Making Fake Rocks

[Julio]

pretty good job on that styro, what did you use to carve it?

[geckomann]

New England Herpetoculture - Paints these are safe non toxic paints

[Sharper]

Hello,
I just used a knife and It seems harder than it realy is.
From what i saw there are 2 basic rules, in my opinion:
- don't leave many sharp hedges because usally in nature that doesn't occur.
- try to make a diversity of cracks/fails in the rocks to "promove 3D".

And another importante thing is that when you start to craft there is a side of the styro that is easy to do it. But then resides my problem: how to assemble all the pieces looking naturalistic?
Thank you.

[sandiegoleu]

How much weight could these background hold? Thinking of adding branches, but I would like to know if added pvc pipe to the center with drasticly increase the strength.

[HX]

Originally Posted by HX

Finished hardscaping a paludarium:



Fake rock and fake roots, featured in another thread.

Going somewhere, slowly:




Need rethinking of lighting, not enough of it below the surface. Ideas, anyone?
Thx.

[Julio]

nice planting!

[weta]

Originally Posted by HX

Need rethinking of lighting, not enough of it below the surface. Ideas, anyone? Thx.

halogen spots for accent lighting?
tanks looking very good, whats living in it?

[HX]

Originally Posted by weta

halogen spots for accent lighting?
tanks looking very good, whats living in it?

I'm under the impression that there are no halogen spots (the 12 volt sort) that produce the right kind of light for plants. The ones that are there, seen in the fts upper edge are just for dawn and dusk.
HQIs run too hot for this tank, since they'd have to be set too close to the plantation on the upper part...
I dunno, I need some sort of PC or T5 lighting with a very tight beam...? I guess I should try bending some reflectors for starters and take my index finger out of my nose for a change.

The front of the airspace is open, so there's only fishies in the 75 gal aquarium-part.

Thanks for your idea.

[Jonas77]

I have some detail questions. I really like the idea of using a thin darker layer at the end and washing off the parts that are not wanted.

Just for simplicity, say that we use two shades; light and dark. I would have to assume that you have to make the first (light) layers thick enough to stand on its own, without the help of the last (dark) layer, or the washes areas would never get strong enough/thick enough, as they will not get anymore layers?

I was also hoping (I would pray if I wasn't an atheist), that you are from a swedish-speaking part of Finland. That way you could explain to me once and for all what the Swedish equivalent to "grout" is. There ara so many cement based products, the ones with the most colors seem to be "kakelfog" and "klinkerfog". I guess any cement based product would due as I plan to use my own pigments for color.

And... This acrylic polymere additive. If it makes the grout waterproof/water resistant, is it really a good idea to let it dry and cure? Wont that stop you from wetting the grout itself when you want to keep it damp for curing?
I remember using an additive to my mix some 10 years ago, it might have been Sikacim, is that the type of acrylic polymers you talk about? Its kommonly called "cementlim" or "concrete glue"...

[HX]

Hejsan, Jonas. Hur e läget?

I'm not exactly from "the swedish-speaking part" of Finland, but I do swedish to an extent. Well, sorta.
På färjan till Stockholm börjar jag med "jag talar svenska som det våre mitt modersmål"... med de där vackra flickor. Just in case.

Yes, you got it right. The last, dark, shading layer is just for shading, not adding any dimension. The way I usually do it is
1. I let the final (lighter) layer of grout harden a day or so
2. I do the shading with very watery, dark if not black grout. I brush the mixture to the dented parts and then "wash it away" with brush and plain water.
To ease your mind I want to add that you can multiply this as many times as you wish, to get the result you want...
3. After the shading has dried up I spray some thinned polymer on the finished surface to make the shading stick.
4. I let that dry
5. I start watering the finished product and keep it wet for a month or so.


Now: grout is
1. cement
2. sand
3. color(powder)
4. additives

I'm pretty sure the difference between kagelfog and klinkerfog is the grainsize of sand. Kagelfog being the finer, smoother stuff. 0-0,3 mm or so.
Both make great stony, if a bit different looking texture for fake stone
.
Does anyone sell Mira products in Sweden? I'm surprised if not (they are danish).
I have used all of their grouts: Mastic is the finer grout, Rustic a larger grain grout. Supercolour has polymers added and works as fine as the others. I do add some polymere to Supercolour too.

But if you want to tint it yourself, you can use just plain portland cement and the size of sand you prefer. Grout is just that, after all.

As to the polymer, no, it does not make the grout totally waterproof. It does a good job strengthening the layer and attaching color, but it still lets water suck into (as well as out of) the grout. I always use polymer thinned with water (mixed into the grout with water or spraying a thinned polymer) to make sure it leaves a porous finish.
Water always penetrates the finished layer, well: sucks into it.

Sikacim seems to be a catalyst used to make sure cement cures in subzero (C°) temperatures? I can't see a reason not to use it, but I can't say if it makes the finish any stronger, as the polymer additives do.
Try Thoro Acryl 60. Or Ardex P51. I use both with ok results.

In Sweden I think Sika Topseal 107 is a very popular product for fake stone? Very expensive, I hear. Sikatop107 is: portland cement, silica sand and liquid polymer.

Ha det so bra, tackar och pockar.