Living Color Artificial Reef Structures

Thanks for the info :thumb_up: I guess I can buy this stuff at Home Depot? I'm going to try to make something like this.

 

Thanks for the info and welcome to 3reef.

 

I have some Living Color Plug and Play decorations in my Fish Only Tank. The base rock structures used in their off the shelf reef decorations are a cast hard urethane with flexible urethane corals attached. I have a couple of their custom overflow covers that are made with fiberglass and textrured epoxy with the same flexible corals.

Living Color makes a cleaning solution to help inhibit algae growth on the decorations www.livingcolor.com/aquarium-products/aqua-maid-cleaning-solution

Their reef decorations are very realistic and I've seen them at Public Aquariums and Zoos etc. Yes, they are not cheap...but for fish only tanks, they look awesome! http://www.livingcolor.com/aquariums/commercial-public-aquariums

 

I bet you can order this from China real cheap. I have seen t5 lights that regular price would run in 300-400 range for 200 on ebay.

 

So that doesn't answer either of my questions though...

I don't know what you mean looks like a real reef... I suppose that's subjective. I can tell, as soon as I walk in the room, 'fake reef'.

Yeah, same here. Just covered in it. Who wants to take out a 100 pound decoration to clean it? If you have any actual LR with it, this is just going to cause a giant mess, throw up crap everywhere and possibly start a mini cycle... If you don't have Live Rock with it and just use these, it will totally cycle your tank everytime you clean it since you're killing off the bacteria on this decoration each time you clean it...


I really don't see why anyone gets into these. They're less useful as actual rock as they don't have pores for anaerobic bacteria, will get covered in algae and coralline algae like anything else and lose their color... I mean, I can not picture taking out my Live Rock occassionally to clean it... I like that it has coralline on it...

OK, I'll quit harping. Good luck if you end up making these...

 

How to make corals

The type of corals you see made on tanked and living color, etc, are made of various types of plastics. When you hear the term "resin" it simply means that a resin and a catalyst have been mixed to cause the mixture to cure. Nearly all mixable plastics fall into this category (except for some industrial processes).
The type of mixes used depend on the characteristics you want the final product to exhibit. I'll list a few examples:
1. Anemone - You would use an extremely soft silicone, as much for its ability sway with the current as its extractibility from a mold without tearing. A product I would use would be Ecoflex that you could get from here or any other plastics supply house : Ecoflex™ Supersoft Silicone | Reynolds Advanced Materials | Everything for Mold Making & Casting. Then I would use a fluorescent pigment (like Ignite), as it will glow with actinic lighting. Keep in mind, you first have to build a model, then a mold.
2. A sea sponge would be less flexible, but you would want it to move a little bit. For this application you would use a colormatching urethane resin, with a urethane resin, foam and rubber tint. For the mold you would use something softer than with the anemone mold, such as a silicone (dragon skin 10 is a good choice). (You will need a vacuum canister for this step, which you can also make).
3. To make a liverock looking background (for an insert type scene), you would use "Rebound" Silicone, you would use plasti-paste trowelable plastic for the mold support shell, Foam-it 5 rigid urethane foam for the rock, smooth cast urethane resin mixed with color tint for urethane to paint on foam.

It can be fairly expensive to just make one or two peices, but the more you use the molds you create for each item, the cheaper they each become. The paint that you use is not "actual paint" per se, rather it is tint mixed with another two part urethane (or whatever type of product you are painting). This means that it either sets up VERY fast if you use the same product as you molded, or you must buy a product that has a slower set-up time.

If you found this interesting, and want me to talk you through the process of making a peice of coral, I can. Just know that if you could buy a scene with a variety of coral, anemone, sea sponge, mushroom, brains, etc., for $500, you would have a hard time matching that, making them yourself, due to the quantity of chemicals and the scale of your operation. The molds that you make can cast hundreds of peices, and represent the bulk of the cost of the coral. If you want to do it, it is fun and not too hard, but for the small hobbyist, it is only marginally less expensive.

Hope you enjoyed,
Keabler

Note: I read someone posting that backdrops are made from fiberglass or polyester resins. DO NOT put those in you tank. They are not safe for your livestock. The plastics listed above are all aquarium safe, polyester resins are not.

 

Thought you were a spammer. Guess it's ok that you are here.
Sooo......
Is that life mold stuff Mucus Membrane safe?

 

Mucous membrane safe

It is, as it is considered safe for marine livestock, as well as used in various make-up applications that are often in contact with eyes and other mucous membrane. I believe you can download the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for each of these chemicals.
I am not a vendor, nor do I represent any company. I have long been a reader, and have been involved with my own reef tank for about 14 years. I just saw someone mention putting fiberglass in a tank, and didn't want anyone to do that.
Thanks,
Keabler

 

nice! thanks for sharing.

 

Beneficial Bacteria on Artificial

I just wanted to point out a few other benefits to having fake coral inside of your tank. Again, I am only speaking as someone who has kept a reef tank for several years... not necessarily a proponent of plastic/resin based corals.

1. fake coral or other animals do not increase the bio-load inside the tank. If you have a mixture of live corals/sponges/etc., and fake at about 50%, you can expect 50% less bio-load emanating from such.
2. They do not require feeding.
3. They grow beneficial bacteria, and while they do not have the same surface area as live rock, they have more bacterial active surface than most live specimens.

Of course there are downsides. Most notably, in my opinion, you lose some of the filtering and water stabilizing affects of some live specimens. As for cleaning, my tank cleaning crew and low nitrate and phosphates take care of it.

That being said, they are relatively easy to make, can attach to live rock, and mixed with live specimens, can really make your tank pop with less maintenance.

Keabler