DIY live rock / artificial reefs

marinerules · Apr 7, 2014

The rock I made is in my grandmas tank. Looks amazing. Looks like really good live rock

The mold was a fail. It locked to my coral cause I didn't seal the pourous surface enough. I will try again but it will be awhile as the silicone to make the molds is 175 bucks for a 2 gallon kit

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jft · Apr 7, 2014

wow sorry to hear that, I wonder w the work time involved is it really worth the expense, try oceanaquari GREAT realistic corals, and for 175 buckyou can get several corals, tell andy joe sent you. Good luck

jft · Apr 7, 2014

Sorry OCEANAQUARIA

marinerules · Apr 7, 2014

Yeah I've bought about 10 from him

marinerules · Apr 7, 2014

well it will definatly be worth the expense once i have my diy plywood aquarium, cause im going to be going big, I have several nice real coral skeletons and I want to make molds of them , i may even make some to sell on ebay and get my money back for the materials,

I called the company today and told them why it was a failure and they informed me that I didnt seal the coral enough , thats why the silicone locked to it
they told me to spray it with 5 coats of clear acrylic, then several coats of their sealer , then 4 or so coats of ease release ( a product of theirs for easy extraction)

I will be trying this again and I just really want to be able to do so ,
it will just be a little while before i will again .

I am however very happy with the live rock that I made.

I plan on molding several 1 inch x 3 inch coral pieces and then buying a 12 in x 12 in piece of square foam and coating the foam with the 307 lite (epoxy plastic) then before it hardens, insert multiple copies of the pieces i molded and casted to make one big catspaw or finger coral, then paint all the colors and detail i want and seal it all with clear epoxy