***Rocks and Stone available in the Dublin Area***

ah ok, penny drops. You are talking about backwalls. I was thinking rocks....

Were you planning to have the rocks in the middle of the tank? You could do that too.
Have a look at this link. It's in German but you'll get the idea

www.klein-home.de/malawi/rueckwand/main.htm

I read somewhere that silicone based paint is very effective for paining the backs of tanks. It is non-toxic, will not affect the silicone seems, one layer will be sufficient as it has a low viscosity and apparently it is very easily removed when compared to other types of paint.

The only draw back I can see is that I wouldn't know where to look for it in Ireland and I'd say it might cost more than your normal can of fleetwood or crown!!!

I was planning to have a large number of rocks in the tank, and wasn't sure could the tank take the weight, so I was considering making them from styrofoam. The backwall will be painted/sprayed black

I so I was considering making them from styrofoam.

Floating rocks!!! You would have to get yourself lots of wire and a good anchoring system. Saying that I have seen some excellent foreground rock formations made out of Styrofoam and then cast in concrete. I will have a look around and see if I can nick and post some pics for you.

These pictures are robbed from somebody else's post. I'm posting the pictures because it specifically has Styrofoam rocks cast in concrete.





I think it looks quite well!

that pretty's easy to do as well. You literally paint the concrete onto the sytrofoam. You have to make a fairly runny concrete mixture. Use Boston concrete. A couple of coats with it. You can paint it just the same as my background

think I might take a spin over the Wicklow Gap at the weekend to see what I can find....

Hi essjay,

Ill post pics of the rocks I got at the weekend.I cant put them into my tank yet coz I have 2 holding Tropheus and wanna give em time tp spit.

cool cheers. Where did you get them? Dollymount?

Once the weight of the rocks is evenly distributed and the tank is on a perfectly flat and level surface then there should be no problem. I silicone flat slate tiles to the bottom of my tanks and then add the rocks and then the substrate. The biggest danger is a rock slide when cleaning the tank or by fish digging the substrate from around the base rocks. You can get silicone now that is non toxic and sets under water so if you are really worried you can silicone the rocks in place, the base rocks anyway.
Another point with large rocks is that if you are removing them from the tank for cleaning or anything else you can very easily damage the glass. they feel lighter under the water than they really are. I have done this in the past where I under estimated the size of a boulder that I had and broke the rim of the tank when I was removing it. I have also scratched the front glass when rearranging the rock work so take care.

sorry to but in but if i was to go to the bog to collect bog wood how do i tell if its oak and not the poisonous kind

if you google 'styrofoam in aquariums' it shows a good few projects for backing an aquarium.

www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_background.php

hope it helps

as far as im aware its illegal to collect rocks from the beach
(and possibly rivers)... still im on the hunt aswell for some
thin slabs of flagstone of some description to silicone to the back and
sides of a new aquarium..

here's the inspiration...
www.cs.kent.edu/~fmueller/240G.html
pretty nice huh?

Well, I need locking up so...
If you fing bog oak, get a drill and have a look what colour it is inside. If it's red don't use it. I will rot

thanks for the advice all i need now is a pair of wellies...

Apart from breaking into a fish shop at night, one of the best rocks in the Dublin area, is in 20cm of water in Blessington lakes, (its all jagged and round just as good as volcanic rock) I use to sell it to shops when I was a teenager, great for bear money, not sure on the legalities, no one is around in this bad weather to stop me.

I knew I guy that live in Dundrum that knew where in the Dublin area one could find Tufa rock, which he found by accident using a JBC.

In Majorca, I have a client that has tufa rock scatter loose all over her garden, I was more interest in her than her rocks (Caroline Cormaan the drummer form the corrs music group)

In Spain you could but volcanic rock to fill a 5 foot from bottom to top for under 100Euros from a garden centre. The same rock from a fish shop cost almost Irish prices.

Getting back to Ireland, I remember going to the Western tip of Ireland once and raiding a beach of REAL coral sand, its the real MC koy but more course.

I would never use heavy type rocks as the water does not pass through them so they do not act as a denitrating filter, plus they are bloody dangerous if they fall they could smash the glass.

When volanic rock falls even a a bare bottom tank it would not crack the bottom, as its vertual weight IN WATER does not mount to much, also great for geting rid of NO3 in freshwater or marine, great if you are in ther habit of doing water changes at lets say loog extended intervals.

any particular locations on the lakes? Was thinking of taking a spin over the gap at the weekend to do some rock collecting, and could stop off at the lakes

hey i have a 180 to what lights do you use and which is in the front nd back etc

any particular locations on the lakes? Was thinking of taking a spin over the gap at the weekend to do some rock collecting, and could stop off at the lakes

Gee its a long time ago if you have the IT skills (I dont) to put a map, on the site I could point point the location, I rember its a oval shape lake and coming from Dublin to the lake the lake is on the left hand side of the road about 3 metres below the road height. about half way along. Park the car go through 2 metres of flat wooded area, then there is a 40degree slop going down to the lake. Outside of the water you will see 6 inch rocks but the real nice stuff is underwater ,as it needs the water to erode the soft sandstone rock into these interesting shapes.

Hey listen guys I hope sky news does not leave filming the scavengers on the south west English coast ref the stranded boat to filma a load of geeks loading rocks into their cars off blessington lakes :oops:

This is about the best I can do....

The word Eustace just below the letter s of that word, what you save on buying the rocks in you LFS you could pay on a new suspension as I remember ruining my Dads Volvo 340 god bless his soal. bring a couple of buckets and watch the gap between the wheel and the wheel arch.
Bring some gloves and wellies although fisherman's waders are better.

think I know it. Is there a car park there with some woodland?

No below that where the word Mor is there is just road and you have to half park in the ditch.

I reckon there might be an Extraordinary General Meeting of ITFS on Saturday at a lakeshore near you !

Aquatic Village watch out your car park will be full of motorists arriving wheelie style with the weight in car boots...........they won't be buying rocks though.

Processor.
(Note to self : Must go down to Blessington today to measure water level and then compare on Monday)

anyone ever put slate roofing tiles in the tanks?

That info must be worth a drink :roll:

I'd be concerned about using modern roofing slate in a fish tank. The majority of modern slate is manufactured. Not mined like in the good old days (welsh or Clare slate). The problems that might be associated with using composite slate is that you don't know what they put into the mixture and then what might subsequently leech back into your tank.

If you are looking to use slate use the stuff that is actually mined! It will be easy to tell the difference between the two!

Slate is OK to use, also tiles that look like slate as used for tiling floors. I built terraces in a tank and it's there for a couple of years no without any problems

Did anybody ever follow up on this, any results??