my method of building fake / faux rocks

[RudeReefer]

Thanks! I started some of the paint work.

PAINTING TIPS:
Non toxic acrylics. Since the Habacrete is a light color, water down the colors. I took three paints... black, white, and a burnt brown (sienna) color. (Didn't use much white at all) Use a few different sized brushes. Take a thin brush, darken the cracks with your darkest color. When the dark color gets on the face of the rock around the cracks, take your sponge and wipe it into the rock, fading the color away from the cracks.. rub it in. Don't use straight black, it will not look natural. I used a sponge for a lot of the other details, you'll find yourself painting with the sponge more then the brush.. You can also dry brush with the sponge across rough surfaces. Use watered down paint, and you'll get some nice results. Dont apply straight paint to your rocks, it will look too fake.. start light. It will be easy to add more coats later if it's not dark enough. Concrete will soak the paint in, you will need to repaint the next day. Here's what it looks like so far.... and the more colors the cooler it's looking... look at real rocks for reference, they have a lot of colors and tones running through them. Am I rambling on? Anyway, take your time on this, and it should turn out nice.

IMPORTANT! - During painting both of these vive builds, I had my vive light source over the top of the rocks, like it would be once in the tank. The paint looks a lot different once the light hits it. Without the light over it, the rocks will look very dark, so keep testing out your results with your light bulbs. All of my pics have the light over the tank.

Again, if you can construct your rock wall mostly out of the tank, and paint it out of the tank, it will be a lot easier... plan ahead!

[ajw]

wow.. simply beautiful.

keep up the good work and updates!

[RudeReefer]

The Habacrete soaked in the paint pretty good. Looks like I need to go over a few spots today. I'm hoping to start the rest of the Habacrete this evening!

[Poker1]

Awesome work! Can't wait to see the next post.

[ajw]

Do you have to worry about the foam behind the rock molding or holding bacteria's? If so how would u clean it?

[RudeReefer]

By the way! Thanks to all of you for your comments on the old build! I do not get any mold growing on the styro, and the paint holds up awesome! A small amount of algae will grow in the water path, but it brushed right off with a tooth brush. I change the water often, and the frogs appear to be very healthy and are growing.

I'm new to this hobby as of last year, so if I am making mistakes please tell me. I've been in the reef tank hobby for about 16 years now, and once I saw PDF's down in Costa Rica, I fell in love with them.... (check out my 400 gallon reef in the pics below)

I just added more Habacrete to the other wall, and will be working on it tomorrow too.

[beckdg]

nope... everything looks fine so far.

that reef tank looks great also.

mind if we see some of the plumbing on that too? how long have you had that. it seems well established yet there's room for growth.

[RudeReefer]

I used aquarium silicon to glue the pieces into place. There will be no danger of this structure falling over down the road, especially since it has a flat base to it. There's still about a one inch gap across the whole top of the "mountain" where it will meet the lid. I will later place the plumbing for the water, then fill it in tight with foam or cement.

Once I got the other wall in place, I had the large gap to seem up with the Habacrete. I didn't want a real smooth fill across there, so I started sticking some small chunks of green styro in the crack to make more rocks so it would blend in with the existing rocks a little more, you can see I just used tooth pics to stick them on. With the new wall being thinner styro, it's hard to get the detail of the right side, but I'll do my best. I know the overflow hole takes up vive space, but this vive's main feature is the waterfall. In my small vive, the hole for the plumbing is very small. You cant get your hand in there to do anything, on this new one it wont be a problem. With the strength of the rock wall, I am not using the PVC tube now, which will give me even more room to fit my hand down there if I have to.

I laid on a coat of Habacrete on most of the wall last night. There is still a lot of concrete work to do today. Without the nice depth of a big foam block, you have to pay a little more attention to the details not filling up with Habacrete right away. I'm also filling in the side gaps against t he glass with a watered down mix of habacrete.. I turned the tank flat on it's back to do this.

[RudeReefer]

Looking cool... I didn't add more flower pots to this side.. I have a hidden one cut into the rock towards the top, it may be hard to see... and I am planning on growing a Tropical Banyon Bonsai tree on that side of the tank, so I need the room for it...

Check out the top view, you can really see the depth of the waterfall...

[froggsong]

That looks great! I'm definitely looking forward to the finished product.

So, so far which are you liking better, the habbacrete or the regular stuff? How long did it take you to receive your order?