Drill aquacultured live rock?

[Kitjo]

Has anyone drilled aquacultured live rock (TBS, KP, etc) to place on a frame for stacking/building the aquascape inside the display tank?
I see people mentioning it with dry rock, but I can’t find any examples of drilling aquacultured live rock.

 

[Chrisv.]

Certainly works! I'd just keep some salt water handy and rinse it well afterwards. Don't let it dry out!

 

[areefer01]

As noted above by @Chrisv. you can but plan and prepare ahead of time to make it as quick as possible. You don't want to take any chances on damaging the rock by leaving it out of water for long periods of time.

I've personally never done it but only used 25 lbs of rock from KP as a supplement to my 4 year old display. Once I was happy with it I used epoxy. It sounds like you want to do a bit more structure wise so it may be a multi step process for you.

Lay out rock in sump, refugium, or isolated container using displays water. Assess and visualize structure. Prep. Take out a rock, drill, rack and stack. Not sure how it would go honestly but that is what is going through my mind. You paid a premium for the rock so in my opinion you want to minimize time out of water.

I don't have any data to back that up just what I would do and what would make me feel ok.

 

[Chrisv.]

When I work with LR out of the water, I keep as much of it as possible covered with a saltwater soaked cloth. That keeps it damp. I've not had a problem with this approach.

 

[ATC]

I used dry rock but My scape is pinned together with 1/4 acrylic tubes and glue used a 1/4 inch masonry bit I marked where I needed to drill then left it submerged in my curing tote. I actually figured out how to drill it while in the tank works perfectly I bought a couple locking drill extensions from lowes and a 3/8 masonry bit slow and steady they fit perfectly nice and snug almost as good as gluing. Here’s a picture of my frag setup Same as what I did for my scape but using a bigger bit and no extension