liverock made of foam??

[joelb]

does anyone do this? is it something i can do myself? what kind of equipment is needed? anyone know of any links to some helpful info? thanks for looking.

[captexas]

It's not really live rock and it doesn't perform the same function as live rock. If you only want it to look like rock, then it works. There are a few people here who have done it with Mike aka Texreefer being the most experienced at it. He has a tank build thread going in the general reefkeeping forum here:

http://www.maast.org/forums/showthread.php?t=40266

This is his second tank using the foam and he always does a great job. If you do a search here on Maast, there are several other threads on foam use as well.

[ErikH]

I have a large rock that is covered in foam. I made some large sweeping arches using plastic tubing and on the end of the base rock, I incorporated an upside down bill miller's tea bucket for an eel cave. It's sitting in my storage unit sine I don't have a large enough tank for it, lol. I was planning on using a hand sander to smooth the foam out, and then do a light coat of great stuff, then cover it with sand to give it texture. It has cured so long that the color looks just like macaroni.

[Mr Cob]

[quote=captexas;605677]It's not really live rock and it doesn't perform the same function as live rock. quote]

Correct it's not really live rock however it can provide similar functions as live rock. For one it increases the surface area in which coraline algae will grow on. Secondly when done correctly it increase the area in which to grow pods.

I built a foam structure that supports my entire rockscape and within 2 months it is already loaded with coraline growth and pods are breeding everywhere in it. I used a technique that made my foam coarse with lots of little crevises for the pods.

Here's some steps that I took in creating mine...

1) Built a structure out of pvc pipes, zip ties and egg crate.
2) Coated the structure lightly with Great Stuff foam to make it resemble the shape of rocks.
3) Zip tied base rock to the structure to add weight and depth.
4) Painted structure with Krylon black spray paint to take away the white color and help seal structure.
5) Sprayed black pond foam over the entire structure and stressed it after a few minutes. Foam does not act well to being spread around but when you do it will create many crevises and add tecture to the structure and gives an awesome realistic look when it drys. This process is also very wasteful considering the pond black foam cans run $10-$15 a piece. Was worth it for me though.
6) Coated everything with resin
7) While resin was wet I sprinkled aragonite over the entire surface area. (this really stimulates the coraline growth).

After two weeks I placed the entire structure in my green pond (no fish) for a week then added it to my tank with live rock sorrounding structure. It's been there for two months and I love it. Tons of caves and small crevises.

My biggest problem was floating but it was quickly fixed by adding more base rock to it.

Hope this helps. I was inspired by TexReefers use of foam. He may be able to chime in and give better details. All of my steps are not nescessary such as resin or even the krylon paint....but it works for me.

[john C]

Joe Go To Wolf Pick The Pieces Of Dry Rock Then Set Up Outside Use The Foam To Join All So Use Foam Where You Think Your Corals Will Sit For Fraging Purpose Later Go From There Leave Some Places To Put Live Rock To Seed

[subsailor]

I know its not foam but another alternative some people swear by is homeade rocks, there is a lot of infor on the GARF website http://www.garf.org/.

[ErikH]

I have a bunch of agro rocks, and they are superb.

[subsailor]

Yeah I have been wanting to try to make some, but it seems like I have been in abundance of live rock dirt cheap lately so no need, however I might try soon just for the hell of it.

[Mr Cob]

I have a bunch of agro rocks, and they are superb.

Erik's rocks to me are better than live rock once seeded of course. They look hellah sweet!

[captexas]

Yes, it allows for room to grow coraline algae, but that is not the main purpose of using "live rock". All foam provides is a solid object to take up space in the tank and create a surface for other things to grow on or be placed on. It is not "live" and does not aid in the filtration of the tank water as "live rock" does. That was my point to the original poster, to not think that by using foam that he would get the same benefits of using real live rock.