Tank Journal Archive

NiCd

Lead Moderator
Jul 29, 2011
4,296
1,586
Sydney
Aquascaping
So spent the day getting my hands (and workbench) dirty!

I have never played around with Portland cement before and always relied on aquaneed it and super glue.

I overstocked with the 6kg bucket of stone fix and got a 25kg box of real reef rock mixed and 10kgs of shelves just to play around and get something I liked.

We ended up with about four different scapes that could have worked, my favourite was trumped by my wife and eldest son both picking one so here we are.

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I was amazed at how strong this stuff is, I ended up doing layer on layer of it putting each section together and letting it set before going on to the next but the first layer was on a really dodgy joint, trying to hold the two biggest heaviest bits together and even that was rock solid. I recon this stuff is a goer if you wanted to do something out there.

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Jacques Pels

Member
Feb 4, 2017
287
112
Gold Coast, QLD
Well done. I spent the better part of 2 weeks putting several sections together, then 3 days getting them into the tank and joining them. I got a big bucket of the Aquaforest cement, and found it was very runny for about 3 minutes, and then the actual setting went within 20 seconds, so it catches you a bit off-guard some times.

Great open design. Should look good from all sides.
Good luck
Jac
 

NiCd

Lead Moderator
Jul 29, 2011
4,296
1,586
Sydney
Cheers guys!

It was the aquaforest cement that I used on this, I mixed it up really dry first time around and it worked quite well at sticking where gravity was working against me, but at the end, I made it quite wet for smoothing over and making it look more natural.

I ended up smashing up another one of the rocks though and sticking the small bits on where I had worked to get a more natural finish and try to hide as much of the cement look as I could.

It would be a lot better if the could colour this with a pink, purple or even white
 

Jacques Pels

Member
Feb 4, 2017
287
112
Gold Coast, QLD
Cheers guys!

It was the aquaforest cement that I used on this, I mixed it up really dry first time around and it worked quite well at sticking where gravity was working against me, but at the end, I made it quite wet for smoothing over and making it look more natural.

I ended up smashing up another one of the rocks though and sticking the small bits on where I had worked to get a more natural finish and try to hide as much of the cement look as I could.

It would be a lot better if the could colour this with a pink, purple or even white
Hahaha... did the same - I felt like a kid glueing all sorts of odd sized pieces to cover the cement joins - good to know I am not the only one.
Beats me why they cannot make it in a coraline algae color.
Looking forward to following your progress and hope you avoid some of the mistakes I have made.
Jac
 

NiCd

Lead Moderator
Jul 29, 2011
4,296
1,586
Sydney
Hahaha... did the same - I felt like a kid glueing all sorts of odd sized pieces to cover the cement joins - good to know I am not the only one.
Beats me why they cannot make it in a coraline algae color.
Looking forward to following your progress and hope you avoid some of the mistakes I have made.
Jac
I could create a whole other thread on the mistakes, it seems no matter how long you do a hobby and how much you think you have it down, stupid things still happen.