rock or DSB, which goes first?

[areze]

shallow sand bed, maybe medium, I could definitely see rock, it gives it a nice sturdy base.

but what about 4 or 5" of sand? I dont want to bury my rock...

if it make a difference, I plan to drill and rod the rock work so it cant fall over or anything. but is that enough?

[cloak]

I put my live rock on top of my DSB eight years ago. No problem

[moo0o]

one thing to be aware of when putting rocks on top of the sand is if you have fish that like to dig holes for their home under rock, that rock might fall over causing an rock slide in yo tank

[saltwater4life1]

I seen someone make a box out of PVC to rest the rock on so it wasn't under his DSB.

[areze]

not a bad idea there. Im not TOO worried about rock slides if the rock is drilled and rodded. should keep it together for small shifts.

[AMcLeod]

That pvc box sounds like a good idea.

I used dead rock as a base so that i would have a stable platform to stack live rock on. I have about a 5.5"-6.5" sandbed and i think it looks very natural when my jawfish digs and partially unearths a corner of buried rock.

I would be worried that if your rocks are drilled and rodded and then set ontop of the sandbed, that if there was going to be a shift, everything would move, because they are all atached. Im picturing column-like rodded rock structures though, and if you build them to have a wide enough base you should be fine.
Just use common sense! :thumbsup:

[stagefright13]

When I move my 29 into my 55 i'm putting in a bunch of vertical pvc pipes. I'm gonna drill alot of holes in the sides of the pipe to let worms and stuff crawl thru. This will keep the rock on solid ground. Cause my clownfish dig alot.

I saw someone else on here do that and it looked like a great idea. And all the holes in the pipe keep it from getting stagnant in them.

[areze]

my rock work will be more horizontal. went ahead and added the sand, rocks will go on top. basicly, I got impatient lol. I havent designed my aquascaping yet, and I was otherwise ready to fill the tank. at a drip rate, itll be a while, so I wanted it to get started.

all my rock is baserock, so I have all the time in the world to get it really solid.