Building live rock???

Nannook

I also made some LR several months back. I turned out very well and I created some intresting stuff. I had a tough time finding white portland cement at first ( the grey pieces did not look nearly as good). What I was intrested in was " glueing" peices together .....( 3 peices to make an arch, so to speak ) but I really like ur idea of using the fiberglass rods !!!

Where did you buy them ? Where they expensive ?

I did exactly what u suggested. Dry rock with live rock mix to seed. I worked really well.... only complaint was everything looked funny for a few months. But finally turned to a uniform color.



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The fiberglass rods are at Lowe's or Home Depot, next to the mailboxes. Usually blaze orange or yellow with reflector material I scraped off. Cut with a saw, I used a chop saw, then bench grinder to taper the end a little to help with insertion. They come 3 feet long and I just cut to length. A LFS near here was selling aquascape rock piles done with plastic coat hanger inside. But while that would give some flexibility, I have found them brittle and possibly have toxins as I have no way of knowing what the plastic formulation is. I want to say the driveway marker rods were 1.99 each. The 3/8 x 12 inch masonry bit was $14, keep it wet and remove and rinse the bit in water to prevent clogging. Sometimes the rock would break if I drilled too close to the edge, but I redrilled small flat pieces and used them as shims to open up areas as I assembled. Drilled through the length of some rocks to stand on end for some nice options. Julian Sprung has a section in The Reef Aquarium Vol 3 about aquascaping. He used a concrete block in the center of a rock pile to drill, rod, and use as an cave and foundation. The idea intrigues me but I have not tried that one yet. If they can use the hulk of a battleship, I guess a concrete block will work too eh?

 

I've been doing a lot of thinking on this subject. I agree with one of the earlier post why not just go with base rock and seed tank with some crushed LR rubble. The base rock will aquire the coraline in time. I use base rock to glue my frags and they are white as snow but i know that i have no hitch hikers or algae or anything like that when i put them in my tank. Within a mnth or 2 they are changeing color :0)

 

I think I'll be trying the bed of base rock with small pieces of live rock on top and just wait it out for a few months.

 

Thanks for everyone's comments, I have some really good ideas andhave been doing some serious research on the matter. I am planning on making some peices and trying them out in a smaller tank that I have ( just in case ) I will be keeping a detailed log and progress report of the build, so I can share with everyone. I will posting it in s few months ( its recomended that you leach and " cure " [ so to speak] for some time )
I have mixed feelings about it all, if not done right it will cause major issues to water chemistry and I am going to try out some surface textures to try and match a good looking peice of LR. So... Stay tuned everyone.

Look forward to hearign from you all again

Jonathan