Kessil

Rock structure building

We did let them sit for at least 20 min, but I think we mixed the emaco too wet and it was gonna take longer to set up. Gonna try some more at home where I have time to let them sit over night
 
What i noticed was we shared tables that day. As my structure was curing, others could be pounding on the table in frustration :), the vibration actually knocked my rocks off. I moved mine to floor but it was too late.
 
There is a window of working time on the product too. If you continue to fiddle with it past the time it was starting to set up then it would become brittle.
 
Yes the window is small, which is why mixing in small batches is best.
Here is something I did with only zipties and hydraulic cement for my old 225 gallon tank. My first try building a rock structure. This was done about 7 years ago. If anyone needs any pointers I can probably help. I've used emaco with the acryl as well.
 
Another thing is temperature, below 50 degrees it really slows down the cure. Plus this Emaco product goes through a very brittle stage during the cure - if you mess with it, things fall apart (not that I have ever done that...LOL). It has a short learning curve, I've done a couple of "hands on" demo/classes with folks taking home structures that were ready to roll. Of course, those were half day classes in a warm room...
 
The outdoor temp was mid 50. I stuck this piece together with the really wet mix and left it there for two days. It seems to hold pretty well.

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Looking at the Emaco seams, it was mixed really wet for sure! That wet and at those temps would probably need at least 90 minutes to cure, maybe more. Once it cures, should be solid!

As I said, if anyone wants to chat about using Emaco - shoot me a PM. I'm doing a dozen or so small to large builds a month, and Emaco is the best product I've used to date (going back to before many of you were born, 'cause I'm really old...LOL).
 
Just mixed some up less wet, had way less time to work w it in my 65-70 degree fish room than last weekend.

Will see how these feel tonight if I can't wait until tomorrow morning...
 

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I finally used the new rocks roostertech gifted me in the rock structure building event at his house, and built 2 structures (the left two in the attached photos).

I used emarco-400. Key is to make sure the cement paste is not too watery. It can be as dry as play dough and still be effective. I dried them in air for 24 hours, then put them back in cycling container. Does not seem to trigger a mini ammonia spike, not that I could tell.

I plan to redo the right side as well, after water parameters stabilize. Tank now has a bit more rocks than my eyes please, but this allows me more surface to attach corals. Will see if the fish still have enough room to swim in.

THANKS to roostertech for the rocks!

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I just finished mine finally too! I'll post up some pics on my journal pretty soon hopefully. It's been hard for me to remove some rocks, I like to give the fish swimming room and the coral room to grow, but I feel like I might be taking away from places for the fish to sleep. I added a marine pure ceramic media plate to make sure I have plenty of bacteria even after I removed some older rocks.
 
Need a flat rock about 10" long and 1~3" tall. I have a few pcs made of volcanic ash which bought from Neptune, and only later read online that these volcanic material contain heavy metal and is not suitable for salt water tank.

Is that true?
 
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