pre-glued marco pieces, I could probably have them back in water when the glue sets--5 minutes or so...

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

I'm liking this idea as it's close to my original which was breaking up some existing rock, however without flat surfaces that would be hard to get it stable.

Now, the main question--if I went this direction--is, if I have some existing soft corals (mostly mushrooms and zoas) on some rock, how long can I have them out of water while gluing the new structure up? I'm thinking if I have everything staged well I could pull a rock out of bucket and sandwich onto the pre-glued marco pieces, I could probably have them back in water when the glue sets--5 minutes or so...

The mushrooms should be ok - they might get a little angry and spew some filaments, but they'll get over it lol. I don't have experience with having zoas out of water an extended amount of time though.