Aqua Scaping

[jpruitt]

Not new to the hobby but new to the method of aqua scaping i want to use. I have seen many people on here using some kind of foam to secure rock together. What foam is that and is there any negative affects on aquatic life.

[peppie]

If you are going to use foam in your tank use Becketts Pond Foam. You can find it at your local box store. There is no effect to your tank. I would suggest you epoxy your free standing rocks together, or better yet drill them and run an acrylic rod through it. I'm not sure the foam will hold a free standing structure together. The foam is used to fill in the space between the dry rock that is secured to a peice of eggcrate. Hope this helps. There are alot of pics here on RC. Read Read Read

[jpruitt]

Thank you

[khaosinc]

I have an almost 4' long arch in my tank thats held together with spray foam. I used the "great stuff" from home depot. I've heard some people warning about it but I've seen no ill effects in my tank after a year. Its all covered in coraline and hard to tell apart from the rock

[reefvilla]

I tried to make an arch with the epoxy you buy at the fish store... Hated it, didn't really hold it together.

What I did find that worked AWESOME is Silicone!! I used Momentive RTV108 silicone to make my arches. After that stuff dries there is no way it will come apart unless you razor blade it! You gotta make sure you crush up some small pieces and crumbs of the rock your using so you can spread it all over the silicone that is seen once the rocks are together. If you don't, you end up with corraline algae everywhere except a few super slick and bright white'ish clear spots... :spin1:

[joeychitwood]

The nice thing about spray foam is that it conforms to the rock contours and fills in the small spaces to make the structure fairly stable. Use as little of it as you need, to minimize the artificial appearance of the foam, though as khaosinc mentioned, it soon becomes covered with coralline and "disappears" into the structure.