so how much rocks, substrate.....

[madehtsobi]

so how much rocks, substrate can the bottom of a tank hold??

considering things are lighter in water but how much can it hold w/o breaking and what not...

ive seen some of yall's tank and you guys got ALOT of boulder rocks and what not and i was just wondering how much can the bottom of it hold?

do you have any support on the bottom of the tank?

thanks

[Darbex]

I am not sure the pounds it can hold it all depends on thickness of the glass and whether its tempered or not. But in regards to boulders and a lot of rocks. I used egg crate/light diffusers on the bottom to diffuse the weight of the rocks so that they are not all pushing at one point.

[Fire_chair]

If the glass is on good shape, and you have a fairly even weight distribution, a tank can normally hold more weight than you could possibly put in it. There's a video on YouTube of a 10G holding about 1000 lbs, if I remember correctly.

[madehtsobi]

its a standard 180 so im thinking 1/2"? not sure though...

1000lbs?? i wanna see this...

[FrontosaurusRex]

In my 125g, I have 150lbs of pool filtered sand, and at LEAST another 200lbs in rocks. Like Darbex said, I used the eggcrate under the sand to distribute the weight evenly. You can pick up a good sized sheet at Lowes fairly cheap. You should be just fine with whatever you decide to put in your tank.

[cichlid1409]

whats the best way to cut the egg crate to size?

[madehtsobi]

cool thanks!!

[madehtsobi]

whats the best way to cut the egg crate to size?

i use something like this

751b8f4a-b81f-42ae-af1d-f07fe92c509a_300.jpg

[Darbex]

Or just use scissors

[madehtsobi]

ok so this eggcrate thing...

i need to put that on top of the bottom glass then add the substrate and then the rocks?

[cichlid1409]

correct

[Complexity]

ok so this eggcrate thing...

i need to put that on top of the bottom glass then add the substrate and then the rocks?

One exception. If you have fish that will dig in the substrate, it's better to put the rocks in before the substrate.

I do it this way:

1. put the eggcrate on the bottom of the bare tank
2. put in enough substrate to fill the holes in the eggcrate, but to not go above the eggcrate.
3. stack the rocks, making sure they are stable
4. now add the remainder of the substrate
5. use the force of the incoming water help move the substrate around the rocks.

The situation you don't want is to have rocks on top of the substrate, and then have a fish dig out the substrate under the rocks, causing a rock to roll into the side of the tank or a stack of rocks to fall. So the rocks need to be stable without the substrate holding them up.

[madehtsobi]

Awesome! Thanks Vicki!

My bass don't dig but I probably still will do your steps just to be sure cause they are pretty strong and pretty crazy when it's feeding time!!