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Re: looking for ideas

On Saturday 16 February 2002 13:48, Arthur wrote:

> In my 75gal, I have a nice rock.  It is large and
> flat, about 4-5 inches tall.  Contains several visible
> caves (it's not limestone).
[snip]
> Anyone have any ideas for what to do with a rock
> "plateau" in your tank?

Arthur,

It's hard to give useable suggestions without seeing the stone first-hand.  
But I'll not let that stop me.

The best thing I've found to do with large flat stones is to place them in 
the "golden section" and sloping, rather than flat.  I would try sloping it 
more-or-less toward either the left front or right front of the aquarium   
You may need to bury the low end of the stone and place some sort of hidden 
support under the raised end.

To be honest, I've yet to come up with a single-stone arrangement that l can 
look at very long before it gets boring.  At the very least, you should work 
this stone into the context of your tank rather than trying to make it a 
solitary centerpiece or some other sort of stand-alone display. Even better, 
find more similar stones, or stones that compliment this stone in color or 
texture.  An arrangement of two or three stones offers more visual variety 
then you will ever get from one.

I've not had much luck getting any kind of fern to attach and grow well on 
stone.  They always work better on wood.  You might try one of several kinds 
of moss or (get this) algae.  Either can adhere well to stone and flourish.  
Of course, you can always leave the stone bare.

With moss (I did this with Java moss) you should keep the stand from getting 
very thick.  Instead of cutting it back the moss should be trimmed by 
stripping excess growth off the rock, leaving a thin layer of tendrils 
crossing the surface of the rock.  This can be a nice effect if you can get 
the runners to start near the base of the rock and forming a thin, spreading 
network across the rock.  Unfortunately I took down my example of this (which 
was on slate) some time ago, and have no old pictures.

I've had both black brush algae and a slow-growing green algae (perhaps a 
cladophora) growing on rock or wood with good effect.  I don't know how you 
would get a colony started.  I lucked into both of mine, both of which have 
since been either discarded or eaten.


Roger Miller