DIY Live Rock Recipes?

[Saltcity]

Found some stuff on Portland Cement.........

More than 92% of portland cement produced in the United States is Type I and II (or Type I/II); Type III accounts for about 3.5% of cement production (U.S. Dept. Int. 1989). Type IV cement is only available on special request, and Type V may also be difficult to obtain (less than 0.5% of production).

Type 3 looks like it would be hard to find.

About Portland Cement

 

[scubadude]

does anyone have pics of diy rocks in the tank after a year? do corals and coraline algae grow on them???????

Here you can see some of the tripod aragocrete structures I made from aragocrete

And here is a picture of one of them after about 10mos. in my system, if you look close in the top right of the tripod you can see some pocillapora growing on it which I did not glue to it either.

I will mention that I had the luxury of having a 300g rubbermade that was loaded with natural liverock that I put the aragocrete in for about 4+months first before introducing the aragocrete to my 220g.

 

[MDogg44]

Shrimp X,I mixed mine with 1 part portland,4 parts crushed coral,1 part argonite sand,and 1 part water,and had no problems.The rock came out perfect.When I tried substituting 1 part macaroni in place of the sand the rock was to fragile where the noodles were too close together,but it still came out okay.

 

[The Shrimp X]

ok well to night i am going to try again, but instead i will use 3 cups crushed coral, 1 cup cement, 1 cup sand, about 1/2 cup shavings, and 1 cup water. how does that soound?

 

[Saltcity]

I just made a rock....

1 cup Cement
2 cups crushed oyster
2 cups sand
1 cup plastic shavings
and Denim and scarlet Rit Dye (much more scarlet)

It looked pretty good in the box so we'll see tomorrow if it is ok..

Is it possible to splash on some dye after the cement hardens for 24 hours??

 

[Saltcity]

P.S.

I figured out that 1 cup of plastic is probably too much.....I think a half a cup would be plenty.

 

[bshumake]

Heres my 2 bits worth. The dye all leached out, dont bother with it. Muratic acid was more trouble than it was worth. If you can, hook the bucket its curing in up to your RO/DI waste line and call it a month.

 

[aquaticroom]

I have never heard of making your own live rock, from your experiance is it just as good are real live rock?

I used the same basic "five parts aggregate to one part cement, but used as aggregate..

1 part aragonite sand (Seflor Special Grade?)
1 part crushed coral
3 parts crushed oyster shell.

Crushed oyster shell's dirt cheap at most farm supply stores. Used for chicken feed supplement, or something.

 

[The Shrimp X]

well i jut got done making another rock, this time the mix turned out better.
I used

2 cups cement
2 cups seaflor sand
3 cups crushed coral
1 handfull of shavings
1 cup water

it turned out a lot less watery and more of a stewy mixture, i cant wait to see how it turns out!!! I put it in moist sand and i am going to mist the top sand every day for about 4 days until its ready.

how does this sound? (i heard that keeping the sand moist helps the rocks to not become brittle.)

 

[MDogg44]

I read somewhere that you should let it cure in fresh water for about 5 days.Supposedly the cement is stonger if it cures slower

 

[ItsMee]

It took months for my rock to cure...portland type I/II

 

[Saltcity]

Keep checkin the PH till it drops and then your rock is fine to put in the tank......

 

[lousybreed]

scubadude, that is the best looking diy rock to date! Looks good after the intro to real live rock!

 

[The Shrimp X]

well i just took my rocks out. 1st one, i used play sand instead of seaflor sand. for the second and third i used the seaflor sand, but even though they turned out great, They are nothing like what real live rock is like, So from now on im just going to get some BIG peices of base rock or just cement smaller peices of base rock together.

this is just all my opinion.

 

[Saltcity]

Practice, practice!!

 

[TheVillageIdiot]

When I first made my rocks, they weren't very good, by the time i made my second batch via the "drip" method, the rocks, imo, came out nicely. I'll post pics as soon as the "storm" in my tank passes.

note: concerning the ph levels and curing your rocks. i did the m. acid bath and then soaked the rocks in tap water for about a month. At the end of the month, the rocks were still pushing the ph up to around 8.8, but i wanted to test them in my tank anyway. I put in about 5 of the rocks (around 20-30lbs) in my 65g tank, the tank is running w/ sand 70/30 silica/aragonite and FRESH WATER, i haven't added anything else to it and my ph is right at 7.6, this is w/ the rocks that were spiking the ph in my 30g tub.

I think this has to do w/ the buffering capacity of the aragonite sand, i think a lot of you are seeing ph spikes because you have very soft water (like me) and you're going to be a long time waiting 'till those rocks aren't sending your ph levels well above 8... to test this, you may want to try mixing up some salt water in the medium you use to cure your rocks or at the very least get the hardness of the water up by adding baking soda.

again, i'm not saying you'll only have to cure for a week, i waited a full four weeks before adding some of my rocks, and i plan to add the rest of them this coming weekend, I'll test the ph again and report back to you.

just thought i'd share, and i could be completely out to lunch on this...

 

[dakar]

For some examples of some awesome looking agrocrete rocks take a look at this thread; This dude has got it down to a science!

http://www.captivereefing.com/viewtopic.php?t=757

more pics in the gallery @

http://www.captivereefing.com/album_cat.php?cat_id=75

 

[maestro774]

http://www.captivereefing.com/album_showpage.php?pic_id=520

Incredible.

 

[seahorsedreams]

OMG... that is indeed beautiful... thanks for the link. I think I was just inspired to give it a try!

 

[moses13]

Well, after 7+ months, I deemed my final batch of rocks cured and put them in the tank. I'll play a little bit more with arrangement but so far I'm pretty happy. Tank ph is 8.3 morning and 8.5 evening. I'm occassionally adding a couple tablespoons of vinegar to keep it from going any higher, but this tank is probably 90% aragocrete at this point, including the custom background, which is now about 9 months old.
I'll probably take more pictures as I change the aquascaping. The coraline is already starting to cover the new rocks since I took this pic.