Need help with my aquascape

elisa h · Oct 5, 2017

For taller tanks, how do you build a tall aquascape while keeping it stable? Mine is 27in tall and I can't seem to build my scape up even half of that without being left with a rock wall or an unstable scape.. I tried tried using epoxy but it didn't seem to want to stick to the rocks.. maybe because they were kinda wet?

Here is what it have so far..

Do you guys think I'm fine with what I have? Will it be hard to place corals on surfaces that aren't flat such as my structure on the right?

leahfiish · Oct 5, 2017

You can use zip ties to hold pieces together, or drill holes in the rock and use acrylic rods to hold them together. Epoxy also works, it just takes a lot of it and you have to hold it while it's cementing. You can also use super glue in combination with Epoxy to help it stick a little bit better.
As far a scape it depends a little bit on the type of corals you want. I think the vertical structures you have are going to make it difficult to place corals without shading a lot of the stuff below, but it does have a lot of visual appeal.

JoshH · Oct 5, 2017

Epoxy doesn't like sticking to even dry rock it seems, As leah said it does work but you need a lot of it and you really have to work it into the rock work especially if it's wet. Drilling through with the acrylic rods would be the strongest but a ton of work. And I think the tall narrow structure might be difficult to have coral growth on without good planning as well. Placing corals near the bottom that have lots of growth outwards and shorter growth corals as you go up the structure might be your best bet. Maybe shop around for one large piece of LR/DR for a solid base and go from there. You should be able to find a piece large enough to help give you the height you want without being nearly as unstable.

PatW · Oct 5, 2017

You can get a type of cement for rocks. My tank is 27 inches deep and it is what I used. I built kind of modular pieces so I did not have one or two enormous pieces. Marco rocks sells cement. It is easy. Mix it, place the ROCKS together, let dry and you have a single big rock instead of a bunch of little ones.

Jason mack · Oct 5, 2017

You will probably wanna build higher in the future ... I did !

But it looks great

saltyfilmfolks · Oct 5, 2017

Acrylic rod. Also there are several types of reef safe cement available.

With rod you drill holes in the soft rock and use putty to secure them.

To avoid a lot of extra research on cement , you can look al Marco rocks and use their cement.

http://www.marcorocks.com/products-1/

I used a product called PC 7 epoxy

You have to push the cement and the epoxy into the rock quite s bit to make sure it bonds. As the top layers of the rock(none actually) can be kinda soft.

To cover the epoxy or cement you can just push sand on it while it's tacky to camouflage it. Or put another thin layer on it after it has dried.

Drilling takes a bit of practice as it soft and you should use a variable speed drill. IMO