Sculpted Rockscape

[pattyxlynn]

I'm in the planning stages of setting up my 90 gal. This might be a dump question, but can I sculpt my own rock instead of using base rock? I'm not sure if live rock works so well because of the material it's made out of and how porous it is, or if it's just something for bacteria to colonize on. If it's the latter, then I could sculpt my rock and then use some live rock to colonize it. BTW, what I make (if I do) would have lots of crevices, overhangs, etc., for the fish. I'm a sculptor so I would enjoy the process if it's feasible. The material I use is Aves Apoxie and it is non-toxic. I called the company and they said it is completely safe for aquariums. It actually said that on the product but I wanted to double-check. Since I don't have a tank to show yet, here are two of my sculptures.

Thanks! Patty

p.s. the sculptures are the octopus and sailfish, not the dog and cat. LOL

 

[Fin]

Cool idea. Following along to see what you come up with...

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

I don't see why you couldn't! It may take a bit longer to cycle, but you can use live rock to seed it. Lots of potential imo

 

[delv2323]

You can get nice results with Smooth-On 321, pigments, aerosil, and other additives like glass micro beads.

hth's,
d.

 

[borrowedlight]

It does have to do with how porous it is. More pores=more surface area for bacteria to colonize on. That being said, non porous rock will still be able to support some bacteria so I think its worth a shot. You could always put rock rubble in your sump or something.

 

[Reef man 89]

I think that's awesome that's you make these sculptures. If you are putting a sump on your 90 then you could just put a bunch of live rock in there to help with the bacteria growth. I can't wait to see what kind of rock scape you come up with.

 

[JaimeAdams]

100% it has to do with the internal pores. More pores = more bacteria. More deep inside small pores according to reefer knowledge allows areas of low oxygen for bacteria to break down nitrate. If you want to do the sculpture thing, I would just use a sump and line the bottom of it with Marine pure or the brightwell aquatics bio media blocks. You don't need to seed your tank either way with live rock, everybody makes bottled bacteria now.

 

[Patis55]

Lots of you tube vids.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

100% it has to do with the internal pores. More pores = more bacteria. More deep inside small pores according to reefer knowledge allows areas of low oxygen for bacteria to break down nitrate. If you want to do the sculpture thing, I would just use a sump and line the bottom of it with Marine pure or the brightwell aquatics bio media blocks. You don't need to seed your tank either way with live rock, everybody makes bottled bacteria now.

This.

And aragonite (love rock) is generally pretty soft so you can really easily sculpt it.

 

[domination2580]

Cool idea. Following along to see what you come up with...

Fin, I like that gif, mind if I snag it?

 

[Fin]

Fin, I like that gif, mind if I snag it?

Not really mine. That's how I got it.

 

[pattyxlynn]

Thanks everybody, you guys are awesome! I will have a 30 gal sump so that will work perfectly. Thanks for the tutorial and extra ideas. If not used on this project, my mind is already churning with other ideas. ;Woot I'm excited to get started, just have one project to finish up first.

I'll be sure to show progress pics. I mainly do additive sculpture, which means you build it up instead of carve it down. Mostly it's done over an armature. You don't have to, it just takes less ($$$) clay that way and offers support while it's curing. You'd be surprised at what is inside a sculpture. The sailfish I posted? The base is from my sister's outdoor big ceiling fan that she replaced and I used the big steel rod from it to go from the base up through the fish to support it. As you can imagine, I hate to throw anything away! Seriously, I don't know how my DH puts up with me!

Oh, and one last sculpture pic. This is from a show last month. There was a theme... wood. You had to paint on it, carve it, do anything you wanted to it, as long as there was wood in the final piece. I collected all of this really cool wood that came down during Hurricane Matthew last year and was going to make something really neat out of it... as least in my imagination. But time got away from me and I figured I would have to skip the show. However, I was reminded that I had recently done a "Reef Fish" sculpture which was simple sculpted fish done in a bronze finish that were fixed to a cedar root. The root was dug up at the dog park because everybody kept tripping over it. I thought it looked cool and brought it home. Then I left it "to dry" outside for probably a year. LOL DH kept asking if I was going to do something with it. Finally, after cleaning it up a bringing it down to a pleasing shape (and staring at it for hours to make up my mind), I thought about the fish. This is really quite a long story to tell you that it actually won "Best of Show"! I was shocked! Just goes to show that fish are tops and everybody loves to look at them!

Patty

 

[reefwiser]

One thing I would add is make sure you can remove your sculpted rock easily . I see soooo many people built these fancy rock and then find out they have an issue and have to remove pieces of rock for what ever reason and they can not do it easy.

 

[pattyxlynn]

Good point and I hadn't thought of it. Thanks for the heads up.

One thing I would add is make sure you can remove your sculpted rock easily . I see soooo many people built these fancy rock and then find out they have an issue and have to remove pieces of rock for what ever reason and they can not do it easy.

 

[soutzee]

This looks interesting. I will follow. Wish you best on your new project