My floating tonga aquascape.

[WDKegge]

Currently rebooting my tank and thought I would share my fully floating aquascape. Made out of cornerstone artifical tonga rock.

This is 24lbs of rock, this stuff is SUPER LIGHT, I threw a piece in my sump and the stuff dang near floats, we ended up using everything minus one large piece, I would guess the whole scape weighs around 21-22 lbs

Rock is fused to a roughed up DIY French cleat design made out of acrylic. I layered baking soda and superglue as well as emarco to the rock to get as much surface contact as possible, there are several points on the structure that "hinge" on the plate to give as much strength as possible.

Installing the base of the French cleat that the plate attached to the rock will hook onto, the base is attached to the back of the tank with aquarium grade acrylic.

Here is a quick shot of the mock up. I will update this post once the tank has water back in it, I wont be putting the rock in place until I have the tank filled to relieve as much stress as possible on any joints.

 

[BeltedCoyote]

My only thought is hiding spots and such for your fish.

beyond that it’s amazing.

 

[WDKegge]

My only thought is hiding spots and such for your fish.

beyond that it’s amazing.

The top of the rock will be 100% covered in torches which should give more than ample hiding places.

 

[damsels are not mean]

Love scapes that aren't just coral wall

 

[WDKegge]

Few test pics, the cleat design worked fantastic, the whole scape hooked on in about 1 second, unfortunately I seem to have miscalculated the height of the plate and the scape is a good 3-4 inches higher than I want it to be.

Fortunately this will be an easy fix and will not require any major work, will put a 3rd section of acrylic between the base and the rock plate to lower it to the desired height and will only take a few seconds to install.

I am beyond thrilled with how it came out, pretty much exactly what I had envisioned.

 

[Reefing102]

Looking really good so far

 

[Dburr1014]

Amazing

 

[attiland]

Currently rebooting my tank and thought I would share my fully floating aquascape. Made out of cornerstone artifical tonga rock.

This is 24lbs of rock, this stuff is SUPER LIGHT, I threw a piece in my sump and the stuff dang near floats, we ended up using everything minus one large piece, I would guess the whole scape weighs around 21-22 lbs

Rock is fused to a roughed up DIY French cleat design made out of acrylic. I layered baking soda and superglue as well as emarco to the rock to get as much surface contact as possible, there are several points on the structure that "hinge" on the plate to give as much strength as possible.

Installing the base of the French cleat that the plate attached to the rock will hook onto, the base is attached to the back of the tank with aquarium grade acrylic.

Here is a quick shot of the mock up. I will update this post once the tank has water back in it, I wont be putting the rock in place until I have the tank filled to relieve as much stress as possible on any joints.

does it not put extreme pressure on the glass?
I love it looks amazing

 

[Jekyl]

The top of the rock will be 100% covered in torches which should give more than ample hiding places.

Except that torches can sting fish, they won't sleep near them.

 

[Tamberav]

Looks great! What brand of artificial rock is that?

 

[WDKegge]

does it not put extreme pressure on the glass?
I love it looks amazing

Any pressure is put on the acrylic mounting plate, and that is very large and spread out over a wide area, the scape is also very light.

 

[WDKegge]

Looks great! What brand of artificial rock is that?

Cornerstone reef rock.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

So nice!!

 

[Roscovitch]

Except that torches can sting fish, they won't sleep near them.

Really? I have a five inch mystery wrasse lives in a hole right between two massive torch corals and it’s never been stung.

 

[dvgyfresh]

Really? I have a five inch mystery wrasse lives in a hole right between two massive torch corals and it’s never been stung.

My clown thinks the torch is the anemone sometimes , black spots all over lol wrasse might be tolerant of the stings

 

[Lowsingle]

Nice work, are you worried that over time as the corals grow the rock structure will get significantly more heavy and cause a fracture?

Darren

 

[WDKegge]

Nice work, are you worried that over time as the corals grow the rock structure will get significantly more heavy and cause a fracture?

Darren

I accounted for that and feel it's more than strong enough to support much more weight/stress than it will carry.

 

[brmc1985]

Saw your post on Reddit and was hoping you had a build thread on here!!! Awesome job

 

[707Nick]

Currently rebooting my tank and thought I would share my fully floating aquascape. Made out of cornerstone artifical tonga rock.

This is 24lbs of rock, this stuff is SUPER LIGHT, I threw a piece in my sump and the stuff dang near floats, we ended up using everything minus one large piece, I would guess the whole scape weighs around 21-22 lbs

Rock is fused to a roughed up DIY French cleat design made out of acrylic. I layered baking soda and superglue as well as emarco to the rock to get as much surface contact as possible, there are several points on the structure that "hinge" on the plate to give as much strength as possible.

Installing the base of the French cleat that the plate attached to the rock will hook onto, the base is attached to the back of the tank with aquarium grade acrylic.

Here is a quick shot of the mock up. I will update this post once the tank has water back in it, I wont be putting the rock in place until I have the tank filled to relieve as much stress as possible on any joints.

Great design I’m sure many ppl will take this and build from it. Great creativity!!!

 

[Sean Clark]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.