[postaldave]

picked up and got in the mail some supplies to add to the large pile of gear.
short of a bunch of plumping stuff i've bought, all the big stuff and ready to go.

the base will be some 3/4 cutting board

then i bought some 1 x 12 inch acrylic rod. the corner tank is tall so i'll have to weld 2 of them together to make them tall enough but that shouldn't be a problem.

this should is the foundation to what i can tell makes a BB system work. keeping the bottom clear and the water flowing so all the junk stay in the water long enough to get to the sump.

basically i'll have two large trees with far reaching plates to hold the coral.

wondering now if weld-on will work with acrylic to starboard aka cutting board aka tivar.

 

[Invic]

Looks interesting will have to tag along and see how it looks

 

[Geoff]

the answer to your acrylic to HDPE question is no.

your best bet is to use holes in the HDPE to slip the acrylic rods into. to make it more stable you can increase the thickness of the HDPE where the rods lock. Weld-On does make an adhesive that works on HDPE, though it does not work on acrylic also.

G~

 

[postaldave]

Stacking the hdpe is a good idea. Might Make some small pucks to use.

What would be the best thing to use then? I was going to drill a hole and put the rod in it but I'd still like to add something.

Super glue? Epoxy ? Silicone ? One of them has to be the best even if not perfect.

 

[Invic]

So your going to use the rods to base up the rock work right? Trying to wrap my mind around it

I would just make a HDPE base plate on the whole tank. Then make two pucks one solid other drilled for the rod size. Probably epoxy/glue the two together and insert the rod through the top one with epoxy. Gives you a puck to hold it from lateral movement and one to disperse weight. You could just do one with a hole for the rod and set it on the base plate. I wouldn't want to put holes in the base plate instead use it to help spread the weight and pressure from the rods.

With two pucks you could probably lock the rods in place a bit better and make in essence little coaster feet. Just some ideas.

One thing I had though about is base plate and making a hidden shelf of sorts and setting rock work on it with a 3" rise from the bottom. Then glue some small rock to the rods to hide them ect. Idea I have been kicking around myself.

 

[postaldave]

i'm liking this idea of an hdpe base more and more. i was just going to use a small rock as base.

this was my first attempt at this idea. i used on single driveway marker as a stake through each rock. it wasn't tied into anything and worked rather well. but with one stake the rocks could rotate around the single stake. this is 5 rocks piled onto a large base rock. this would all fall down instantly without the stake rod running through it.

for this next project i'm going to put spacer in between each shelf like this.
but instead of rings i have long shelfs that will come out from the center rods.

here are a few that i like

the right side of this tank is what i'm going for.

i think the term is japanese rockscape that discribes my plan.

 

[Invic]

Yeah, that is a style I like also. Haven't really built up to one as of yet since I have a smaller tank with some good rock going. I really need to get into some DIY rock to make the shelves I think.

This one kind of inspired me into that style awhile back. Just haven't built one as of yet or tried.

 

[postaldave]

Eeeeewwwww that's nice. Since
I'm not starting with live rock I'm using lace rock instead. It's light, lots of holes and can found as long flat shelfs.

 

[Invic]

Eeeeewwwww that's nice. Since
I'm not starting with live rock I'm using lace rock instead. It's light, lots of holes and can found as long flat shelfs.

Bare bottom on column of rock with shelves and detritus hiding basically is screwed lol

I wonder if you can PVC frame a column of rock and use PVC branches off, then just use egg crate pieces to DIY yourself some rock work on it the whole thing.
Would let you pretty much make any thing and still be supported and water qauilty safe

 

[Invic]

May have just hatched a plan for myself lmao now its got me thinking....

 

[postaldave]

hollywood sets are built that way all the time. build a frame and slap on a fake surface on top of it. you just happen to want to grow stuff on it.

 

[Invic]

hollywood sets are built that way all the time. build a frame and slap on a fake surface on top of it. you just happen to want to grow stuff on it.

Yeah as I have not messed with DIY rock making mixes as of yet, curious how thick you can get it to be without issues and how well it stands around smooth frame works.

If you can get it thick enough and a good deal of longer fiber material that won't break down, you could really make some good high strength stuff that can en robe a custom framework easily

 

[postaldave]

omg cutting circle suck. the back train isn't even a true curve so i had to make a templet for that cut. all in all it fits like a glove. the tank i'm using still needs cleaned out and laying in the back of my jeep. that beast is heavy!

this is the tank set up i first bought. love the stand and the tank but after getting it home there was a problem. the tank did not come pre drilled and the owner had the holes cut going out the sides. that push the whole tank out from the wall and wouldn't work with my remote sump as well as a bottom drained tank.
as fate would have it i ran across another corner 92 really cheap and picked it up. the new one thats in the jeep is a bottom drainer and had a much smaller overflow. so i'm using the new tank with the stand from the first tank. at some point i've got to have a garage sale and unload room full of tanks.

here she is. :beer:

and this is how i will do my rock work. i'll set a small table or something for support. but doing this with all dry rocks will give me all the time in the world to build it just the way i want.

 

[postaldave]

i've got the lower stand set up and the army of dead rocks ready to go.

my first attempt at a puck stand kinda sucked. going to have to use the drill press to get it right.

right now i'm trying to decide how to lay the rocks. suggestions welcome.:thumbup:

not sure if i should build a single wall that curves with the tank or two tree like structures.

 

[postaldave]

started on the rockscaping....:dance:

just a rough sketch. still have to hide the rods and get more floor space going.

 

[postaldave]

this is the latest pic. got to replace some of the lifts with acrylic rod or find some pointed rocks to brace some of the larger rocks up.

started this thread on how to clean up the dead rock.
http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f6/best-method-to-clean-dead-reef-rock-184413.html#post2065459