Creating Ceramic Live Rock

[Huskerguy84]

Hey,

I have been reading up on creating ceramic live rock and frag plugs. I am a high school art teacher and I have everything needed for creating ceramics. After 6 years of reef keeping I have finally attempted to create my first piece of live rock out of B-mix clay. which has sand in it. I know that some clay leaches silicates but I would cure it and seed it with real live rock, like normal. Before I search for some more information I was looking for more information from anyone who has experience with this subject. I would like to know what clay works best. I know that ceramic live rock does work and saves money, weight, and natural reefs. The piece below is hollow and does have holes that go to the center.

 

http://imageshack.us'>ImageShack.us

 

I know this looks like decor you would buy from Petco but remember it will be only bisque fired, will be covered in coraline, and is my first attempt to hand make one. I have a friend that wants be to create a back rock wall and some other decor pieces for his new aquarium. Let me know what can be improved on.

Thanks

[GHill762]

the only thing I would suggest is roughing up the surface... like using rock salt as a print to make the surface look natural.. and while the plug holes may be useful, they are a bit of an eyesore (just unnatural).. otherwise, I love the shape and I think it's a great idea.. my .02, hope it helps..

 

 

also post #1k

[tam]

I've got no valuable input, but this looks cool. Followin'.

[Acielot]

Large grains of rock salt would make it much more porous although I do not know how that would affect the integrity of the structure.

 

Perhaps you could create a plain structure with the general shape that you want and then cover it with the rocksalt /ceramic clay mix. Then after it bakes simply soak it for a while and the salt will dissolve out leaving nice little pores.

 

Not sure if bubble in the clay would cause it to explode in the kiln though. :/

[GHill762]

the rock salt doesn't have to stay on it, it can be pressed into the surface then removed.. only to give texture.. it wouldn't have to be rock salt either, pretty much anything that will give in a rough natural texture would work...

[Huskerguy84]

http://imageshack.us'>ImageShack.us

Thanks for the replies. That piece wasn't very good as far as texture but the shape was good for a small aquarium. Im building 4 tours like above and 2 bridge looking ones like the center piece shown. The towers and the bridge have notches so you can add rock plates. The towers have 4 spots and the bridge has two. The plates are not shown but they do work. The plates can be moved from one notch to another. The notches spiral aroud the tower. I hollowed these big pieces out and added slip to texture the outside. I think these look more natural. I would appreciate more feedback. Thanks again.

These pieces are wet and have not been bisque fired. I am going to cure the pieces to remove silicates if any. These are going into a 75g for a friend/customer.

I like the salt idea. I am going to try that next. The key is to let these dry for a week so they dry evenly.

[jestep]

I use cerameco rock for my tank and did about 3 years of ceramics. http://cerameco.com/ I'm using cerameco as a good example because the stuff works really well and they've got it pretty well figured out. Here's my oservations on cerameco vs. my experience with normal clay/ceramics.

 

It's significantly lighter than typical ceramic. I don't know what it would be but they have to be using some sort of filler on it. For plastics, polyester or vinylester resin casting, you would typically use glass micro spheres or glass fiber, but it would melt in a kiln, so they are probably using something else to reduce the density of the clay. Big ones are hollow, but the final product feels very light compared to what I would expect from normal clay. Maybe 30% weight reduction, just guessing here.

 

Color. Mine are red, so they are either using a red clay or putting a color in the clay before working with it.

 

Texture is extremely rough. I've thought about it a bunch and I can't come up with how they get the surface this rough. It's on par with types of lava rock in how much texture there is on it. The salt idea might work. Not sure what would happen with a bunch of salt when you fire it, but might be worth a try.

 

Regardless of all that, my biggest concern would be with the heavy mineral content in the clay. I'm not sure how well controlled it is, but you probably want to avoid having clay with large concentrations of iron, aluminium, copper and pretty much any other metal. I would definitely stick with white clay and use something to color it if you want a red or purple final product. I would also try to come up with some sort of filler if these feel overly dense.

 

My biggest complaint with cerameco is that it's often difficult to mount frag plugs. Since you can do whatever you want with it, I would suggest placing frag plug sized holes in thoughtful locations all over the rock, or design it so you can mount plugs better.

[Huskerguy84]

Jestep, thanks for your info. I have red clay, it's native to AZ where I live. It is called terra cotta clay. I am using B-Mix right now. Its all white clay but has sand in it so it's stronger when built vertically. I cut all of the rock in half or into sections when it is finished. I then hollow the forms out so the walls are less than an inch thick, then I attach them back together. This will make them lighter and make it less likely to explode in the kiln. I also drilled holes into the body to the hollow center, but I wiggled the drill so the holes look organic. I like your ideas on the plates, I will drill holes in them. The design allows all of the plates to be able to fit into any of the notches, so you can put them where you like best. I am going fire the clay at cone 5 to begin with so the clay body is pretty hard. This should keep the rock from leaching as much. I will experiment with firing at lower temps later so the pieces will absorb more algae and bacteria but this should happen successfully because of the hollow centers. How long should I cure the ceramic for leaching? Im going to put a phosphate remover in that also removes silicates, along with a power head. I dont need to use saltwater to cure the pieces do I? The customer will then place the pieces into an aquarium with live rock to seed it. This should not create a cycle should it, or maybe a very small one?

[Huskerguy84]

Everything for the 75 gallon has been made. Awaiting the bisque firing. Lets pray they make it through the bisque fire. Let me know what you think.

 

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[Zia]

Looks great. I love it when people take the time to experiment and really show there passion for the hobby thru there creativity

[BadCrab]

This thread is awesome. I'm a big fan of cerameco's VidaRock and having something like that local in the valley would be insane. Supposedly, from the FAQ on Aqua-Tecture's website (the only authorized online distributor of VidaRock):

• made from clay
• manufactured with high porosity
• fired at high temp to vitrify
• completely inert - leaches absolutely nothing
• ⅓ more porosity then typical live rock

 

How many people are in your operation? I have a ton of free time and it looks like fun if you need people to test products or help out.

[Huskerguy84]

Thanks for the replies. I dont think that my rock is as porose as some live rock but it is hollow and has canals drilled into them. I am still trying to come up with different techniques to increase the porosity. I am going to try the salt technique next time that was suggested above. The person I built these for loves them. We built his sump/fuge last night and we lifted his stand 6 inches. He is excited.

 

I built these by myself in my classroom, in my free time. I would like to come up with some molds to make the process faster and am up for any ideas or help.

ZROGST, if you would like to help out or experiment with different techniques I think that would be cool. I live in Yuma. I would like

 

 

 

[Huskerguy84]

Here is an update on the rock. They have been placed in the new 95 g reef. This tank is in the middle of the cycle. The owner only cured the ceramic rock for 5 days. We will see what happens with phosphates and algae. I am building more for another customer right now and I am curing a few pieces for my aquarium also. Let me know what you think or suggest.

[MeepNand]

Looks okay, but you might want to have more "blocky" pieces to make it more natural. Other than that, it looks good!

[keydiver]

I like the shelving idea a lot, but I think it would look much more natural or at least a bit more aesthetically pleasing to have some more abstract structures in there. For example,a bonsai tree scape with removable plates sounds awesome to me. Just a little less uniformity ya know? Great work, excited to see how this works out.

[Jackal_Knight]

Your rock work looks great, and is interesting. Idk why ppl say do it this way, or move that here cuz it looks natural. None of the tanks here look natural.

[Huskerguy84]

I would like to thank everyone for their honesty, I want to improve each one I build. This aqurium is going to have about 40lbs of real live rock mixed in so it will make it look a little different. He is waiting for the tank to cycle before transferring the rock, coral and fish. The customer that

wanted these asked for this design, that's why I stuck with the same shapes and forms. If anyone has some forms or styles they would like to see be made, just post a pic. I have built some medium sized rubble rock that are not in the picture above.

[Huskerguy84]

Made a few pieces for another fellow reef keeper today. She wanted the same shape as I had already made.

[Huskerguy84]

 

Update on my 1st ceramic rock build. We switched everything over to this tank after it finish the cycle.

Looks amazing even though the rock hasn't picked up any coralline.

 

I made him an auto top off, so we hooked that up, put in the new leds, customized the canopy, fine tuned the sump and fuge and raised the stand almost 6".

Let me know what you think

[BadCrab]

Looks like the shelves for coral placement are serving their purpose well! Take some closer shots of the inside of the tank if you can :)4

[Huskerguy84]

I will but the owner still needs to place everything in the correct spot. He just transferred everything for now.

[combatwombat]

Hi, this thread is ace and the most I have heard of people talk about ceramic rock so thought I would throw my 2 cents in!

 

As far as I know jestep is right with the white clay idea as these contain minimal if any amounts of metals.

For porosity try looking on Google for clay water filters.

 

Basically in areas with little clean and fresh water these filters have been used with great effect in removing particles from water and with the aid of silver sterilising it too.

The way these pots are made is by mixing an amount of clay with something organic and readily available like sawdust, flour of plant husks at all sorts of ratios from 30% to 80% of the total mix. The clay pots are then fired with the organic element burning away to leave a filter mechanism with a porous structure as small as 1-2 microns!

For me that seems a bit small so I am in the process of experimenting with sawdust purchased from a pet store used for bedding.

This seems if be if anything a little big so I have sieved out larger bits and am trying what is left too.

 

This is something I have only just started to experiment with as I work 230 miles away from home so its it is a slow process.

I am no expert in pottery or keeping marine fish either, just someone who likes to try things for myself and thought I would let you know what I know.

Hope this helps.

[Huskerguy84]

combat! That sounds crazy! I would like to learn more about what you are doing. Keep us updated.

[louy99]

how is your ceramic rock doing?

[LBC Fragger]

looks good