Aquascape - secure live rock?

IMO they're looking for a big sale, i've never heard anything bad about dry rock plenty of members here use it but i would personally reccomend get 90% dry rock and 10% LR to seed the dry rock for your cheapest solution unless you do all dry rock and give it more time to cure which is fine also. another plus to dry rock is no pests that could come with LR such as mantis shrimp aipistasia etc. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but most LFS arent looking out for the benefit of the aquarist but there own pockets.....with my first tank the LFS convinced me that a juvi hippo tang would do fine in my uncycled 20 hex and just said that it will help to start the cycle on the tank....that was before i was on 3reef and you can guess how that turned out. Lesson learned, don't take the LFS advice and research yourself because odds are that half of them don't even know what they're talking about. I don't trust anyone I now rely on online sources and local reefers for advice and shopping needs.

 

Yes, it's PVC. You can buy varying thicknesses and sizes. It is sturdy, easily cuttable and inert. Great stuff.

EDIT: Depending on how much support you need you can go with either 3/8" or 1/2". What I do is cut the sheet with a jig saw so that it's not square (so if anything gets exposed it doesn't look like a straight sheet) and use the cuttings to create feet to provide clearance for the bulkheads used to secure the 1/2" (or bigger if needed) PVC pipe.

Now, what I wish I would have done differently on my existing set up is that after I got the rock where I wanted it outside the tank, I should have cut the PVC plate down to the minimum required for support. I've got too much unused plate now. Not a big deal, but the less vacant space under the plate you can have, the better.

 

You should see what I paid for my 400ish pounds... then I shipped it across the country... air freight.

But then I haven't seen any live rock like this before.

 

if you want to end up go all live rock look into live rock ranch....its florida LR and they have 100lbs of LR for $350 and free shipping

http://www.liverockranch.com/buy.html

 

You can also take a look at my build thread, the aquascape is towards the end, I drilled and used acrylic rod and cement, 100 percent stable and you can make great shapes out it.

 

garf has a tutorial online somewhere to show you how to mold concrete into LR(sort of) it involves you basically coating the concrete in argonite sand and shells so it looks natural and concrete is naturally porous so it is good for the bacterias to grow let me look it up ill post it in a few

 

Thanks, yeah, I like the idea of having some sort of support for the pvc rods rather than just jamming them in rocks.

I have mixed feelings about most LFS. It all depends on who you talk to there. I think one main reason for the "your wrong" attitude is because I requested a quote on a tank from him (on the phone but I think he knows it was me) then I went into the store asking questions about how to do live rock in the tank...and I am not getting it from him. I think a little bitterness came out.

The LFS had Pukani rock that I kind of liked as well as Tonga shelf rock. $6 per lb is what they were asking...After seeing one 20 lb rock I think it will take 150 lbs plus what i have in my current tank to get the scape I want. Base rock is sounding a little better just on cost alone.

 

reef structure

I used doubled egg creat custom shaped and supported it 12" off my sand bed with 1 1/2" acrylic tubes. I drilled holes in the tubes for flow through and a place for microfana to live. Then i cable tied 1000lbs of LIVE branch rock 22 boxes keeping the rock wet with spray bottles. It took me and a friend 12 hours to build the structure with no rock touching the sand. The tank was 8' x 36" x 48" with one large center of tank overflow, i have now down sized from 900 gallons TWV to 450 gallons TWV on my new build. This time i am using all dry rock along with building a tri level sand bed again with no rock touching the sand.

Good luck with your build!!!

FYI - After about a year you could no longer see any ties.

 

i still think you should take a look at live rock ranch all their packages have free shipping and the prices are awesome