Scubabum's DIY foam rock wall.

[scubabum1983]

I decided I wanted to do something different than the rock wall stack that had done in my prior 90 gal reef. I have tangs and other swimmers and I felt that with my rock as it was they didn't have enough room to swim. I also like to have corals on the sand like fungias, and with as many as I had with limited sand space my hermit crabs and snails were backed up trying to get around on the sand like rush hour on an L.A. freeway. So with this said I wanted more sand space and more swim room in my next tank. I liked the foam look that I had seen in my local LFS, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted in my own tank. I wanted a my own method. Here I owe credit to Tigsey and other who I stand on the shoulders of as I read along with their builds and wanted to learn from their builds and take all the best things they did and incorporate it into my build.

On to the tank. its approx 135 gal, 60 inches long, 18 inches deep, and 28.5 inches tall. It was all I could fit in my living room and I got a deal on the tank.

The tank had a couple holes drilled from the previous owner for a closed loop and a 1 inch drain. these had to be plugged with 4 inch square 1/2 glass patches. I drilled my own 1.5 inch drain hole and ordered a 3 sided overflow from Lee Mar. Both projects went in with out a problem, although the drain hole was the first I had ever drilled and was scared to death to do it, but it worked out fine.

I acquired about 100 pounds of live rock from various trades and other dealings. I also got a 6 gal bucket from Sharkbait in Phoenix. Thanks Nick!

Now on to the backing material. I didn't want to go with regular hardware light diffuser for the entire back round because I planned to use alot of rock and rubble. I saw Tigsey Used Koi Pond Filter Grate. I wanted this, but could not find any in Arizona. I did however end up with a large filter cover from a local pond store. not quite what i wanted and more than I wanted to spend at 50 bucks but i didn't have many options. so I got the cover and two sheets of light diffuser i bought at home depot along with glass/tile drill bits and alot of cable ties.

Now I needed a plan. I drew out a rough drawing at the insistance of my brother. Im more of the fly by night type on my reef projects but here is what we drew up.

I wanted swim room and I wanted a pillar on the build as well, so i had sectioned the tank up into wall sections, and left a gap behind the pillar for fish to swim behind and in front

 

[scubabum1983]

I measured everything out and used my table saw to cut the filter grate and the egg crate to size and placed them into the tank



thanks to my brother on being a good sport here and helping. Then I got to work using cable ties to attatch rock in shapes and location to the grate.

I wanted to add

some demension to the piece not just a foam block with rock in it so I cut some holes and seeing ideas with bottles and cans placed in while foaming for caves and swim throughs I made a diffuser cave with a sprite can.

Now it was time to foam. I will be the first to admit I'm no artist. Never have been so this wasn't easy at first. I used Great Stuff Big Gap Filler. This is important as i Did not have as good of luck with the small gap filler from the same brand. The Big gap filler is easier to use in this application. As i foamed I threw rubble chunks in while it was very tacky but not just out of the can. there is a small window of the product holding the rubble and incorporating it. too early and it will sink in, too late and it will not stick at all. I pulled the Sprite can out while it was still setting. I would use a 1 liter soda bottle next time as it has a neck to use as a handle to pull it out.

The piece has an awesome texture that will have fiberglass resin to cover all the exposed foam and be covered with sand to protect the exposed foam from UV waves.

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[scubabum1983]

Now I had the first side of the wall done that would be to the right of the pillar. Now it was time to start the pillar. I used a volleyball sized chunk that I had gotten from Sharkbait. I wanted a really stable base for the pillar so I set the rock down how i wanted it to sit and used diffuser as a base to keep it in position and give the foam strength. This is where I used the small gap filler and when i added the rock chunks things sank and didn't set up well. so I had mounds of foam. So after pacing around and thinking what to do with it to make it better, or start over, I went to my tank and My dusky jawfish gave me inspiration. Jaw fish Holes! I went to my shed and got my bigger drill bits and drilled out the big ugly cunks of foam and vacuumed out the loose bits of foam and it turned out in my opinion really good.

Then I went about building the pillar itself. I used my glass/tile bits and drilled holes for cable tie anchors. In places i didnt want cable ties that were close and not all that strucural I used the two part epoxy that you kneed together. later ill cover my cable ties with a little foam and sand to make it look natural.

here it is in tank

more to come soon.

 

[dcantucson]

That's a great idea. Looks very nice.

 

[scubabum1983]

Since my last i have built all but two sides to my overflow. i foamed everything in, and used epoxy and put sand on, here are a few more pics. the last are front and side shots dry of the tank with two t5s on.

 

[jjk_reef00]

very nice, do you think it is strong enough to make an arch between to pillars?

 

[scubabum1983]

i could the pillar is rock solid, the entire rockscape is very solid after the foam hardened the epoxy made it very tough. i cant wait to see it with water. i made the other two sides of the overflow ill post more pics soon. thanks for looking. anybody have any suggestions or comments on adding anything or doing things different?

 

[scubabum1983]

top down shot with wiers cut out.

daylight shot.

with sand in

 

[Mpearl33]

wow.....thats freakin amazing

 

[scubabum1983]

ok tank has water fish and corals, corals are mad and not fully open and my rose bubble has split into at least two. this is with my 175 10 k bulbs, the 250w. radiums and my new sockets are comming. but its been almost 8 months from start to finish on this build.

jawfish and his new hole.

 

[fishaholic911]

Looks great !

 

[SahuaritaMike]

sweet...

How much Live Rock went into making that?

 

[scubabum1983]

rock, 5 gal bucket of rubble, and about 60 pounds of dry rock.