DIY Live Rock Recipes?

I think ultimately once the ph stays less than 8.5 after three days in fresh water, then you soak in saltwater for a week. The ph will likely re-spike a bit in salt, and you don't want that happening in your tank.
 
hmmmm... so shooting for a ph right around 7 is probably the best? Also, how much scum do you get? I've got two days of soak and harldy any scum... a few .5-1 inch patches is all...
 
When I did batches of oyster shell rocks, I got a LOT of scum, like iceflows, for the first week or two. Are your running an old powerhead to circulate the water?
Other batches I've made with cc did not have as much scum.
 
FYI my oyster shell in water experiment dropped back to ph of 8.2 last night, so I'm back to the drawing board on why my rocks are still not cured after 7 months... ph now at 9.1 after 3 days. Maybe the mix was too wet which made it too dense? Water flows right through all the pieces, though, so I'm now totally stumped. My only other thought is that I did not let it dry enough before putting in water?? Maybe I'll try baking them in the sun a couple days, then try again.

Frustrating!
 
mine just sit in a dark blue plastic tub in the back yard getting roasted in the sun all day long, and I never really had alot of scum. Just small patches here and there. I didn't use oyster shell though. Just aragonite. I'm gonna test the water again today.
 
will any kind of sand work to make the rock or only southdown and those kinds. i bought some sand and cement the other day but the sand said it had silicia in it and i wasnt sure if it would work
 
silica will be fine, there are many who will argue that it will create a diatom bloom and others who will argue it won't... the debate rages on... anyway, if you're only using cement and sand, i'd find something else to add... chicken feed-oyster shell, some lfs sell florida crushed coral for fairly cheap, my local farm supply was out of oyster shell when i went for my second bag, so i bought florida crushed coral for 20 bucks (40lbs)... a lot more than the chicken feed, but the price per pound of rock still comes out a lot cheaper than the 2bucks per lbs the lfs sells their DRY rock for, and their live rock is absurdly expensive... :)

anyway, hope that helps...
 
i got it from an lfs... petsupermarket or something like that... the coastal shell (oyster chicken feed) i got from the farm supply store... :)
 
i also got some quikcrete cement and now im learning that it wont work. has anyone had success with this stuff?
 
i think @ garf.org you can find a good amount of info on making rocks, click on how to and then on aragocrete and they post a lot of info on everything from mixing, designing, curing, etc...
 
Funny you should have asked. I was going to post today.
Well the pH buffered out to 6.5 in the first day of soaking so I changed the water with straight tap and let it sit for a day. pH went off range for basic so I did another bath with 2 cups Muratic to 15g. Less bubbles on this one but its still getting the same results. Oh, the purple all leached out in the second bath BTW. I just changed the water yesterday with another 2-15 bath. I'll let it sit for about 2 days and check the pH again. I'm not too sure if the Muratic is helping yet. Maby its just going to take a month before I notice anything.
 
i did two muriatic acid baths over a period of 96hrs, i've got a 48 hr water only soak going right now, i'm going to take all the rocks out, wash them, rinse out the tub then put the rocks back in and soak in another water only solution for another 48hrs and test again... when i tested at the end of the second M. acid bath, i got a reading of 6.0, i'm assuming this is from the acid... :)
 
Here's all my DIY rocks stacked for my tank. Plan on supplementing with some additional "real" base rock, Would like a couple more large flat pieces and then just misc. smaller shapes. I'm going to try and only have the rocks touching the sand bed in a dozen, or so, places.

42758Rock_16.jpg

42758Rock_17.jpg

42758Rock_18.jpg
 
very nice, sambo, the last few i've made are the best ones, i'll try to get some pictures up, i'm using a layering/drip method to make them and the come out of the molds looking much more like fiji rock... :)
 
Yeah, I wish I hade seen some other's rock sculptures and knew their methods before I made my rock. There's some very nice looking pieces made by layering and dripping. Since my rock was so plain, was the reason I decided to buy some "real" base rock. Mainly for aethetics.

Another question, who has used entirely dead/base rock for their reef and then seeded? How did you seed? How did you light until established? Did you run your protein skimmer while seeding? That kind of stuff. I thought if I started with all base rock and then seeded it, I would reduce my chance of unwanted hitchhikers, as well as save a little on rock. Since I'm in no rush, I can wait the extra time for the coralline to establish.
 
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