Cali Kid Corals

Interesting aquascape concept:

anathema

anathema

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Been browsing aquascaping videos and sites lately and came across this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPl7R2JKQ-A&feature=youtube_gdata_player

It's an interesting concept for sure.
 
That's kind of what I was going for on my anemone tank, a true "rock wall". Didn't have the patience to try and attach to the glass though, only the overflow because it was acrylic.
 
Yeah I've been going back and forth on whether I want to do a back wall cover. In some ways it's awesome, but a clean black background contrasts nicely also.

Funny I was thinking I'd made it more difficult on myself putting the abs background in, what did you use to attach your rock?
 
Sooner or later I know I'm going to get flushed out of the underbrush regarding the new system (Jim has had the hounds out recently), but I'm doing something similar to this for my decor. However the panels are 3/4" acrylic cut and beveled to interlock and follow the rear outline of the tank, and I'm using dowels, sawed dry coral rock (think Marco or Fiji), and mortar for mounting the back wall. I think this gives the rear wall more dimensionality than the single piece backgrounds and also allows for more significant overhangs and extensions. Plus, the use of natural material is nice and ultimately should give the tank a natural reef look (rather than a tank that has a rear insert manufactured to look like a reef wall. Still very much a work in progress in the early days though ...
 
I always thought about doing this. I wonder what type of mix is he using to create the structure. I've heard of people using hydraulic cement or foam, but the finishing color is not brown.
 
anathema said:
what did you use to attach your rock?
Click to expand...

Step 1: Drill holes approximately 1/4" in acrylic overflow
Step 2: cut all rocks flat, different shapes will have them jut out more than others this is crucial otherwise it really isn't any different than stacking your rocks, with this the rocks are held up by the wall, not from being on top of one another.
Step 3: Mix up hydraulic cement (you can get a 10lbs tub of dry mix from HD) only mix up as much as you can put in about 5-10 minutes, I was trying to be more artsy fartsy with how mine looked so I took longer than if I just slapped them on... it does get to be a bit like a jigsaw puzzle though.
Step 4: Back butter all rocks and smoosh onto acrylic, find a way to hold them into place (I had my tank on the side, so gravity was my helping hand)

Problems that occurred recently, I moved my outlet pipes (the flexible kind) in fact I was pulling off a few of the end ones because I noticed an aiptasia!!!!!!!!!! (I've noticed a lot and have been attacking them very aggressively by physical removal as opposed to killing them in tank... this was the reason I took the tank down in the first place!!!... but I digress another story for another day). Anyways my movement I guess I pressed/torqued against the rock and it snapped it off, turns out 1/4" nubs of cement really are not terribly strong, well this pushed on the rocks beneath it, etc.. and essentially half of a wall came off. I tried to repair it on the fly by drainin 75% of the water and redrilling holes, and using fiberglass reinforced rods but it's slow going, decided to do it on a rock by rock basis now.

What I would do differently
-Use fiberglass reinforced rods, they sell them at Tap Plastics, epoxy coated fiber glass, simply saw off little nubs. Drill holes the EXACT size that you need in the acrylic and hang them like a peg board, they're strong suckers. The holes in the rock don't need to be as perfect, in fact better if they're not as you'll be lucky to have any line up, just back fill any space with the hydraulic cement. Don't go overboard 2 nubs per rock should be more than sufficient. I would almost say you don't need to use cement at all with this technique... however you might want to use some anyways, if anything to fill gaps between rock and acrylic, last thing you want is something growing between there and wedging your rock off the wall.

-Make acrylic sheets to do all this on, then put those in the tank. Basically like the video, except instead of baking the ceramic stuff, you just do all your attaching on a smaller sheet, then put the sheets together in the tank. Use a silicone to attach it to the glass, or have the bottom "foot" out so it doesn't fall over.

-Find a way to color up the cement. The hydraulic cement I used, was very dark grey, much darker than any rocks and quite noticeable, since its in the shadows of the rockwork between rocks, it doesn't get sufficiently light that coraline algae or anything will form on it. Corals will grow on it, but that's often a slow process.

-Use something as as a "stick" silicone would probably be best as long as it attaches to acrylic... the cement won't stick for shit as it dries a nice flat surface, and the surface is flat, so they would literally slide off.. .the reason for me drilling the holes.
 
There is a new product that is kinda like this that I found out about at MACNA. Its a cast rock background that is flexible. Kinda nice. Don't have the company right here, but if you swing by CAS the dwarf cuttle tank has it.
 
I like those shadowbox tanks, but it's not really compatible with an external overflow box.

Thanks for the description, Mike. Too bad I used only 1/4" ABS on my background. I was thinking of gluing tabs on it and zip tying rock to it, then using concrete to hide the zip ties. It's good to know concrete won't stick. I'm not sure how much rock I'll be attaching to the back wall, I'm going to see how it looks as I test fit stuff.
 
Gusty... I've done numerous reef backs and one of them is going on 11 years now. We used lace rock and dry reef rock and poured a ton of epoxy to hold them in place. We coated the epoxy with rubble as so to hide it. Oh, and we used some black send in the crevices to hide the epoxy and allow the illusion of depth. Free free to email if you want to discuss it further. Oh, I forgot to mention the 11 y/o tank is a massive surge tank and routinely the rock is out of the water, some by as much as 2'.

(BTW... please do not PM me, I can't respond, yet I get them (and have no other means of contacting you)
 
Thanks Gresham, I wasn't aware pm's were a pita for ya.

I've moved away from the reef back idea, and stuck my first few rocks together last night.
 
As a non member I do not have PM access... really stupid that the software allows you to still PM me :lol:
 
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