DIY Live Rock Recipes?

[sales weasel]

Yes, that's what I used. I follow the recipe from www.garf.org They are the inventors of this stuff and trademarked the name Aragacrete. They say either Type III or I/II is OK to use.

sales weasel, by argracrete, are you meaning type I/II w/ argonite sand? No oyster shell?

 

[TheVillageIdiot]

my recipe is 1 portland, 1 playsand, and 3-4 oyster shell...

i also threw in some pvc shavings in one of the rocks... i'm excited to get home tonight to make some more... i'm going to try the cave types you built...

 

[moses13]

Well, I ran a little test last night on the oyster shell as follows: 2 coffee mugs filled with rodi and 1 drop of vinegar- ph=5.0. Then added about a tablespoon of my oyster shell at about 7 pm. Checked ph after 12 hours and ph of water alone was 5.2 and with oyster shell 8.7! I'll check it again tonight to see if it continues to spike the ph, or if it levels off there.

 

[TheVillageIdiot]

i'm curious, do you want the ph of the water to be down at 7? is that even possible, or are you looking to get it in the low 8 area?

 

[moses13]

I'd imagine you would not want it going above about 8.5. I know oyster shell is used as a calcium source (like in the chicken feed), and ph adjuster for acidic soils, and I think I remember hearing it used to be used in calcium reactors. I imagine it would not be used if it normally spiked ph higher than that.

 

[bshumake]

OK folks. I just made up my muratic acid bath and I do believe something is terribly wrong. A 1:60 dilution scaled down for a 18 Gal bucket would come out to 5 cups acid and QS with water correct? If thats the case then its one hell of a strong bath cause I've got bubbles and whatnot like you wouldn't believe. Someone get back to me on this.

 

[moses13]

I'm worried that acid is going to disintegrate your rocks. That stuff is strong, maybe use a drip method to keep the ph low but not concrete disintegrating low...

 

[sales weasel]

Yes, you'll need to keep the concentration of muratic acid low. I think that is what brick masons use to clean excess morter off bricks. So, it probably would dissolve your cement. That's why I use vinegar aka Acetic Acid.

 

[TheVillageIdiot]

as far as i can tell... 4.8 cups is what you should add to 18 gallons, keep in mind that unless the bucket is FULL and EMPTY, it's not going to be 18 gallons due to the displacement of the rock... that's pretty obvious, but sometimes the obvious thing is what slips your mind...

 

[sales weasel]

LOL, like when I tried to pump 12g of salt water into my 12g nano cube that has 20lbs of sand and 10lbs of LR;-)

but sometimes the obvious thing is what slips your mind...

 

[paradoxblue]

wow this is awesome im goignt o have to check arround.. the LPS here want about 30 dollars for a nott oo big bag of crushed coral.

so ill check the chicken feed thing out.s icn ei live in a farming area lol

and then cement

if i use just cement and cruched opyster (assuming i can find it) and playsand will the mixture


"1 portland, 1 playsand, and 3-4 oyster shell"
mix it and add water till it is wet clumpy type?

and if i add a half part of plastic shavings in there.

then set it up in a playsand/coral curshed tub to make my shapes am i ok?

 

[prostaff]

This is a fun thread. I can't wait to get started this weekend. Keep the info and experiences coming guys

 

[paradoxblue]

yeah if i can nail it off ill sell themt o my LFS they have a hard time getting live rock and dislike what it does to the natural reefs like me

 

[bshumake]

OK yall. I'm back. had to help a buddy get his 30" HDTV put in, followed by Star Wars FULL BLAST!!!
So heres how the bath is going. I didn't figure in displacement (mostly because I was anxious to get my rock done) before I started. I drained all the water out and started the hose filling the bucket. I poured some straight acid on one of my older curing rocks just to see what would happen andit was straight out of Aliens! Yellow fizzing foam! Kind of cool, and probably how they did it in the movie now that I think about it. As the water and acid mixed it wend global in the bucket. Steady bubbling and I couldn't see the bottom. I only poured 4 cups in BTW cause I got concerned. It actually cleared after about 3 minutes and all settled down. I haven't checked the pH but I would assume its near neutral. The acid would have dissolved some mortar and aragonite to buffer the solution to near 7.0 (i would imagine) so i'll have to check it tomorrow. If this is the case then I would think that 3-4 teatments of this might have it clear for the display in a week or two. I'll keep everyone posted.

 

[bshumake]

wow this is awesome im goignt o have to check arround.. the LPS here want about 30 dollars for a nott oo big bag of crushed coral.

so ill check the chicken feed thing out.s icn ei live in a farming area lol

and then cement

if i use just cement and cruched opyster (assuming i can find it) and playsand will the mixture


"1 portland, 1 playsand, and 3-4 oyster shell"
mix it and add water till it is wet clumpy type?

and if i add a half part of plastic shavings in there.

then set it up in a playsand/coral curshed tub to make my shapes am i ok?

Your golden with that man. Try checking out Foster/Smith for aragonite and crushed coral. I got my bags from them and even including the shipping I still came out cheaper than the LFS.

 

[paradoxblue]

well i got some crushed coral but if im not using coral for the micture i wut? use it to set as a mold then>?

 

[TheVillageIdiot]

i used 6 50lbs bags of play sand from homedepot to do the molds, i poured them in a 55 gallon rubbermaid tub...

here's a pic, i had just pulled three rocks out of the tub...

and if you're interested... here's the the oyster shell product i used...

 

[moses13]

Prostaff- the Riverside white cement I used was "Type I Low Alkali" and it was around $18 I think. I bit more expensive than the regular HD cement, but I think it looks better.

I rechecked the ph on my oyster shell experiment last night, now at 24 hours: (fyi ph is being tested with Hanna tester)
Plain rodi water still at 5.2
rodi with oyster shell at 8.8

So its slightly creeping up still, I will keep checking in the next couple days. After about 8 weeks, my oystercrete rocks would run ph up to about 9.5 after a few days, and did that for about 4 months. In the last couple weeks it has finally been dropping. I'm wondering if it may not have been a bad idea to give the oyster shell an acid wash before making the rocks? I know my cement was curing in the usual time frame due to the several other batches I made before and after, not using oyster shell, which all cured in 4-6 weeks.

 

[prostaff]

Thanks for the info Moses13. can't find the riverside anyway so I am going with the HD brand as long as it works the same. I am not too concerned with how it looks initially anyway. 6months from now I am sure nobody could tell the difference

 

[TheVillageIdiot]

Okay, I'm two days into my soak, and i'm not getting a lot of "scum" on the surface... how much should i expect?

Also, are we looking to get the ph down to 7 or will 8 do?