Tile shelves

[casalt]

I was thinking of making tile shelves for a peice of rock. I have one rock thats 16 inches high with a flat face. I was thinking of mounting tile peices to the side, all stagered so one doesnt shade another. I can shape the tile anyway I want with tools. Kinda like a rock climbing wall. This way I can get the frags off the floor and closer to the light. Most of my rock doesnt supply flat areas on top, the two peices I do have are full. Has this idea been done anyone or am I just nuts. In my head I see staggered shelves with zoo's and frogspawn. Tile only came to mind from watching that how to frag movie. I cant remember but I think he used marble tile.

 

[Justin74]

I dont know if the topic has been looked into more, but the minerals in alot of terrestrial rock, marble included could leach or oxidize in the SW leaching excess oxidized iron, silicates and a plethera of unknowns.

You would be better served using porcelin tiles, or something inert that wont react to the SW.

-Justin

 

[bored4long]

How about DIY rock formed into shelves? It would certainly look much more natural than tiles.

 

[saltykelly]

I've heard of using porcelain tiles for growing zoanthids on to propagate. It should work, but won't look very natural.

 

[casalt]

Maybe I'll just put some live under the saw. Sounds safer and might look better too. If memory serves me at all ,the diy rock has to cure for quit awhile. That frag movie that was posted recently, the guy used tile to mount the frags wasnt it??

 

[Justin74]

I believe they were porcelin tile, I may be wrong though. Ive often wondered the potential of Corningware myself If the material was ok, would make for a good BB Id think.

Sawing some LR would be a nice effect too becuase the sides would still have the pourous texture, and the top would be flat but but would have natural nooks and pockets, I would try to find some solid base rock though so it doesnt all crumble apart on you.

Im only spoutin ideas and speculatations though, Ive never done this before personally.

-Justin

 

[casalt]

If it has anything to do with power tools and flying objects I'm all in, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

 

[dots]

I saw that video that you are talking about, it was the guy propogating zoos and tiled the bottom, let the mat grow and pulled them up as needed.

Great idea, but a little risky IMO. He was using Marble tile mats ........his theory was great and that the rock was a good naturally occuring rock for the substrate since it was made of Calcium........only here is the thing, it doesn't occur in just a pure form and there are contaminates in it that give marble those pretty swirls........elements like.......copper are mixed in there that could be harmful to the tank.

Regardless, the guy had that tank torn down in less than a month.

I would make your own agracrete plugs, score it so you can break them off as needed and presto, tile you control the quality of.

 

[airinhere]

Aragocrete takes a minimum of 28 days before it is ready to put into a tank. There are ways to speed that up, but they involve pressure cookers and ovens.

 

[dots]

I was thinking of that DIY frag plug stuff......that isn't agrocrete? 28 days, really, why do you say and how was 28 come up with?

Not my night, thats twice I put my foot in my mouth, I am going to quit while I am still ahead.......

 

[casalt]

agrocrete sounds like it might be a good option, I do have alot of sand left over. My wife reaaly enjoys my projects that never seem to end LOL.

 

[bored4long]

I have lots of left over sand, white portland cement and crushed oyster shell you can use for your plugs.

I don't think plugs would take 4 weeks to cure since they are so small, but I have not made any and Airinhere certainly has much more experience with DIY rocks than I do. The ph will be high and the longer you let them cure the more the ph will decrease. According to the DIY Rocks! thread, they usually consider them usable once the ph is down to 8.4. Many people will make a batch of plugs and put them in their toilet tank to cure.- HTH

How about a club frag plug making day? I'd be down to get in on that.

 

[casalt]

Theres a good subject to cover at the meeting maybe, just an idea.

 

[airinhere]

frag plug or chunk of aragocrete rock weighing 100 lbs, they bot have some amount of cement mix holding them together. Cement takes 28 days to completely stop chemically reacting. During that time it will put forth lime into the water that spikes the pH upward. If your tank is 100 gal, you would be fine putting some frag plugs in right after they hardened (1 or 2 days) but the actual frags mounted on the plugs would likely suffer.

If people are interested, I would be willing to help with an aragocrete workshop or frag plug making demo.