I am designing a new tank, near 200 gallons. In advance, I would like to explore various plastics that can be used to support live rock. There are so many options it seems and Plexiglas comes in a myriad of shapes. Which plastics are safe and which are not. Any links to DYI live rock scaffolding would be appreciated.

I am thinking about mixing live rock with base rock, so that I have better control on my reef design. That is, I want to prepare the basic structure well in advance, and seed the base rock when the tank is cycling.

Also, what are the best glues, cable ties, and mono-filament?

Thank you in advance. :up:

Denver aquarium out here is using fibergrate in the main coral tank, they've had great luck with it. You might take a gander at us plastics and see what they might have available, pretty much anything food grade will do you well

Fibergrate - High Performance Composite Products (http://www.fibergrate.com)
http://www.usplastic.com

Nice thing about the fibergrate is you can get pretty much any structural shape you would need.

That is an excellent idea. It seems that one can easily hang live rock with cable ties on a grated construct.

Thank you.

graydon, welcome to TR.

Check my tank thread. You will see what I do to keep my LR above the DSB to get circulation under the LR. - http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/member-tank-projects/412-amphibious-135-gal-reef.html

Dick

Excellent solutions. I am inspired.

I am a professional artist/ painter, who had a failed attempt at marine tanks in the early 1980s.
( the under gravel filter days)

I am hoping to create a natural yet designed reef tank. Aquascaping is a big priority. As will be the choice of animals. But I am taking it very slowly.

One can easily drill dead base rock, but are there consequences to drilling live rock? Also, is it better to use glue, ties or both?

(PS. I was wonder if any knew much about color theory here. Its a favorite subject of mine and I think it could influence how tanks are designed. Just by grouping corals, for example, blue acros on one side and green montis on another, an interesting, unified design is created. Add texture, types etc. and a whole aesthetic universe can be orchestrated)

gluing live rock before curing is probably your best bet, your going to need to re-cure to some degree I would imagine. as far as the glue/tie debate maybe a little of both. One of the things noted with ties is after a certain number of years in a saltwater environment they will begin to deteriorate.

as far as color theory the farthest I got was having to study rods and cones and how humans render color to certify for working on the old tektronix printers. It was maddness I tell ya! You may want to look at the way some of the Japanese are doing tanks nowadays, they use supplemental lighting to illustrate color in the tank. It's a great look (albeit expensive!)

To make rock shelves I have used eggcreate for the base and PVC for the upright supports. I have used great stuff expanding foam and crushed coral to create a finish. After a few months you will have a hard time seeing the difference.

You can try live framing. Its a way of creating support for corals out of PVC pipes that open up the water column more and it doesn't have that cluttered LR look. There is a great article in the Marine Fish and Reef 2008 annual magazine on how to do it. Your LFS should have a copy you can get. :)

Excellent solutions. I am inspired.

I am a professional artist/ painter, who had a failed attempt at marine tanks in the early 1980s.
( the under gravel filter days)

I am hoping to create a natural yet designed reef tank. Aquascaping is a big priority. As will be the choice of animals. But I am taking it very slowly.

One can easily drill dead base rock, but are there consequences to drilling live rock? Also, is it better to use glue, ties or both?

(PS. I was wonder if any knew much about color theory here. Its a favorite subject of mine and I think it could influence how tanks are designed. Just by grouping corals, for example, blue acros on one side and green montis on another, an interesting, unified design is created. Add texture, types etc. and a whole aesthetic universe can be orchestrated)


Yes, you can drill live rock as well. I've had pretty good luck with cable ties, but make sure you use the black, or UV-protected, cable ties. The white ones will eventually get brittle and break. I've taken my live rock out and fastened several together to get the look that I want....works pretty good.

You can also drill the rock and use acrylic dowels to hold the rocks together.

Thank you. Are there better ways to construct an arch, and how does one support the acrylic dowels in order to create a column? One video I watched made some attractive live rock columns, but the author didn't say much about how to keep the column from falling over.

I tried heat bending egg crate but with dismal success, one could heat bend acrylic and drill holes and such to fasten rock / improve flow though

the lfs that i go to most set up his display with just epoxy holding everything together and it looks pretty nice. he just rubbed sand on the outside of the epoxy and you can hardly tell whats rock and what's epoxy

hmm sand on the epoxy, never tried that.....

***rushing off to try it now***

I owe that man a guinness, brilliant!!!