Diy Rock Project

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Today I have to figure out how I will anchor the piece to the floor of my tank.
I'm leaning towards embedding magnets into the bottom of the piece. I figure I can get more weight out of the magnets than the amount of lead I can even fit in the piece. They have to be strong enough to pull through the cement mix and a little bit of glass.
Anybody think the magnets are a good idea?
 
Jmedic25 said:
Dude that looks awesome!...Put some goop on it and quick!
Click to expand...

Thanks jmedic. Haha! Yeah man I would like to put the first coat on today, I just need to figure out that anchor issue and I'm gooping it.
 
Ok he's an idea when you start to coat the Styrofoam leave a few strategically placed holes exposing the Styrofoam so you can pour acetone in and dissolve away the inner core then rinse out and add sand inside of it then seal with the rest of you concrete and should sink like a rock
 
Mrc8858 said:
Ok he's an idea when you start to coat the Styrofoam leave a few strategically placed holes exposing the Styrofoam so you can pour acetone in and dissolve away the inner core then rinse out and add sand inside of it then seal with the rest of you concrete and should sink like a rock
Click to expand...

That is a great idea! I would be kinda worried about how the shell would stand up against the buoyancy of the air trapped inside...without any structure to help. Idk... I might worry too much about the strength of cement mixes. I just don't have a lot of experience. Great idea though...Might just run with that.
 
I think you should coat it first. Then you can try and sink it. It may sink on its own since you have removed lots of foam. At least then you can judge how much weight yout going to need. Its will be nerve racking. You may need to get fishing weights and put them all over to get it heavy enough. Just weighting the base may cause the top to crack since the top will be trying to float up. At least put one coat on it and see how heavy it is. It may be heavy enough. Then you can put the final pretty coat on it.
 
Wow. It's just getting better and better<3

I have read of people using industrial strength velcro is vivariums. Maybe anchoring the bottom down with whatever and velcroing the back of the top half to the tank wall? Just an idea.
 
TheCrazyFishLady said:
Wow. It's just getting better and better<3

I have read of people using industrial strength velcro is vivariums. Maybe anchoring the bottom down with whatever and velcroing the back of the top half to the tank wall? Just an idea.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I don't want it attached to the rear of the tank. I'm going to go with weighing down with imbedded lead weights. My problem now is figuring out how much weight I need without water to submerged it in. lol
 
Haha! Imbedded weight not gonna happen. This thing is BUOYANT! Im going to wrap and attach a couple rusty old 10 lb plates to the base. I'm not even sure if 20 lbs will keep it down!
 
Jmedic25 said:
I think you should coat it first. Then you can try and sink it. It may sink on its own since you have removed lots of foam. At least then you can judge how much weight yout going to need. Its will be nerve racking. You may need to get fishing weights and put them all over to get it heavy enough. Just weighting the base may cause the top to crack since the top will be trying to float up. At least put one coat on it and see how heavy it is. It may be heavy enough. Then you can put the final pretty coat on it.
Click to expand...

Idk how I missed this post.

I tried to sink a small hide and climb thing, that I made for my kid's hermit crabs....? anyway, it was carved well and heavily coated....it wouldn't sink, not even close.

I'm going to coat it very well I think it will be plenty strong enough to hold under pressure.
 
I separated the one piece into two pieces because I was worried about getting it into my tank. Everything is going to be wet in roughly 5 minutes, when the grout is finished "Stacking?"

The grout I got is "antique white" If I'm not hot on the color, after drying, I may experiment with acid stain and epoxy. We'll see shortly! I'll post a pic after the 1st coat.

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/3339/1328309378369.jpg

Here we go....
 
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