The Foam/rock Projects Here Thread
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JCR's Reef
New member
Atlantis- Love the room you provided in your cylinder tank. Looks very nice! How long did it take you from start to finish? How much sand and what kind of sand? Ill have to check out your build thread!
JCR's Reef
New member
Cloaker- Im getting ready to start my 72 bow SPS tank. I'm doing a rockwall for the added space and keeping everythig on the foam/rock wall. I want to add pillars to it but Im afraid it will clog up the look and make it appear too cramped. Are you keeping the PVC/eggcrate like that? I would be afraid something would fall under all of that and I wouldnt be able to reach it.
theplatypus
New member
Has anyone tried this on an acrylic tank? If so does the foam adhere well to the acrylic?
well two or three months and running now on mine. everything is going well however, i can't keep any snails. they all die and not sure why... crabs and fish seem to be doing fine, any ideas? Also got some serious green hair algee going in this bad boy. runiing a sump / fuge / and skimmer, guess maybe just more frequent water changers?
atlantiscoral
New member
Hi and thanks!
This was a winter project for me. I think it took aprox. 3 months from start to finish to complete it. The wall construction from start to finish was about 1 1/2 months by the time I got all of the supplies to the time it was ready to fill.
As for the sand I used a mixture of sugar sized oolite, puka shells, and oceans direct live sand. It is a very shallow sandbed, prolly only 1/2" to 1". I followed Eco-Systems recommendation for running mud-filters (plus I dont like a lot of sand personally).
(sorry for the late reply, I didnt see your post!)
Today I discovered coraline growing on the wall! Finnally! (some feather dusters too!)
Scott
atlantiscoral
New member
GE Silicone I (acetic acid based) works great. I think the GE adhesion index rates acrylic at a 7, 10 being the highest (which is what glass is rated at).
Scott
atlantiscoral
New member
Interesting regarding the snails. Perhaps you have unknown predators living in the tank?
In regards to your hair algae... I also had a major outbreak of it. The tank has been running for about 3 months now and I have been batteling the hair algae for about a month solid. I am finnaly starting to see progress however.
I didnt start my fuge with a town of Macro through. I added very little to get it going (I wanted to monitor the growth rates). I started it with some feather caulerpa, which took off and started growing like a weed, then added some chaeto later on (thick and thin strains).
The feather caulerpa went sexual on me yesterday though, but I think it may be related to the GFO that I started running to try and clear up the phosphate issues. I pulled it all out this morning and tried to salvage what I could. It started from a small healthly clipping, and I have a few more from another tank so I am not too worried about it.
Scott
I also used GE Silicone I, way cheaper than the supposed "aquarium safe" silicone they sell. I think its the same thing just relabeled to mark up at a higher cost. Everyone know they would never do that, NOT!
I wouldn't put any of this foam directly on the glass or acrylic of the tank. IMHO, if you find you have any issue with the background you have the option to remove it. Otherwise your stuck trying to remove all that foam from the glass or acrylic and I wouldn't want to go through that nightmare. These large tanks to are to expensive to throw away if you don't like the background or it gives you problems. The light register worked great for me and its in place really well with the GE silicone. I see a lot of people on the forums that had success putting the foam right on the glass, but it just wasn't worth the risk to me since it was the first time I tried this project. I wanted to have a backup plan in case there were issues with the background and I could at least remove if needed.
In regards to the curing comment above, this stuff is inert, doesn't need to cure. However give it at least a good two weeks or so to setup and dry thoroughly.
atlantiscoral
New member
I let mine sit for about two weeks after adding the wall to the tank.
Acetic acid smells sooooooooo good! (I think I am still suffering from it lol).
Scott
No I can promise no predators in the tank and everything is jam up jelly tight as far as readings are concerned. At least from what I can see on the tests that I do. Nitrate, nitrite, PH, ect...
What would cause a snail to just die? I have a regular star fish doing fine, and 2 fish doing great. However I did also forget to mention I had a bristle star that didn't do well either, his legs fell off and he just died, it was pretty gross. I noticed the bristle having issues the first day when the tips of his legs fell off, so I pulled him and put hims back in the QT tank for two weeks. He did fine in the QT tank, so I then put him back in the display again, and within about 3 days he died in the display. Really weird... Makes me think something (chemical????) in the display from the foam or epoxy causing the snails and bristle star to die. Just weird when the other star fish, blue leg crabs and fish are doing well in the display. Also all these animals lived fine for years together in my old tank. I would think if it were a chemical issue I wasnt picking up on my tests leaching from the foam/epoxy it would effect all the live stock and not just the bristal and snails. And when I say snails, I mean like 40+ I have added to this tank, and they all seem to die eventually.
atlantiscoral
New member
What type of snails are they? Some species are more hardier than others. I havnt added any snails or crabs yet however. I have a few hitchhikers from the live rock....
It may just be related to the new tank cycle, but after three months I would think it should be cycled enough to support most inverts.
The two part expoxy resin is toxic if it is not cured properly... But to what degree I am not sure. The cure time depends on the quality of the mix... I stirred mine for a long time, transfering it to multiple containers in the process to ensure a complete mix.
Scott
atlantiscoral
New member
BTW, nice pilars! They are awesome looking!
Scott
Scott
happyclam
New member
Clay Pot Idea
Clay Pot Idea
Sorry if this has already been covered... I tried too but couldn't read this entire thread. But it was proved to be a wealth of knowledge and I'm glad this method has been created.
My idea was to use clay plant pots instead of/in combination with eggcrate. So nothing special, just thought it could be helpful in a creating a more modular/ horizontal rock structure as well as for creating islands. The added benefit is that the are very sturdy, so they could be attached to the bottom of an eggcrate panel as support legs. To attach rocks would would soak the pots in water and then drill them, so that you can use the standard cable tie method of application.
I'm not sure if this would work or not but was thinking of using this when creating the aquascape for a tank that will most likely have the Jaubert pleneum.
Thank you.
Clay Pot Idea
Sorry if this has already been covered... I tried too but couldn't read this entire thread. But it was proved to be a wealth of knowledge and I'm glad this method has been created.
My idea was to use clay plant pots instead of/in combination with eggcrate. So nothing special, just thought it could be helpful in a creating a more modular/ horizontal rock structure as well as for creating islands. The added benefit is that the are very sturdy, so they could be attached to the bottom of an eggcrate panel as support legs. To attach rocks would would soak the pots in water and then drill them, so that you can use the standard cable tie method of application.
I'm not sure if this would work or not but was thinking of using this when creating the aquascape for a tank that will most likely have the Jaubert pleneum.
Thank you.
james3370
Premium Member
Re: Latest Pics
Re: Latest Pics
looks good
have you considered adding a loc-line Y-fitting to either the top or bottom corner line (or maybe both) & add a section of loc-line pointed behind the middle structure down the face of the back wall?? might give you an added flow pattern & keep detrius off the rear wall
just a thought.....
Re: Latest Pics
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15138918#post15138918 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tdkarl
looks good
have you considered adding a loc-line Y-fitting to either the top or bottom corner line (or maybe both) & add a section of loc-line pointed behind the middle structure down the face of the back wall?? might give you an added flow pattern & keep detrius off the rear wall
just a thought.....
atlantiscoral
New member
Re: Clay Pot Idea
Re: Clay Pot Idea
The clay pot idea would be a good one for islands (also for breeding from what I understand), and you could get really creative with stacking them and adding rocks and then apply the foam technique.
Im not sure it would work for the back wall structure though as the eggcrate is absolutly what holds it all together.
Post some pics of your project!
Scott
Re: Clay Pot Idea
The clay pot idea would be a good one for islands (also for breeding from what I understand), and you could get really creative with stacking them and adding rocks and then apply the foam technique.
Im not sure it would work for the back wall structure though as the eggcrate is absolutly what holds it all together.
Post some pics of your project!
Scott
atlantiscoral
New member
Re: Latest Pics
Re: Latest Pics
Have you found any coraline growth on the wall yet?
BTW nice fish! One of my favs. They get HUGE! Inland has a few adults and they are one of the most friendly surgeons I have ever encountered.
Scott
Re: Latest Pics
Have you found any coraline growth on the wall yet?
BTW nice fish! One of my favs. They get HUGE! Inland has a few adults and they are one of the most friendly surgeons I have ever encountered.
Scott
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15138918#post15138918 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tdkarl
Well this is about two months. Just posted a bunch more in my gallery and in my build thread. click the red house to see my build thread.
Andrea_Aust
New member
Gosh there are some amazing structures made here! I wish I'd joined RC when I was building mine. Would have been ever so much easier.
I found the pond foam very hard to buy in Australia but did manage to find some at $40 a can :eek1:
This is what my tank looked like when it was done.
A few months later...
6 months on and we have loads of coraline now ... just have to be patient until it completely covers the wall and arch.
I found the pond foam very hard to buy in Australia but did manage to find some at $40 a can :eek1:
This is what my tank looked like when it was done.
A few months later...
6 months on and we have loads of coraline now ... just have to be patient until it completely covers the wall and arch.
jasonyvonne
New member
Anyone think this stuff would work?
http://doitbest.com/Main.aspx?PageI...779787&utm_content=6790&utm_campaign=DATAFEED
http://doitbest.com/Main.aspx?PageI...779787&utm_content=6790&utm_campaign=DATAFEED
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