Quickrete in coral tanks...

[Anonymous]

I'm looking at making an artificial piece of reef structure out of
concrete. I'd be interested in hearing anyone's experiences with this,
especially re: curing methods and curing time and any negative aspects
you've seen to using quickrete in a coral system.

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

I did this a while ago - I soaked them in fresh water for a few weeks and then lowerd them in a crab trap off a dock for a few weeks. Seemed to work alright. I used these rocks in a 50 g breeder I keep outside on a covered patio. I did not notice any real problems.

 

[Anonymous]

From what I understand you need to use portland cement not quickrete. Mix 1 part cement, 3-4 parts oyster shells and apart or two tropical play sand. Mold it in normal sand with a layer of oyster shells. keep it moist in the sand for a week, then keep in in freshwater for 6-8 weeks changing the water often. Until the ph of the Fw remains down(bout 7.5 or so).

some also use straws, spagatte and the like to form tunnels through the structure. edit spaghetti :p

You can make something like 200 pounds for about $40-50 or so. I tried a small structure, and it was fun (at first). Kinda like playing with mud pies. But horsing around 200 pounds of concrete can get to be hard work very shortly.

In a year or so with the exception of the shape you should not be able to tell the difference between the concrete and the live rock used to seed it.

Look at www.garf.org for something like aragocrete for more details.

 

[Anonymous]

From what I understand you need to use portland cement not quickrete. Mix 1 part cement, 3-4 parts oyster shells and apart or two tropical play sand. Mold it in normal sand with a layer of oyster shells. keep it moist in the sand for a week, then keep in in freshwater for 6-8 weeks changing the water often. Until the ph of the Fw remains down(bout 7.5 or so).

some also use straws, spagatte and the like to form tunnels through the structure.

You can make something like 200 pounds for about $40-50 or so. I tried a small structure, and it was fun (at first). Kinda like playing with mud pies. But horsing around 200 pounds of concrete can get to be hard work very shortly.

In a year or so with the exception of the shape you should not be able to tell the difference between the concrete and the live rock used to seed it.

Look at www.garf.org for something like aragocrete for more details.

That's why you have to be smart enough to use inca mesh and pvc to make a hollow framework. I've used quickrete to make several exhibit systems, including an entire spur and grove replica. All were fish only, never in a coral system.

 

[Ben1]

I made a rock a few weeks ago. I cured it for a few nights in vinager and now it is in a bucket outside. I has been over twoweeks now so I am going to throw it in the tank tomorrow and see how it goes. The tank is a 150 so I doubt I will have any problems with one cement/argonite rock.

 

[Anonymous]

some also use straws, spagatte and the like

What's spagatte?

 

[Memnok]

I made several rocks using the portland cement & Oyster shell method. That was about 3 years ago and now even I cant tell which ones are the fake ones.

 

[Anonymous]

Galleon, please post pics of the project once you get it rolling!

 

[Anonymous]

some also use straws, spagatte and the like

What's spagatte?

My bad spelling. let's see starting the wordprocessor the doing spell check awwww Spaghetti. I was afraid to spell macaroni but that was correct.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh Spaghetti LOL

I thought it was some kind of cement bonding material LOL

 

[Anonymous]

Galleon, please post pics of the project once you get it rolling!

I was debating casting an old, large coral skeleton, or just using the real deal. I ended up using the real deal.

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=67701

 

[Anonymous]

Galleon, please post pics of the project once you get it rolling!

I was debating casting an old, large coral skeleton, or just using the real deal. I ended up using the real deal.

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=67701

Thanks for the link!

 

[liquid]

I've been toying with the idea of casting a substrate with a polyester/stryene/calcium carbonate/peroxide system. Granted it's a bit more involved than just using concrete/quikrete, but it does get around some of the issues surrounding pH and whatnot. Granted, I'm a formulation chemist so I readily have access to stuff like this.

Shane

 

[Anonymous]

I've been toying with the idea of casting a substrate with a polyester/stryene/calcium carbonate/peroxide system. Granted it's a bit more involved than just using concrete/quikrete, but it does get around some of the issues surrounding pH and whatnot. Granted, I'm a formulation chemist so I readily have access to stuff like this.

Shane

Seems to me like those are commonly available items. What's the plan? Like an a b poly foam with oyster shells? could be interesting. and let it expand in a mold or something?

 

[liquid]

What's the plan? Like an a b poly foam with oyster shells?

Foam? No. Urethane foam is not UV stable and will degrade under the lights that are used in our tanks unless they're specially formulated with UV stabilizers. I've seen a lot of people using urethane foams, but I'm still not sold on the idea until I've seen a lot of long term testing. Granted, the foam will get covered with coralline over time but I'm still not sure about it.

A lot of the large aquariums in zoos or the like tend to be either creating their structures out of concrete/quikrete or using casting resins to create their structures. There has to be a reason why they're doing it this way.

Seems to me like those are commonly available items.

IF you know where to find marine-safe resins. Not everything off-the-shelf is marine safe. Impurities, catalysts, fillers can all potentially leech so you do need to know what you're adding.

Shane

 

[Unarce]

A lot of the large aquariums in zoos or the like tend to be either creating their structures out of concrete/quikrete or using casting resins to create their structures. There has to be a reason why they're doing it this way.

I thought they used Thorite, Shane. Since it has no impact on PH.

 

[liquid]

I thought they used Thorite

They might. I was more interested in the resin side of it since that's my primary profession. I know the folks at the Cleveland Zoo have used resin quite a bit.

Shane

 

[Anonymous]

I've mostly used portland cement mixed with aragonite.

Definitely don't use crushed coral- it comes out looking just like clumps of poopy kitty litter!

My only concern about quikcrete is... what's in it?

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.polygem.com/zoo/zoopoxy.php

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.polygem.com/zoo/zoopoxy.php

I will not even begin to assert how much of a pain in the ass that zoopoxy is to work with. Remember the big reef fish tank next to the jelly kreisels? That entire reef is quickrete covered in zoopoxy and artificial corals.