Base for Live Rock

[Paul B]

I like to keep my rocks off my substrait as much as posable but most of my rocks are large and heavy because I collected them in the sea.
Much of my new rock is hollow PVC with cement coating it. I am soon going to re aquascape and I will keep the rocks lifted off the gravel with these
structures. When it is in the tank under the real rocks, it should not be visable except for the column legs.
This first picture is of course the construction.
The thing cost less than a buck and took about an hour to complete

 

[revhtree]

Wow I like that a lot. East to make, cheap, and gets the job done!

 

[Reef UP]

I like I've always wanted to do a suspended reef and this is about the first way ive seen of doing it I like

 

[Paul B]

Here are more reef supports.

And more "rock"

 

[revhtree]

Now how did you do this last one?

 

[bige]

Thats a good idea. I think when I updrage my tank, I will make my own rock. This is a good idea to start. Just curious, why do you keep your rocks off substrate? I like the idea. Just wondering if you did it for a specific reason or for looks.

 

[Paul B]

Now how did you do this last one?

The same as the rest of them. I bent up a piece of PVC with a heat gun, then I stuck thinner pieces of acrylic tubing in the ends to reduce the size, then I wrapped it in string or strips of paper towels, (I sometimes do it differently) then I stick on cement.

why do you keep your rocks off substrate?

I use a reverse UG filter and I want to keep the gravel as free of obstructions as I can. I also like the looks of it better. I want as much open spaces as I can get. Some of my rocks are even suspended from the ceiling so that only a small part of the rock is touching other rocks. The tank is behind a wall so you don't see any of this.

This piece is over 3' long. It is shown completed and during construction.

This piece is not covered in corals.

This is one of my favorite pieces.

The mandarin likes fake rock also

I love working with bottles. They are not really old, I just make them look like that.

 

[Rem]

That's pretty awesome, thanks for sharing.

 

[secretreefer]

suspended rock. great idea paul! i always wanted to try that. i could put my low light chalices under it if i make it high enough....

 

[Paul B]

Suspending rock opens up an entire new area of a reef that we usually can't take advantage of because there is no good places to place rock. You can have the rock mostly above the surface of the tank with just the bottom showing. Of course it needs to be hidden in a closet or canopy.
Here is another reef support.

Most of the bottles are not old, I make them look like that

 

[Surf&turf]

Very Cool!!!

 

[kershak]

wow very nice job and reduce eco reef impact well done bro

 

[DeathWish302]

Paul! Omg...I need to get off that other site more. After moving and restructuring my reef I did the same thing with cement coated PVC. I used 3'' dia and used these columns as 3-pt stands. I also used hydraulic cement to 'glue' some sections together. Resulted in some very dramatic structures with shelve and deep internal shaded caves for sponge growth. Also I used som acrylic rod and drilled some rock to make columns that are easily removable. I also picked up my fascination of bottle from Paul, but it appears we both had the same idea about making 'old' reef bottles. With these types of structures and a bb, the koralia 4, tunze 6105, swirlenstein with maxi-mod & vortech mp40 make some amazing flow patterns with only one dead spot in a corner I can see. An absolute must for any new build or rebuild! I'll post some pics in the very near future.

With my mmlr and paul's methods, I have only affected the reef by removing 15lbs from Marshal Island. No native rock can beat the flexibility of man-made rock with these aquascaping techniques.:nerd: