Assembly Of Reef

[wsboyette]

When assembling live rock into a reef, does one normally use glue/fasteners or just pile up the rock ? Also, how are the live corals first attached to the live rock ?

[cloak]

I've always just piled the rocks up. Kinda like a puzzle. The epoxy will work wonders when it comes down to placing corals.

[Roy G. Biv]

I just stack it. If you want to spend extra time on it, buy a long concrete drill bit and arrange the liverock on cardboard. Once you find your arrangement drill down through the rocks and use a piece of 1/2" pvc through the holes

[firebirdude]

I was just researching this myself. It seems a lot of people line the floor with egg crate to help with rocks slipping out of place and possibly destroying fish, corals, other rocks. Some people stack the rocks and others glue them together. Still others drill through them and then use a thin rod of acrylic from Home Depot to "skewer" them. Secure the rod to the floor of the tank (or egg crate) and the rocks will never be able to move. Done properly, you won't even be able to see the acrylic rod.

[crvz]

I threaded my rocks with fiberglass rods, but most people do end up just stacking their rocks. I prefer the security that threading offered me, though, as I have just a few pillars of rock in my tank that don't otherwise get support from the remaining rocks.