[Lazylivin]

Hi all, my name is Brian and I am new here. I found the site via internet search while looking to learn how to make things from a mold. Thought someone here may be able to point me in the right direction.
I have a hobby keeping saltwater coral reef tanks. The tanks have saltwater marine fish and living coral in them. The corals are grown from cuttings of large specimens. After taking a cutting of the coral I mount it to a piece of ceramic that is made from clay and fired in a kiln. The mounts are made by hand and take me quite some time to make. I found a plastic seed tray that would work perfect as a mold so I no longer would have to make each one individually. I tried pouring slip (liquid clay) into the seed tray but due to being plastic it is not able to evaporate the liquid within and dry. After two weeks it is still wet under the dry top layer. I am looking for something other material that I can pour inside the mold. Once cured it needs to be safe in the tank. Not breakdown and release any toxic chemicals. Hoping someone can suggest a material that I could investigate further. Something with less than 5% shrinkage and easy to remove from the plastic mold. Slip is very inexpensive at $10 for 2.5 Gallons. I know there won’t be any solutions that economical but hoping to not spend more than $20 per gallon.

Here is a picture of the mold I would like to use.

http://s486.photobucket.com/user/lazylivin/media/DIY%20Frag%20Plugs/33CBDB21-FDA0-4E20-BF7A-3E033404445E_zpsjnucn7te.jpg.html

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Brian,

What a neat idea! My first concern is whether or not resin is going to come out of the plastic seed tray you want to use as a mold. Here are two blog posts I’ve done showing success and disaster using similar plastic as a mold:

https://www.resinobsession.com/resin-resin-resin/casting-resin-in-non-traditional-plastic-molds
https://www.resinobsession.com/molds-mold-making/casting-resin-in-a-soap-mold

While resin usually does fine with constant water exposure (once it is cured), what I don’t know is whether or not salt water is a problem. Let me do a little checking on that and see what I can find out.

[Lazylivin]

Thank you for your response. I liked your blog and video. I think that would work just fine for me and I will give it a try. I will check out the resins on this site and place an order for a trial run and report back. Thank you 🙂

[Katherine Swift]

Hi Brian,

In talking with several of our resin manufacturers, they cannot recommend using cured resin in a saltwater fish tank. Unfortunately, it looks like resin isn’t a good choice for your project.

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