Rock structure building

[sfsuphysics]

I know it's kind of last minute, but does anyone want a fairly large sized hermit crab? Like he actually fits in a fighting conch shell size of large? He's been living in my sump in the old tank, and has a knack for climbing up cords and what not, even found him walking on my floor once, but he's large enough that I wouldn't trust him around fish. Well he's currently in the old tank with like an inch of water, no heaters, but he's still alive. I'll happily bring him today (leaving at around 11am though)

 

[Julius Chen]

I will bring some emarco with me and a drill plus some dead rocks as hard as granite :-(

 

[roostertech]

I know it's kind of last minute, but does anyone want a fairly large sized hermit crab? Like he actually fits in a fighting conch shell size of large? He's been living in my sump in the old tank, and has a knack for climbing up cords and what not, even found him walking on my floor once, but he's large enough that I wouldn't trust him around fish. Well he's currently in the old tank with like an inch of water, no heaters, but he's still alive. I'll happily bring him today (leaving at around 11am though)

I could put him in my fuge and he can eat the baby snail

 

[Corallus]

Wish I could make it today, looking forward to seeing pics of what people put together!

 

[Coral reefer]

Running late. Hope Julius beats me there w the emaco. See you guys soon

 

[Julius Chen]

I will be there 12:20


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RandyC]

I could put him in my fuge and he can eat the baby snail

If it does, I got plenty more of those babies. How many ended up being in the ball of cheato anyway?

 

[roostertech]

If it does, I got plenty more of those babies. How many ended up being in the ball of cheato anyway?

I plucked out about 20 to put in DT and there are still plenty inside

 

[sfsuphysics]

Well thanks again for hosting this @roostertech and @Coral reefer for setting it up. It was moderately interesting even if most everything we did failed, my little structure broke apart on the ride home somehow, the only thing left together were the two pieces I just sandwiched together and slathered with the stuff. Looking at the ones inside Rooster's house though I have a feeling that this isn't super glue level of stuff to use, you need to really throw this stuff on thick and heavy for it to actually work. Overall though, gives me some food for thought, not sure if I want to use this technique in the future, but... might not be horrible if I do.

 

[Coral reefer]

I am going to give it another go for sure. Will see if I get any good results

 

[Julius Chen]

Nice to meet and talk. Aways learn a lot things.

And THANKS to @roostertech for generous hosting! I also truly appreciate your gift of nice and big cured rocks for my tank rescaping!

 

[Flagg37]

I was hoping for some pics to see what you guys all did.

 

[roostertech]

 

[sfsuphysics]

Ok, the one piece that survived is very stuck with the stuff, in fact I forcibly tried to remove the two and I actually broke the rock. So it seems that you need to use enough stuff to actually surround the rock structure at least a bit, slapping it on like mortar between bricks isn't sufficient. And letting it set for a day without moving is key to getting it to firm up.

Downsides are that unless you're skilled with many braces and what not, you're not going to be doing a lot of work quickly, which means micro small amounts of mixture. Then of course there's the dark grey look of the connected pieces, sure coraline MAY grow over it eventually, or corals, but still it's a bit of an eye sore initially.

 

[Coral reefer]

I'm thinking if we had mixed it a bit less wet it may have sped up the process some...

 

[Vhuang168]

When JesterSix does pieces, each piece required 20mins of cure time. You have to support any overhangs till it sets for at least that long.

You won't see the dark grey pieces for long. Can't see mine anymore and my tank is about a month old.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sfsuphysics]

Mike, that's what I'm thinking, do one piece, get it slathered in good then, see where the other piece is going to go and mix up a bit more and just work it like that.

Vincent, we knew about the 20 minute bit, somethings just were not sticking/bonding, hell I noticed after 40 minutes or so the stuff was crumbly.

 

[jestersix]

Sounds like some mixing issues, possibly temps as well. It doesn't take much Emaco to hold - I usually use it to also flow the rock pieces together so they look natural. The comparison of of mortar and bricks is really all that is needed. Any more is either using the Emaco as a shim (which I do) or making the final product lines flow together. A typical 120 gallon build with multiple structures takes me about 5 hours to tank ready - that is about 75 to 100 pounds of rock. A typical Nano takes about an hour. If anyone has questions about projects, shoot me a PM - I'm DIY crowd friendly...LOL

 

[iani]

You want to mix the cement pretty thick and yes work in small batches. In the past I've used a red party cup to mix. I guess you could use a rubber mixing bowl, like I use at the office to mix alginate and stone. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dental-Lab-...891851?hash=item2a026666cb:g:lxkAAOSwayZXjSDO
with
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dental-Plas...205392?hash=item1ebd9d0dd0:g:1JkAAOSwcUBYS5R4

 

[sfsuphysics]

Yeah possibly mixing issues, it was the blind leading the blind while we were doing it, did the 4:1 ratio of water to that white stuff, then tried to go for peanut butter like consistency on it. I'll eventually play around with it some more I'm sure.

Ian, we did have those red party cups, I just mixed mine in an old deli container though. We were using chopsticks to stir, so maybe things just didn't get stirred up quite enough. I dunno, like I said one of these days I'll give another shot at it. I wasn't trying to make anything worth keeping, just wanted to get a feel for how long before the stuff clings to each other, which I really didn't get (the next day it was rock solid, an hour after we did it the stuff was able to be ground back into dust between my finger tips)