how to build a rock wall

[july865]

..designing a rock wall for my aquapod 24g nano. i was planning on using light defuser paneling and making a vertical wall possibley 20"x24" at the very back of the tank.
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i am rather puzzled as to how to attach the rock to the defuser panel. some say, drill holes and use zipp ties, and some say, just stack it, also some suggested to use opoxy with plastic dowels (no idea how to do that one either).
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i setup my 90g just by stacking and its been good, some shifting due to brittle stars and sifters, but the design was basicaly left up to the rocks and the shapes there of.
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i want to try and cut the rock like a slice of kraft cheeze and place the flat portion flat against the light defuser and fasten it to the panel.
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so how do i cut the rock?
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and how do i fasten it to the panel?
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any water flow problems that i might encounter with that design?
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i have also placed this in the socal forum also. all you fellow nano'ers have all the hot designs for nano's

 

[ENraged]

So far i have seen egg crate used and zip ties
And a sheet of acrylic with frag cement

 

[yardboy]

Easier done than said, cutting rock. Check here on how I did it
http://www.reefmonkey.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=3911&start=0

 

[july865]

where did you get the base rock from? i like the wall you made. very well done. for me, i was thinking of more like an "L" with a line connecting it. making it a triangle shap. with the fat part on the floor of the tank. how hard was it to hacksaw the rock?

 

[yardboy]

I used baserock from my lfs for that project and a hacksaw with metal cutting blade to cut it. Hirocks.com worked well too on another project. I tried a masonry chopsaw but it was easier with the hacksaw! It works even easier with liverock which is usually a lot softer. It might not glue with silicone as easy though. That nano is still going and the rock is still in place.
For my next trick, I'm going to try using nylon screws and washers through eggcrate into holes in the back of the liverock as I've got some flat pieces with corals already established on them.

 

[Henry22]

Try epoxy, that would work instead of silicone.

 

[yardboy]

Have you had success with epoxy on glass? I've only tried it on wet glass with not much luck.

 

[july865]

i had posted this answer on another forum in RC.
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i finally decided to use dead rock and cut the rock on 3 sides. top, bottom, and backside. it will look like a block that they sell at home depot that has th natural rough face exposed. drill and connect each rock to the other with plastic rods and epoxy. making a right angle triangle and having the fatest part on the bottom. this would allow light to reach most, if not all parts of the rock face. i think i am also convinced that i need to have a small gap in the back for water circulation, but havent worked out the small details of keeping fish from getting trapped there or water movement

 

[joe findell]

I just experimented this weekend and it works great! Use pond foam from home depot and cover the wall that you want to be rocked with a layer of foam. You need to have rubble rock ready to push into the foam as desired. I had several pretty good pieces that i used to create ledges in several key locations. let it dry and you have a nice secure liverock wall. I actually cleaned the tank back out afterward to redo it with a little more prep. The rock pried right out of the foam and the foam peeled off the glass with a little effort. The water pressure will help hold the wall as well. The foam needs to be fluffy when you put the rock into it so it will create contours to hold the rock in place. Any foam left showing will be black and eventually get covered by corals or algea and blend right in. Really cool.

 

[july865]

some how it "seems" dangerous to me to use foam inside a fishtank. whether salt water or fresh. i am even having a hard time talking myself into using epoxy.