Well I carved out some feather rock....baked it, dropped it in water...then when cooled and rinsed put in the tank...here's the corner piece...and it's used lots by the yellow labs and strangely a 'hongi' has set up camp there!



Here's another large piece that I'm saving for the next tank as it's too big for this tank and what I have in it now.

That is great looking stuff!!! Very nice. Where do you get feather rock?? I'm not at all familair.

I found both lavarock and featherrock in big skids at the garden center! (I work at a Paulmac's petstore/garden center/feedstore combo parttime and get nosy poking through piles!) Actually, I find everything there really...clay pots, flagstone pieces, featherstone and lavarock...all awesome for the tank!

Thats stuff is awesome!!! holymoly I want some!! uhhuh

Is this rock difficult to grind away ? what tools do you use to do this ?

I think i may have to try this myself ! uhhuh

Nice work uhhuh

You've piqued my curiosity as well. I know what I'll be looking for next time I'm at the garden center.

Trainer, since we are all in the same area, lets all look!
I will check this weekend when I am out and about uhhuh

Steph, you are awesome! Thanks!!

(Now we are all obsessing over "feather" rock! funne )

Sounds good to me Les. If I find any, I'll post up!

mr.green Too funny...the new girl actually stimulated interest in the 'old pros!'

A drill...it better be a powerful one with lots of back up batteries or have an electric one, cause this takes a bit of playing around.

First off...using hacksaw with strong blade...get one or two blades with fine teeth for this one...cut a flat edge to make sure it's sturdy.

Carbide tipped large drill bit (at least half an inch wide used for masonry) to drill in holes a little bit apart from each other in a desired pattern for your caves. You can use a hammer and chisel (half inch wide or less and expect to either sharpen it or not use it for it's appropriate use after as it will become a bit dull). Chisel out your pieces between drill holes to and/or use the drill bit itself with pressure carve it out. Enough power will allow you to do this without too much use of the chisel. It's pretty porous stuff, so it's not too difficult. Keep the area cleaned out of the sand regularly to see what you're doing and do a better job. You can use some spade bits to round the edges or change shapes slightly. I would recommend gloves...my hands were kind of shredded by the time I was done...and even glasses, as chips occasionally fly back.

When your masterpiece is done....wash well, bake in oven at 400degrees for half an hour and drop in water right away...careful it's hot so use a few pairs of gloves. It will not sink unless you do this! A foot sized boulder WILL float amazingly enough. If your boulder is too big for the stove...you can probably put it in water (laundry tub or something) for a few days to sink...but be careful with the chemicals/soaps in there.

Another guy did it too...here's a link!

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=95161

OK so now we are OLD PROS ?? nice very nice.. I don't know about the rest of you guys but I'm no pro ! old well hell yeah I'm old. fat too. got a limp and one bad eye. kids all call me stinky and throw stones at me. see what ya did now cowchick hashed up all these deep issues I have with calling us old pros.. keep your rock I'm hurt.. deeply wounded and I gotta go now cryyy sniff sniff
your a big meany.. wave




mr.green

Holy, didn't know you guys were so sensitive.... holymoly

don't worry I'll get even mr.green grin

thats funny Pseudo....you just described yourself as Homer Simpson!! funne

cowchick how is the feather rock doing? I cant access picutres here at work. I wanted to know how it's doing in the tank.

Les or any around hartford springfield area find any feather rock? I was wondering to see where it can be found.

If you like the feather rock look, check this out.

http://webpages.charter.net/xp400sc/125%20Gallon.htm

RD...saw that link...pretty impressive! Only thing I find about the feather rock is that you'll get the occasional scrape...but it has only happened to the subdominant male borleyi and nobody else, cause he hides back behind it!

Just for you cappachino here's a pic...it's doing good. Collecting some algae now in the 110...not sure why not in the 90. But here's a pic of it...the mbunas love getting right in there, as well as picking algae off it! I think it's probably a good host for good bacteria!

(No flash here, so appears like blurry fish. There are holes carved in the sides too and they love it)

Nice tank CC. Glad to hear that the Feather Rock is working well for you.

Great stuff Steph.

It appears to me that you are quickly developing into a pro yourself. I have a few big pieces in my garage that I wanted to through out in the garden but now I think I will try this too. This stuff looks great, but my concern would also be the sharp edges. I just got rid of ALL my lava rock because of the occasional injury but I will give it a try.

Hey "Cowgirl" could you use a "Dremel" tool on this stuff? I have three of the raen things and never use them...i just cant find anything that their good for. I have checked at the place where i get my paint schist from...and thye have that lace rock for 10 cents a pound. if that stuff is ad light as your talking about...20 dollars ought to get me around 200 pounds of the stuff. The guy i talked to said they had some pieces that were three and four feet across...i think I'm gonna get some and see if i cant cut it and sand it flat. maybe about two or three inches thick. Leave one side natural and make a back ground for my 90 tall. Thanx for posting "Cowgirl"...this stuff sounds pretty cool.
As for being an "Old Pro"...I agree with "PF", old but no pro am I. thanx again.

Steph... GREAT THREAD!!!!!!!!

You handy cowchica you



I doubt I can find that locally anyway... BUT... Klaus is absolutely right. I have a female Kigoma front that suffered an eye injury from scraping lace rock. It quickly got infected, as apparently these things do.. and she's lost sight in that eye. I started treatment right away but all I could do was slow it and save the eye.

Just giving the dangerous side of the story...
I think little fish with little eyes that aren't nearly as skittish should be fine

Thanks for the heads up about scrapes. . I dont think I will put any of that in with my large fish, but with smaller ones, it should be fine.
Sad story abouty the eye

It's cool that some of you have come back to this thread. It would be iteresting to talk to the guy (flyfish) from the link from RD as it appears he has fronts in there. I'd like to use some featherrock pieces in my community tank tank too as I find it quite natural looking, and very porous for algae growth...just have to pray to dear god I don't get some black algae or whatever! In fact a piece of this rock might be just as good as lava for growing plants from as suggested in another thread.

I only had one scraping on my subdominant male borleyi and that was due to me moving the rock and the dominant one chasing him and he misjudged the corner. I have lavarock pieces (some of which aren't that smooth I will admit) in my mbuna tank, as well as a big feather rock in the corner. I find the only fish with a scrape actually came from the day I rearranged the rock piles and added new fish! I have a lot of dominance going on in that tank as as soon as they're used to the setup, all is good irregardless of who's spawning and who's being a jerk.

So, I guess what I'm saying is don't be scared of the feather rock. It's generally rounded and much more smooth than most rocks. Flagstone pieces can be much sharper IMO/IME...and I have a mixture of different rocks throughout the various tanks!

Mongo...not sure what a dremel tool is...what you need is a carbide tipped drillbit...Just buy a big thick one ($6 at Canadian Tire here in Canada) and stick it in your drill! Keep in mind I use an 18 volt and need backup battery powered up cause it'll kill your juice fast. Also...as you're drilling keep it cleaned of the dust, does a nicer job and you can see what you're doing!

Big bonus to feather rock...VERY LIGHT compared to other rocks, so I can use one hand for my 18 inch long piece I've showed in this link to lift out! (Mind you I'm a superhero with big man pipes )

LMAO!! Steph, you too???

Nice Tank. The rock looks great. How hard was it to drill? I have a dremel also and i dont think you can use it on this stuff.

Thanks cappacino...it was pretty easy to drill actually, messy but easy! Good luck if you try it. Steph

The last time I picked up a piece of F Rock my hand was a bloody mess!! What grit sandpaper did you use to smooth the outside?? This thread gave me a few ideas!!

JoeyD I didn't use anything really...all the handling took care of it. I put it in the tank and have been fortunate I guess. Although I suppose if you find some with extreme roughness I'd be smoothing it out a bit!

Wow U R lucky Steph,the rock i was looking at was very sharp..

Don't get me wrong JoeyD, I did scratch my hands a bit, but by the time I was done handling it, it was pretty good! GOod luck Steph