Painting Liverock

[Rob.B.]

A little bit of an update: I got 20 lbs of Stax rocks over the weekend. Some are a bit smaller than I would have liked so I am looking into adding some Tonga shelfs or something. I tried coloring them with purple PVC primer and the color did not stay. When the primer dried it hardly even looked like I put anything on them. So I went to home depot looking for Purple Krylon Fusion but this store did not carry it. So I said whatever and picked up some Purple Rustoleum (2x Paint+Primer) Spray Paint. I sprayed a few stax rocks and I am letting them dry. I setup a test 10 gallon that I will place them in along with some snails and some less beloved corals including a green acan, green duncan, green star polyp, zoanthids, green branching hammer, a stylophora, a birdsnest, some aliptasia , orange and green lobo, green damicornis, and a gold leptoseris. I will give and update once I throw the painted rocks in the tank. I am letting them dry for a few days giving them a rinse then dry then in the tank.

 

[laverda]

There is an old saying in this hobby. Nothing good comes fast! IMHO let nature take its course.

I agree 100%.
Start cycling your Tunze rocks now, add some coralline scrapings from your old tank. Add light and circulation and in a short while they will have natural, beneficial coralline algae that look way better.
Paint will seal the pores of the rock reducing the area for beneficial bacteria growth, and who know what else it may do over time.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Interesting thread. I'd be afraid of trying to dye anything in my reef. Best of luck! Keep us posted!

 

[Reef Doc]

I spray painted the rocks with the Purple Rustoleum on Sunday 4/22/2018 and placed them in the 10 gallon on 4/24/2018. I did not rinse the rock at all and I am not doing any water changes. I just have a small bag of carbon in the corner of the 10 gallon. There are two Hydor Pico Mag 180 Powerheads for flow, one Coralife 2xT5 HO with ATI Blue Plus Bulbs for light, Salinity is at 1.025 and im bumping it to 1.028 and moving to high calcium and an alk of about 10 in the next few days (I like running high numbers to prevent RTN)

So far no ill effects to any of the inhabitants!!!

I will add pictures later.

STOCKING LIST OF THE 10 GALLON:
SPS
ORA Bird of Paradise Seriatopora
ORA Yellow Porites
ORA Green Damicornis
Orange Montipora Capricornis
Pink Stylophora

LPS
Green Acan
Green Duncan
Neon Green Branching Hammer
Pale Green Branching Hammer
Orange-Green Lobo (or Maxima?)

Encrusting
Green Star Polyp
CC Tangerine Juice Leptoseris
JF Outer Space Psammacora
Meteor Shower Cyphaestrea

Zoanthids
Radioactive Green Dragon Eyes
Red Cherry Bombs
Spidermans?
Orange Dots

Mushrooms
Orange Discosoma (Small Size)
Blue Discosoma (Medium Size)

Softies
ain't nobody got time for softies!

Inverts
Nassarius Snail x1
Trochus Snail x2
Aliptasia (I hope they all die!!)
Peppermint Shrimp (Adding to the tank this weekend!)

Fish
Cheapo Damsel from PetCo (Maybe this weekend)

 

[Reef Doc]

Here are some pictures using 1st Gen Current USA Orbit Marine LED Lighting:
That pink blob on the left overhang is a WWC Pink Leptoseris.
100% White Channel On with 100% Blue Channel On

 

[Reef Doc]

Here are some pictures using 1st Gen Current USA Orbit Marine LED Lighting:

100% White Channel On, Blue Channel Off

 

[sp1187]

https://www.reynoldsam.com/product/smooth-cast-325/


Completely reef safe

 

[Reef Doc]

Here is the spray paint I have been using. It's been safe so far... I just need to make sure Peppermint Shrimp and Fish can survive it. Not sure if it would do something funny to their gills or oxygen in the water.

 

[Reef Doc]

Not sure if the picture worked...

 

[Crimson]

Again, as someone else stated why would you do this? Your clogging the pores in your rock. You realize that's where bacteria grows and lives.

To each his own I guess.

 

[Reef Doc]

Again, as someone else stated why would you do this? Your clogging the pores in your rock. You realize that's where bacteria grows and lives.

To each his own I guess.

There is much more surface area in the sand bed than inside the rock for the bacteria to live and you can also get plenty of flow through the sand bed too. If you are running bare bottom then the rock becomes more important but there are very successful tanks that have ZERO LIVEROCK in their systems. The bacteria grows on any surface including surfaces with paint on them. Also, if you look at the rock it is not completly covered in paint there are small bare areas not covered by the paint that would be sufficient for water to move in and out of the rock if the paint coverage even was an issue. Here is a great tank that has no live rock...all ceramic aquascape:



Oh and one more thing, doesn't coraline algae cover the pores on rock just like the paint is doing? Have you ever heard someone say man this coraline algae is ruining my bacteria's ability to process nitrogen?

 

[Gareth elliott]

No actual science to back this up but i think a polymer like paint is going to be more impermible than the coraline.

That said following along to see the progression

 

[Reef Doc]

Also, the aquascape of the BRS 160 on Bulk Reef Supply's 52 weeks of reefing was Reef Rock 2.1 which is a rock that is entirely covered by paint and I don't think they had any issues.

 

[Reef Doc]

And yes paint is permeable to water... but compared to coraline...I don't know.
https://ktauniversity.com/significance-permeability-paints/

 

[stevieduk]

just get some Tufa rock, it extremly poros and makes good living rock when taken over by you bateria and it is so esy to cut holes in cos its a soft rock so you can cut into it how you want

 

[Dawgvet]

Wouldn't a satin paint be better that a gloss paint? Gloss paints tend to be less permeable.

 

[Pauley]

A while back I replaced half the established rock in a 75 with man made rock that I painted. I found the krylon paint at a craft store. I used several colors and a few fancy painting techniques, and it matched fairly well. For anybody doing this, if your’re not super skilled and want it to look realistic, I’d recommend checking out some YouTube videos on applying horror makeup. Believe it or not, you may find the techniques useful. Anyhow, it’s been in the tank for a few years now, and I haven’t seen any issues. It didn’t flake/peel/etc, and was overtaken by coralline fairly quickly.

That being said, I felt like my particular fake rock was already overly dense, with a small pore structure. Even with light coats, the paint sealed it more than I would’ve liked. I wasn’t too worried about the bio filter based on my ceramic plate media, but I’d probably not go my route in a tank without the extra filtration. Also, imho, my rock structure looks cool, but the rock itself does not look as sexy as real rock that has been aged. Again, could just be my particular rock.

 

[Michael Stetz]

Ok this may sound crazy! I will be doing our new aquarium with Caribsea Liferock and Liferock Shapes. It’s a peninsula tank so I’m go to be incorporating some Tunze Streams along with the Tunze Stream Rocks at the far end to create flow.
I want these to somewhat match the tank, I know people use PVC primer to dye the rock. Thinking of a more safe solution for the critters... Has anyone wetted liverock down and sprinkled grape koolaid over it? I know that stuff pretty much stains whatever it comes in contact with.

Just a reminder from the OP

Rob.B. stated the base rock he was using was Caribsea Life Rock (already purple). He is just talking about painting/ dying his Tunze Stream Rock powerhead covers so I don't think he is worried about reducing the Stream Rocks porosity.

There is a lot of good conversation here I just noticed it was heading a little off track.

 

[Rob.B.]

Just a reminder from the OP

Rob.B. stated the base rock he was using was Caribsea Life Rock (already purple). He is just talking about painting/ dying his Tunze Stream Rock powerhead covers so I don't think he is worried about reducing the Stream Rocks porosity.

There is a lot of good conversation here I just noticed it was heading a little off track.

Thanks Mike for the intervention...

I’ve heard of Tang Police not Liverock Police..

It’s innovation people, I’ve been in the hobby over 30 years trying something new.

Well tonight was the first attempt in creating a Tunze Stream Rock - Life Rock... I need some brownish Acrylic Paint.. Turned out better then I thought it would..

 

[Rob.B.]

Thanks Mike for the intervention...

I’ve heard of Tang Police not Liverock Police..

It’s innovation people, I’ve been in the hobby over 30 years trying something new.

Well tonight was the first attempt in creating a Tunze Stream Rock - Life Rock... I need some brownish Acrylic Paint.. Turned out better then I thought it would..

Now Caribsea Liferock seems to have some of their reef grade substrate fused into the paint.

I plan on imitating this by painting a light coat of super glue in areas and applying the reef grade substrate.

The could get me closer to the finished looks I’m trying to achieve.