Rocks touching back glass or not?

Jakewatt · Mar 22, 2017

Hi all,
Quick question: I'm about to start a layout and my initial thought was to make sure the rocks never touched the glass, and the back too, for maintenance reasons. Concerning the back glass panel, I also prefer black clean looking glass as opposed to completely coraline-invaded background (that's personal esthetic taste).

What do you guys think? Is it easier to have the rocks rest on the back panel & overflow? Are there any pros/cons I haven't thought about?

Concerning coraline growth on the back panel, what have you chosen? Is it beneficial for the ecosystem or is it just esthetics that govern the decision?

Thanks a lot!

Waters · Mar 22, 2017

I would not have the rocks touch the back glass...more for continuous water flow behind the rock rather than keeping the back glass clean (a lot of people don't clean the back glass at all). I have always kept all four glass panels clean...I don't like the looks of coraline at all. I don't think there is any benefits to growing it.......the downside is that it consumes calcium and alk.

Jakewatt · Mar 22, 2017

Waters, thanx a lot for your answer! That question's been naggin' me for the last couple days! I really like coraline on the rocks (and whiskey...), but on the back, it just looks dirty and unmanned

Have you used eggcrate? Another issue I'm a bit confused with....

Waters · Mar 22, 2017

I know what you mean....anything on the glass makes the tank look dirty IMO (even if it isn't). I did use eggcrate underneath my rock, but I kind of regretting using it now. It is supposed to keep the rock more stable and prevent any damage to the bottom of the tank (in the event that a fish digs beneath the rock or the rock tumbles). I don't have a deep sand bed so there are times that the eggcrate is exposed which drives me crazy lol.

Jakewatt · Mar 22, 2017

Waters said:
I know what you mean....anything on the glass makes the tank look dirty IMO (even if it isn't). I did use eggcrate underneath my rock, but I kind of regretting using it now. It is supposed to keep the rock more stable and prevent any damage to the bottom of the tank (in the event that a fish digs beneath the rock or the rock tumbles). I don't have a deep sand bed so there are times that the eggcrate is exposed which drives me crazy lol.

You could maybe add a bit more sand?... is this something you can do without disturbing water parameters too much?...

Waters · Mar 22, 2017

Yeah, I could (without disturbing the parameters) but I would have to add quite a bit...I have several wrasses and a starfish that like to dig and move the sand around. I have always kept the sand bed less than an inch for maintenance reasons.

ngoodermuth · Mar 22, 2017

Waters said:
I would not have the rocks touch the back glass...more for continuous water flow behind the rock rather than keeping the back glass clean (a lot of people don't clean the back glass at all). I have always kept all four glass panels clean...I don't like the looks of coraline at all. I don't think there is any benefits to growing it.......the downside is that it consumes calcium and alk.

^this exactly

Fish Werx · Mar 22, 2017

I've got a couple pieces touching the back glass. I wish I hadn't laid it out that way now. More for flow reasons than anything. But I have a huge colony of frogspawn that covers that entire back glass section between my overflows. The colony is attached to the rock in question. So I'm not sure how much flow would reach that far back section anyway?
I personally like the look of coraline, especially in the overflows. So I don't have the need to clean the back glass in my instance...

ahiggins · Mar 22, 2017

in my 25 gal cube, I have a rock "wall" that I built from pieces fit together and an overhang. All the pieces are free standing but theres about an inch between the rock and the glass back, not enough to scrape or clean though. I use two separate powerheads that are hidden in (and behind) the rocks to blow water from the back to the front and collide at a certain point. It actually makes for great sps flow at the top of one of my overhangs

but having the powerheads back there allows detritus not to build up

Jakewatt · Mar 22, 2017

ahiggins said:
in my 25 gal cube, I have a rock "wall" that I built from pieces fit together and an overhang. All the pieces are free standing but theres about an inch between the rock and the glass back, not enough to scrape or clean though. I use two separate powerheads that are hidden in (and behind) the rocks to blow water from the back to the front and collide at a certain point. It actually makes for great sps flow at the top of one of my overhangs but having the powerheads back there allows detritus not to build up

Do you have pictures of your tank by any chance?

ahiggins · Mar 22, 2017

Jakewatt said:
Do you have pictures of your tank by any chance?

unfortunately not on my phone...but Ill post some when I get home from work

ngoodermuth · Mar 22, 2017

I recently just rock-scraped my 120 upgrade. Both islands are free-standing with plenty of 360 space for flow, cleaning, and coral growth [emoji12]

jsker · Mar 22, 2017

I have alway used the back glass is a support for the rock structure, With all the changes in product that can glue the rock in place in my next system I an going for the floating island effect. I now use a flipper nano with the blade to clean the glass is the tight spots.

Jakewatt · Mar 22, 2017

ngoodermuth said:
I recently just rock-scraped my 120 upgrade. Both islands are free-standing with plenty of 360 space for flow, cleaning, and coral growth [emoji12]

Nice

I'll certainly be doing something like that, but also use eggcrate underneath the rocks, and hide the visible eggcrate with small live rocks nicely arranged in front, directly on bottom glass... a bit of every world - reefing & iwugami style

hatrix11 · Mar 22, 2017

Waters said:
I would not have the rocks touch the back glass...more for continuous water flow behind the rock rather than keeping the back glass clean (a lot of people don't clean the back glass at all). I have always kept all four glass panels clean...I don't like the looks of coraline at all. I don't think there is any benefits to growing it.......the downside is that it consumes calcium and alk.

Consumes a lot of mag as well.

vic5hands · Mar 22, 2017

I love the coralline looks more natural . I have a rock mountain that rests on 3 sides . I only clean the front glass. Tank is 5 years with no problems . Well I do a 50 gallon weekly water change

ahiggins · Mar 22, 2017

Jakewatt said:
Do you have pictures of your tank by any chance?

The yellow are powerheads and a return.
The return pushes water to the toadstool and the two powerheads blow towards each other to move water from back to front. It also blows quite a bit on the platform to give the sps flow.
As you can see, the powerheads are hidden and the rock is all the way against the false wall for the all in one sump.