Planning my 2 meter deep reef aquarium I am thinking of building walls and "arms" of fake live rock.
This needs to be porous to give the bacteria the surfaces to grow on and there are a number of instructions how to make such rock with oyster shells or crushed reef rock, mixing it with large salt crystals and cement and then forming a shape. After hardening it is soaked in water for 60 days to leech out ph altering substances and then it is ready.
This would in theory be good, but I am worried about the weight. I want to have a wall covered in this fake rock and there should be meter long arms sticking out from this wall reaching upwards. If I make it with this normal strategy it will weight tons and I might not even be able to make the metewr long arms sick upwards toward the light.
So here are my thoughts to fix this. I mix in maybe 40% volume of styrofoam balls and small junks. I cover them in the cement and mix them in. If I am right it will give me the stability I need and it will first be light enough to be stable when dry and it will also give extra lift when under water.
Is this a good idea or am I missing some things here? Any other ideas how to do this?
Thx!
This needs to be porous to give the bacteria the surfaces to grow on and there are a number of instructions how to make such rock with oyster shells or crushed reef rock, mixing it with large salt crystals and cement and then forming a shape. After hardening it is soaked in water for 60 days to leech out ph altering substances and then it is ready.
This would in theory be good, but I am worried about the weight. I want to have a wall covered in this fake rock and there should be meter long arms sticking out from this wall reaching upwards. If I make it with this normal strategy it will weight tons and I might not even be able to make the metewr long arms sick upwards toward the light.
So here are my thoughts to fix this. I mix in maybe 40% volume of styrofoam balls and small junks. I cover them in the cement and mix them in. If I am right it will give me the stability I need and it will first be light enough to be stable when dry and it will also give extra lift when under water.
Is this a good idea or am I missing some things here? Any other ideas how to do this?
Thx!
