... RS, did you check out all the commercial fake rocks when you saw the fish store? Ideas to copy.
Drew,
I only made it about 1/2 way into the store, to where the (checkout ?) counter was ... and then ended up spending the rest of my time there talking to the owners, catching up on who's still in the business and who's out, talking about saltwater tanks, and changes in the industry/hobby. I'll need to go back and spend some time there taking a closer look at their offerings.
Guy about had me considering setting up the second 55 as a salt tank. Says maintenance-wise that they really aren't all that much more work these days, provided one follows some common sense rules. They are less forgiving than fresh water though, in terms of following a regular periodic maintenance cycle. And initial set up costs for salt are more.
The cost of the fish, in a lot of cases, are comparable to some freshwater species ... IOW: plenty of cheaper fish ($<10) which are very beautiful themselves.
As far as the rocks go, like I said, I really didn't check out all the tanks, but I dunno if they had any rock that was
fake ... most of it seemed to be
live rock ... the had a big display tank (125 gallon mebbe ?) right as you come in the door that was simply beautiful ... open on both long sides and one end so you could see thru it, with essentially a reef in the center.
One thing I was kind surprised to hear is that folks are regularly breeding saltwater species. In fact, these guys had a pair of clowns in that big display tank that had repeatedly bred, and the male was tending the eggs which were on the base of an anemone. This couple doesn't try to raise them though, due to what's involved in providing food for the newly hatched fry. That is one place that the hobby can get expensive ...
Apparently they only eat rotifers initially ... not something one can obtain commercially I guess, so you have to grow your own. The owner commented that he had one customer that had spent over $2,000 just to be able to raise them (the food source for newly hatched fry) ... but the guy had finally gotten in a groove on it. Very labor intensive apparently. Given that, it's a sure bet I won't be trying to breed saltwater fish.
You sound like you are having fun with that.
I'm lovin' it ... it's an outlet for my artistic urges ...
This morning The Woman went out in the garage and scoped out what I've gotten done so far (I'm about 75% done with sculpting the rocks) and said she thought it was looking great. (Getting her to offer a comment like that is no easy feat :laughing
Do you need special paint?
Yes, kinda ... but it's cheap.
No ...
Basically what you do is take either Quikrete Quikwall Surface Bonding Cement or Quikcrete Glass Block Mortar and mix it with water and their Acrylic Fortifier. You also add one (or more) of their 5 colorings to the mix (otherwise the cured product is white) Then you paint it on in layers (minimum of 3 layers) with a paint brush.
The Quikwall Surface Bonding Cement has the disadvantage of having fiberglass fibers in it, which Glenn Minor recommended sifting out ... but it is designed to act as a water-proofing agent, as is their Glass Block mortar.
Both have to go thru a 30 day immersion cycle in water, to leach/flush out the bad minerals and reduce the water pH (they will make the water very alkali), which might be toxic to fish.
Basically, all the Quikcrete components (mortar, acrylic fortifier, and a couple of bottles of colorant) is around $30 or less ... and should provide enough material to do more than just a single tank.
Glenn Minor had one tank where the backdrop was over 6 years old when he sold it and it was still holding up fine.
