Ceramic Rock Wall made out of clay

[mike89t]

Fins Reef sells ceramic rock walls made from clay. Here is an example of one:

http://www.finsreef.com/product.php?productid=16365&cat=292&page=1

Has anyone used clay to make their own rock walls or structures? If so what type of clay did they use?

I'm thinking about making a custom rock wall to fit the back of my aquarium. Similar to the picture above. I think this would look awesome. I think clay if fairly cheap. I would just need to find a someone with a kiln that would fire it for me.

 

[ODOG]

Why not make it using the recipe that Garf suggests for live rock making.

1 part portland cement to 5 parts any combination of the following, Crushed Oyster Shell, Carib Sea Aragonite, Southdown Sand.

Use just enough water to make it all stick together. You could try putting the mixture over egg crate cut to the size of your tank wall. Allow it to dry for a day or 2 in the sun then move it to a tub with water and/or vinegar to cure...more instructions can be found here... http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=617445

 

[mike89t]

Why not make it using the recipe that Garf suggests for live rock making.

1 part portland cement to 5 parts any combination of the following, Crushed Oyster Shell, Carib Sea Aragonite, Southdown Sand.

Use just enough water to make it all stick together. You could try putting the mixture over egg crate cut to the size of your tank wall. Allow it to dry for a day or 2 in the sun then move it to a tub with water and/or vinegar to cure...more instructions can be found here... http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=617445

That was another option I was considering. However I was concerned that the agaracrete mixture wouldn't hold up as well as the ceramic. Thus pieces might start breaking off the agaracrete wall over time if you made a structure similar to the one above.

 

[perpetual98]

That's WAY cool. Something like that would be perfect for my 26G bowfront because it's so darn tall.

 

[ODOG]

mike, I think the dryer you can make the mix the stronger it will be.

 

[tekknoschtev]

mike, I think the dryer you can make the mix the stronger it will be.

To a certain degree. You need it wet to get the concrete portion to harden. If you leave it tooooo dry it wont adhere to anything, and be VERY brittle. I've experimented with it, and the 1:5 rule works, leaving it wet enough to work, but dry enough to sort of pile up.

 

[tekknoschtev]

That was another option I was considering. However I was concerned that the agaracrete mixture wouldn't hold up as well as the ceramic. Thus pieces might start breaking off the agaracrete wall over time if you made a structure similar to the one above.

Little pieces may break off when you first add it in, but if you take a wire brush to it, all of the little bits that might break off will. And its not many if you do it right. I made some, its curing now, but its about as solid as concrete, and I'd venture to guess theres not going to be much stress on it as is.

If you are worried, make some sort of skeleton out of PVC, and wrap it in a plastic screening. Drill some holes in the PVC as well, to allow some of the mix to get in and hold on better. Should be great. If I wasnt avoiding the 'rock wall' look in our new tank, that's what we'd be doing, and very well may do for some interesting pieces, just not a wall.

 

[mike89t]

I'm pretty sure I could make a rock wall backing with the aragacrete but I don't think I could make it look as nice as the one done out of clay. I think Clay would give you the ability to make a really unique natural looking wall like the one shown above.

 

[cduran02]

mike89t: I agree with you, I also think that the clay one would not require the long curing process. But it will be more dense than the crete ones.

 

[assassinco97]

What would be really cool is to build in compartments where you could hide those nasty powerheads and pumps....so the flow just comes out of a hole in the rock and the pump never has to be seen cause its behind the rock and the cord is behind the wall

Ed

 

[tekknoschtev]

What would be really cool is to build in compartments where you could hide those nasty powerheads and pumps....so the flow just comes out of a hole in the rock and the pump never has to be seen cause its behind the rock and the cord is behind the wall

Ed

Only one flaw with that idea... What happens when the powerheads (or whatever you hide for that matter) need cleaning? You have to take the whole wall down just to get to it. I suppose you could create a door type thing to cover a bigger hole in the wall and would give access to it...

 

[assassinco97]

Why not put a piece of tupper ware in the wall where you want the compartment to create the basic shape then create a section in the back of the wall with a piece of tubing where you could easily thread the cord in and out of the wall to remove the powerhead you could even leave the pipe in to make it easier to thread ....then if you wanted to go for the ultimate concealment make a seperate lid piece of rock to fit over the hole with the pump that way you could almost have corals growing right on the pump while still offering ease of access

Ed

 

[Versus]

People do not use clay because of the weight + to tolerate something like Salt water you would need to use Cone 10 which needs a kiln of 2000f+ and a large one . air dryed clay would not last a week

 

[mike89t]

People do not use clay because of the weight + to tolerate something like Salt water you would need to use Cone 10 which needs a kiln of 2000f+ and a large one . air dryed clay would not last a week

I figured I would need to use a kiln. Thanks for the info. Cone 10 is definetly a new lead for me and looks promising. Sounds like you have worked with the stuff before.

Any idea how much it might cost to have something like a 2'x2' slab of Cone 10 fired in a kiln?

 

[mike89t]

Any idea how much it might cost to have something like a 2'x2' slab of Cone 10 fired in a kiln?

Actually I just found a place here in Az that fires Cone 10 and charges 50 cents per inch.

 

[orlenz]

you could check at the local jr college to have it fired. you can use a clay that has a high grog content, that will help with porosity.

 

[mike89t]

you could check at the local jr college to have it fired. you can use a clay that has a high grog content, that will help with porosity.

I was also thinking about that but I didn't want to have to sign up for a class. Do they tipically let people come in and use thier kiln if you are not part of a class?

 

[EdMiller]

You could try putting the mixture over egg crate cut to the size of your tank wall. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=617445

That is exactly what I did for my tank. I made the panels up about three months ago, and they were finally cured this week. I just put them in the tank last night and rearranged all my rock work. I didn't make tha panels to completly cover the back, instead I made them look like rock mounds. I'm quite happy with the results. It should look excellent with a couple of months of coraline growth.

The panels were quite strong, and even little bit flexible. I even made a corner piece to cover my overflow box. I used zip ties to hold the egg crate together at the corner, then covered it with the aragacrete. To apply the aragacrete to the panels, I laid them on a sheet of plastic, then worked the mixture into all the squares of the eggcrate. Then I just built ip the texture as I wanted it, and pressed in some crushed coral to cover the surface.

 

[sabalough]

very nice work!!!

 

[moses13]

Here is what I did for my tank.