A quick tip for ensuring that the rocks you have obtained will not change the chemistry of your water is to put a couple drops of vinegar on the rock and if it fizzes then you want to toss that rock out. Certain rock types can break down in your tank and leach minerals into the water. This is a common test that is easy and economical for you to do.

I live in a rural area on a farm so I get mine in my pasture and fields, lakes, creeks and streams. If you live in a city area and want to collect them yourself some ideal places to look would be: parks, lake front areas, streams, under bridges, construction sites/building sites etc... make sure that you are careful when doing this as you don’t want to get in trouble for trespassing or stealing etc… make sure if you are in a park or beach/lakeside setting that you are not observed removing these rocks because often it is not legal. If you ask at building sites to sift through the dirt piles they will often say yes. I got some once by asking the foreman at a house building site if I could dig through the pile from where they dug the basement. He said feel free just to wait until they were done with work for the day so I did not get hurt. You can also buy the rocks at local landscaping stores, lawn and garden centers like Lowes and home depot. You may be able to obtain real rocks there but often I find what you can obtain at stores like lowes or home depot are pavement for garden paths or patios. These work but they all have the same shapes and appear man made.

Cleaning your rocks
I personally like to avoid any cleaning products that contain bleach or ammonia. That is my personal preference but it is possible to soak your rocks in bleach and water solution, scrub them, and then dechlorinate them with a over the counter dechlorinate. I like to avoid bleach and ammonia products in or on the tank or any items going into the tank. I also like to avoid the possibility of bleach leaching into the item (porous limestone, lace and lava rocks, even plastic plants and decorations). Since these items can be safely cleaned by other means I just don’t see the point of taking chances. Minute amounts of bleach or ammonia can kill an entire tank full of fish within minutes. Please understand this is just my own personal opinion and others have used bleach/water solutions for years with no adverse effects and swear by it. So you will have to make your own choices on whether or not you want to use potentially harmful chemicals or not. If you do use the bleach solutions just be absolutely sure that you soak everything in a quality de-chlorinator.

After you get the rocks you plan on using you should clean them. I have found the best way to clean them is to get a pair of rubber gloves and turn the water on as hot as you can stand. Place the rocks in the sink and add a small amount of plain dish detergent (avoid anti bacterial) and scrub with an unused tire brush (I picked mine up for a couple of bucks at Wal-Mart). I scrub all the rocks and then soak them for half hour in hot water (this loosens any remaining dirt). I then scrub them a second time in plain water. Now that they are clean I like to soak them in a bucket of water over night to be sure that there is no rainbow colored "oily slick" on the surface in the morning. I had one rock that did this once. Must have had motor oil or similar spilled on it at one time. This is also a good time to scape your fingernail on each rock to make sure it is not a type that softens in water, if you get a gritty sandy residue on your hands don’t use that rock. If all is well it is now time to start placing your rocks.

You can work with your fish in the tank or remove them while you work, if you don’t have a second tank you can place them in a rinsed out plastic Rubbermaid tub that you have filled with your tanks water. It is up to you, I find if your careful you can work with the fish remaining in the tank unless they are breeding parents, most will avoid your hands and the work area, if not you can remove them if necessary.

Tips for placing stones
Think safety at all times safety for the tank and your fish. The most important thing with rocks in your tank is most but not all tanks are made of glass, rocks and glass usually don’t mix well and in a fight the rock will win. For this reason you must always put your base rocks carefully down into the substrate, really wiggle them around in it to get the rock to sink in. This will usually provide a stable base and often overlooked benefit of preventing your cichlid from "digging" out the base and either crushing himself or destabilizing your structure. A stable base is the most important part. This prevents other rocks stacked on top from shifting and freefalling into the sides or bottom of your tank. That i think everyone can agree would be a disaster. I like to use "brick" shaped rocks for this purpose, since they are flat on the bottom and flat on top allowing for stable stacking. These brick shaped rocks also are thick enough that caves can be formed where you will be able to see your fish living inside the cave.

Place two of these brick shaped rocks near each other, work them into the substrate, wiggling them down into sand or with gravel it is best to scoop the gravel to the side out of the way. Make sure that they are close enough that you can place a thin flat rock on top for the roof of that cave. Place these around your tank in numerous areas (however you like). You have two possible looks you can achieve, multi level high-rise apartment like structure or a lower more free form structure that is not square and only has one or two levels. Both are made in the same way, just the "high-rise" apartment style has a more compartment like look and feel to it. It also has more levels and more care must be used to ensure stability making rock placement more important in this setup.

These are particularly good for rock dwelling African species such as mbuna, I find my other types of Africans like them as well. New world cichlids also like these rocks every bit as much as Africans but don’t usually live in a extremely rocky environment in the wild so the rocks I use for their setups usually are made of individual rocks placed in the tank with driftwood and real or fake plants.

Matching sand and gravel to your rocks
I have recently started using sand in my cichlid tanks. I started with one tank using sand and was so happy with it I have since made all of my tanks have a sand substrate. I find that it works really well with rockwork. This is certainly not the only choice, gravel works well also.

Both sand and gravel have many color varieties and even different sizes ranging from super fine to large chunky pieces more like pebbles. These all work well and can be matched to your rocks. Many of the African cichlids look particularly good with jet black sand or gravel due to their intense colors including royal metallic blue, canary yellow, orange, red, green and even hot pink. These fish in particular look best with a black or dark background and dark gravel or sand. You can even mix sand and gravel together for a custom look that you choose yourself. I find this can sometimes help to tie in rocks and gravel when the two you have chosen are of different colors. Sometimes adding more than one size and shape gravel can also enhance the look of your sand. If you use sand just be sure to keep in at a depth of about 1-2 inches max. For freshwater cichlid tanks (deeper sand can allow bacteria to form that produce trapped gasses that need to be stirred up to be released. Less sand will usually prevent this).

Cichlid High-rise
This structure is good for many cichlids ranging in size from small (dwarf cichlids) to medium sized cichlids up to 5-7 inch in size such as African haps, peacocks, and mbuna. While it is different in every case, I would suggest this is not the best setup for cichlids that get 7 inches or larger since the larger fish can be capable of toppling the upper areas of the structure.

To achieve the "Cichlid high-rise" as I like to call it, you place your base rock in the center of your tank, I like it approx. 2 inches from the back wall of the tank or even barely touching the glass (can help to stabilize the structure) if you have it touch the glass don’t shove it tight, have it barely touching. If you leave a gap this is often a good place to put in an air stone wand. Build these rocks out on the bottom working your way to the center of your tank You can keep it small and square shaped by only doing the center area or you can expand it to the ends of the tank you can even place them only on one or both ends of the tank, however you prefer. Try not to go all the way to the front glass since a open area for swimming is needed and the front is best for viewing your fish. Your widest brick shaped rocks should be used for the base layer since you will often need to rest more than one roof top on these. It is possible to place these base rocks so that when the tops are put on you also have "tunnels" leading to exits in the structure in various locations. Cichlids really seem to like these and use them for escape passages when being chased by tank mates.

Now that your base level is complete stop and look and examine it, push and feel to make sure none are rocking when you push on them. A small amount of play is ok but rocking back and forth is not. If all is good then you can move onto the next layer, those will be your roof rocks, these should be large thin flat rocks. Simply place them on top of your base rocks and work at until they are all covered. Check for stability as you did with the base rocks. Now you should have completed your first level. Now simply repeat again. Your brick shaped rocks can be the same size as the base ones or slightly shorter in height, whatever you prefer. I personally like them to get smaller the higher as I go up, less weight and more stable etc... Now you need to become careful with your placement of rock, try to place your base rocks in extremely stable areas from here on out, you can place them on stable flat roofs or junctions where walls meet roofs. You can often turn these base "brick shaped" rocks the other way (longwise) to spread the weight out and break up the boxy look if you want to. Once base rocks are placed add on your thinner flat roof rocks. I personally like to keep the levels in a structure to no more than 3 for safety reasons but I have seen other successful ones that were many stories tall. These were usually achieved using manmade rock purchased at lawn and garden centers such as pavements, stepping stones for gardens these are good for the higher ones because they are usually uniform in shape and size and you can calculate how many you will need by drawing a model on paper first.

Freeform low-rise
As the name implies freeform rockwork can have many looks. It can be as simple or intricate as you wish it to be. It works well in all tank sizes and can be adapted to fish of various sizes from the very small dwarf cichlids like rams to gigantic foot long Oscars and other large cichlids. It can specifically be used with the largest of cichlids because you can adapt it to a single layer with tall caves so that toppling the structure with their bodies is not an issue.

The free form low rise example looks very good with natural rock you would find in your yard, fields, lake shores, etc...