Hello all,

May I first make the disclaimer that I have an extremely limited knowledge of chemistry, cement, concrete, or in fact polysterne balls.

What would happen if you mixed up a cement premix with a mixture of small gravel and polysterene bean bag balls? Would you be able to create a 'just denser than water' light weight aquarium rock suitable for siliconing sand/gravel to.. or just an unholy mess that wouldnt set?

Any thoughts appreciated,

Cheers, Henry.

DIY aquascaping question - may be stupid

No such thing We are all learning new things everyday :roll:

you could try to mix the cement with the small pebbles and set it around something like a plastic coke bottle.

I once made some pots by digging a hole in the ground and filling it a little way with cement. I then put a plastic pot into the hole and filled the sides with cement.

The dirt hole gave the outside of my concrete pot a cool texture and the plastic gave a place to put a plant.

You could adapt the idea to have a thinish layer of concrete/pebbles on the outside of the empty plastic bottle. you wouldnt need to completley cover the bottle if you had the uncovered side buried in the gravel.

You could even go one step further by removing the bottle to make a cave.

Hope you find that useful.

Oh yeah use quick drying cement.

Instead what about using pumice in the mix. I know they use this for the light weight fake stone cladding on houses.

i am confused :-? what are u trying to make? are u trying to make some like wight rocks for display in ur tank rather than just normal rocks?

Essentially, yes!

I am thinking of using these for Mbuna set up, so the design brief for aquascaping media reads

-either containing caves/crevices or able to be stacked to created many different caves/crevices

-readily moveable to change around set up to reduce territoriality when adding fish

-as near in appearance to natural rocks as possible (not a huge fan of the terracotta pot/drain pipe/slate tile Mbuna set ups)

Obviously natural rocks would fulfill most of these requirements, but are extremely heavy to move around, and can damage the tank if accidentally dropped etc.

So I was envisaging making some 'synthetic' rocks (perhaps with built in caves or tunnels etc. out of a material that was just denser than water, and then coating in silicone and rolling in the same sand used as substrate for a natural look.

just use pumas, u can get them all different sizes in landscaping yards where they sell by the cubic meter. go and have a hunt for the "special" shapes that u want

and no not all pumas float u can get different dense grade.

That sounds ideal.

Does anyone know of suppliers in Wellington and/or Auckland, and approximate costs etc.?

Also, implications on water chemisty? Does pumice contribute to raising KH?

Cheers

There is a landscape supplies place out in plimmerton and they have heaps of stuff and it is resonably priced, might be an idea to give them a try. Or else there is lake Taupo. :lol:

I'd say try to just use real rock and silicone it together but thought you might want to see this:

It's what I made as my tank is very high and I didn't want unstable piles of heavy rocks on my tank! I would say though that I would only bother doing this if you REALLY have to - it took me HOURS!! (made from polystyrene covered in concrete) If you are thinking about doing it feel free to ask me any questions!

fishy_t you could write me an article complete with pictures of how it was done couldn't you???

Although pumice is nominally granitic in composition, it could contain all sorts of stuff.

However, you'd have to assume that if it's been floating around Lake Taupo for the last few centuries it'll be reasonably clean, but it may have just fallen in after sitting in the edge of a bank since 181 AD.

Oh yeah, Fishy_T's rock mound is really quite something. My girlfriend keeps meaning to get around to siliconing stack of smooth large stones (Makara beach) into an artistic thingamy, maybe I should show her this instead.

Pumice has silicates which algae go nuts over. maybe not the greatest in an malawi tank with a lack of plants

Pumice has silicates which algae go nuts over. maybe not the greatest in an malawi tank with a lack of plants

That should not be a problem with regular water changes, silicates don't dissolve very well.

Google "making coral rock" this will give you some ideas

Here is one i found http://saltaquarium.about.com/gi/dynami ... Rocks.html

im hoping to set up a pictus tank soon & had the idea of using fizzy drink bottles with silicone on them then rolled in pebbles to make light weight tunnels cause i dont like the idea of a cave in!!

Try this forum

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/here-v ... tml#199168