DIY staghorn rock?

[Delphinus]

Trying to figure out a way to make some DIY rock in the shape of staghorns (thin branchy rock, almost like "deer antler" shapes maybe).

Would it be better to make a mould maybe?

The one thing I could think of (other than a mould), but it wouldn't work so great for a reef tank: take some copper household wire, twist a few together and then flick aragocrete onto it until you have a "rock." The only problem is the copper wire! but I can't think of anything else to use as a "skeleton" that would work as well. Need something relatively inexpensive/disposable, shape-able, and inert ... but can't think of anything that fits the bill.

Any ideas? Love to hear 'em!!

[Buccaneer]

How about plastic tubing ... can heat and bend to shape ? ... like the stuff I use on my reactor

[Delphinus]

Of course! Great idea, thanks...

Geez, seems a pretty obvious idea NOW. Damn, I have to stop trying to come up with ideas in the morning ....

[Quinn]

Tubes made from paper/cardboard?

[Buccaneer]

You should see Wetbacks man-made rock ... stalagtites and stalagmites in bigger version of what you are thinking ! ... maybe use model glue to add different shapes ( out too late last nite Tony ? LOL )

Cheers

[Wetback]

Hi Tony. The only thing to be carefull with is the mix of cement / water and crush coral so the final rock is porous but not brittle. I found that if the mixture is too wet the final rock is more solid but if you want it to be porous the mixture should be like sticky damp.

The way I made mine was with plastic grid for support and plastic pipe to form shapes (also the pipe can be used for pumping water for circulation)

I also made some shapes by putting crush coral in a wood box, making it damp and shaping the form I wanted, then filling it with the mixed cement and covering it to cure.

You can also make the shape in several parts and then glue them together with same cement mixture and you dont see the joints.

Hope I confused you enough to try it...It's fun

Wetback.

[Delphinus]

Sounds cool. Post some pictures some day maybe, would love to see the rocks you made! Thanks for the info.

[Jack]

It would be cool to have your returns comming out of the rocks. Totally hidden.

[Scavenger]

There are some great techniques on the Garf page. For branched rock they blew up a rubber glove and used it to make a mold in a bucket of agronite and then poured in the mix. Here's a link to their homepage.
http://www.garf.org/

[jgoldsney]

Another method that you could possibly try would be to make a flexible silicone mold.

I used to do this when I played with making my own indoor climbing wall.
I never tried it with cement though (used bondo)

What you do is make a model of what you want out of plasticene or playdoh, then get some silicone and make a number of thin coats allowing each one to dry. after a few coats you should have a flexible mold that you can peel off.

The downside would be that unless you made a bunch of molds your rocks may get boring

Joel