Foam & Live Rock commbo

[randallcentral]

I just finished a background of GS and corkbark and yea Im gonna get some frogs soon, after I get all the stuff setup.. I had a pair of frogs a few years ago.. they got eaten by ants! preety messed up I know.. but It happens.. Frogs are way cool and the tanks are as well... oh yea im on www.dendroboard.com too. If you are interested in frogs.. Start with dendroboard .. just like reefcentral.

 

[randallcentral]

.

 

[Tiggsy]

Those frog homes are cool!

Decent backgrounds/aquascaping is so overlooked in this hobby. Sure there are some good ones but most people still just chuck the rock in with no thought and then spend all day worrying about whether their SPS is looking good when the rock work looks like a builders yard!

The reprile folk and the planted tank folk have far better ideas for aquascaping than we do........well, they did until this thread showed up

 

[randallcentral]

when I saw his pillars I thought of this tank.

 

[hoyta]

lol- dendroboard vet here-
This seems to be more complicated than the gs/coco backgrounds.
Another method we used is the flevapol method, which is a concrete binder mixed with water and coco fiber(sand in this case) to make the background. Its 4 parts solid mixture to one part binder. The only binder recommended is the Ace concrete brand and the Quickrete brand. It takes awhile to dry, almost 3 days... fans speed it up. The plus to this method is that it is ALOT less time consumiing, and less messy. Oh yeah, and cheaper
This would eliminate the use of epoxy. The only problem I see is possible PH raises until it cures, but until then...
Just some thoughts

 

[randallcentral]

I wish there were marine poison dart frogs

 

[Daemonfly]

I was planning a DIY 12" acrylic cube nano reef and was thinking of doing a partial GS background. Came here to see what people were using as a binder on top of the GS and found this thread. Perfect.

 

[rcmike]

I just tried this and made a small formation for a 30 gal. that will house some seahorses I am getting. I will post pictures as soon as the tank clears from the sand storm. It was really not too hard and I was able to put to use some of the dead coral skeletons I had left over from a tank crash.

 

[IPT]

Anyone know if this would work to seal the foam and allow me to coat it with sand/gravel?

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=147376-1149-5050081&lpage=none

(or any other products at HD or Lowes?)

 

[elvn]

I'm interested in this type of project. It looks awesome.

If possible can the original poster please post a reply with the exact names of the supplies he used? The foam and the 'runs like paint' epoxy especially.

I'd also like to know about the curing statements as pertains to the cycle (of bacteria growth, die-off and the the whole balance leveling off). If you don't cycle the stink out of existing live rock because its 'clean' like base rock, you will still get a cycle. I mean even the fluff foam filters in a powerhead filter cylinder or the material on a bio wheel in a filter will have a bacteria cycle if left in long enough, as well as other stuff we've all heard of like bio-balls, etc. The foam itself has nooks and crannies and especially the dry (base) rock in a lot of the structure will have a bacteria cycle.

 

[h20cooled]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11070797#post11070797 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by IPT
Anyone know if this would work to seal the foam and allow me to coat it with sand/gravel?

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=147376-1149-5050081&lpage=none

(or any other products at HD or Lowes?)

It should be fine, I used the same stuff to make a faux sand bed in my old tank, just mixed it with sand...

 

[Catharsis70]

Do you epoxy only the front (exposed) parts or the whole piece?

 

[Tiggsy]

I only epoxy the visable parts - partly as the job of the epoxy is to allow the gravel to stick and i only need this where you can see it - also the epoxy keeps the UK off the foam, so where no light gets to the foam (back and underneath) i didnt bother epoxying it.

 

[hoyta]

What kind of epoxy is best for this?

 

[Tiggsy]

i use "finishing resin" which is (i think) what they use to paint over fibre glass. It goes on like piant (very runny) and sets rock hard.....best place to get it in small amounts is modle shops (its used by people that build toy boats and planes)

 

[hoyta]

Crap, I work at a boat building factory- Would boat resin with a little bit of catalyst work?

 

[Tiggsy]

lol - no idea! I assume resin is resin and what they use on toy boats is the same as big ones!....but i'm no expert.

 

[IPT]

Do they sell any resins at HD or lowes that would work? All you'd need is the Resin (or Epoxy paint, or the stuff above), add catalyst, paint it on, and then pour some sand on?

 

[IPT]

Hey Tiggsy, any new shots of your tank? Coraline growing yet> I'll bet the fish are loving the arragement!

 

[Tiggsy]

No water in it yet! Will be filling in the next week (work allowing) and adding the stock as soon as i'm happy with the water.

IPT - i'm in the UK so not sure what stores in the US would sell what you need. Over here i found i could only get the resin from model shops or online....but i never looked too hard elsewhere.

as an aside - my daughter is just setting up a nano and is doing the exact same to hire the weir she has made......works even better on tiny tanks as you can get some nice backgrounds that most nanos fail to achive because they are suck with using 3 small rocks and its full! She has cover the weir in foam and impregnated it with live rock rubble...looks superb!