I'm gonna do some DIY live rock.

[Mr James]

Anybody ever try it or have some good leads?? I am planning on using my waste from my RO/DI to cure it. I see the DIY live rock thread is into it's 4th page. I guess I have a lot of reading to do. A friend of mine in Florida used the rock salt method and it turned out well.

Updates coming soon.

 

[Mattewell]

James, sorry never tried it. Whats the rock salt method?

 

[Mr James]

The rock salt creates pores in the rock and dissolves once subjected to water.

 

[tarax]

I have seen it recommended somewhere that you use a muriatic acid wash after your done curing, do you plan on going this far or do you plan on just doing the daily water changes until the PH stabalizes?

 

[Mattewell]

so do you use concrete? Then put rock salt on it to create pores?

 

[tarax]

That is the basic concept. The article/forum posting is quite long but you make a basic mud with portland type I cement and rock salt. You then spend the next 30+ days curing it in a water bath to remove the salt, complete the curing of the rock etc. It isn't safe to put into the aquarium until after that point as it can do all kinds of nasty things to your PH.. Reading the article is best as the people who have spent the time posting the info really have done a great job with their process.

 

[Mr James]

I have never done it, but I definitely see the need as we, (well not you guys) live near the north pole!! I plan to do sand this way as well. Buy a little bit of the good stuff, add some dead stuff and after a few weeks or months, I'll have all good stuff.

As far as the DIY rock, I am still determining the different materials as well as where to get them.

 

[tarax]

Portland I can be found at Lowes or Home Depot.. I got mine from a fellow construction guy that does concrete work. He had a bag in his garage and wanted it out anyway..

Personally I think I am going to do a hybrid and use aragonite sand, a small amount of cc, cement and salt of differing sizes. I want to use the sand and cc for the buffering capabilities. I'm gonna work with it a bit and see what happens.

Again I haven't done it, but have talked with people who have and they state it takes a minimum of 30 to 45 days for curing and said I should error on the 45 day side of the cure process. I think I am also going take a second tank I have and run it with some old water/new water and watch what it does to the PH levels of the tank before I put it in the display first.

Its not that I need Live Rock, in fact far from it.. But I do want to make some shelves for corals etc and I haven't been able to find anything really flat around here at all.. So thats when I decided to build it..

 

[Mr James]

Where are you going to find the aragonite sand?? I lived in Florida and the stuff was scarce.

From what I have read, CC won't buffer unless your pH is low enough to allow it to dissolve. Something around 6.5 or whatever.

 

[Mattewell]

I don't know if I'm just looking in the right place but I have found aragonite sand to be quite easy to find. Both great pets and petsmart in Fargo carry it. Matter of fact I have a 20 gallon in my garage holding about 40 pound of it due to the fact that my 75 is now a bare tank. Why was it difficult to find it in Florida? You would think that stuff would be all over the place.

As far as DIY live rock goes, Ive been skeptical because I believe in the benefits of having all sorts of great creatures living on good live rock, plus you get buffering.

I understand that those creatures will eventually grow onto the DIY rock once established. I'm not bashing DIY rock, I would just be interesting in seeing the results.

 

[tarax]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10697355#post10697355 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mr James
Where are you going to find the aragonite sand?? I lived in Florida and the stuff was scarce.

From what I have read, CC won't buffer unless your pH is low enough to allow it to dissolve. Something around 6.5 or whatever.

I can find aragonite sand at Dr. Fosters.. Locally.. I have a 20 lb bag in my closet right now. In fact its sugar grade.

Well darn about the cc.. guess I'll have to find another use for that bag I got when I got my tank from Danny.

 

[Mr James]

Yes, fish stores carry it, but at what price?? How much $$ for how many pounds?? Were you around for the Southdown Tropical Playsand craze?? You could get a 40lb bag of pure aragonite sand for $3.00 - $7.00/ bag. Where as 20lb bags of Carib-Sea aragonite sand costs what, like $30 or more for #20?? Not for me man!! Lowe's carried it until the big Carib-Sea legal issue. Do a search on it, here on RC and read for yourself. Neat stuff. There was a guy in the Twin Cities that had 40 bags of the original stuff listed on Craig's list. By the time I got through to him, he was down to 5 bags. I felt it wasn't worth the 4+ hour drive one way.

Being in Florida, one would think you could find anything your reefing heart desired. Actually, some things did exist in abundance. On the gulf side, down near Port Charlotte, you could find mangrove seedlings floating all over the place. One could wade out into one of the many inlets and collect sea water on the incoming tide. One could also catch certain fish. One COULD NOT collect rock or corals. Good stuff, but no good supply of aragonite sand. Actually, the sand in the Southdown Tropical Playsand came from mining off the coast of the Bahamas and the Bimini Islands. Heck, there was a beach on the gulf side, down near Fort Meyers that had sand dollars no matter where you walked in the water. We ended up leaving the beach because every other step was a CRUNCH!! I felt bad. I also got the cut of my life from a type of conch shell. Ripped my finger open.

Attached is a picture of an old tank of mine (240g acrylic tank with steel stand) and underneath the tank is.....Can any of you old timers guess?? First one to get it correct, will get a surprise!!

 

[Mr James]

CC is good, but it doesn't buffer as many people think. And I can back that up with data, it's not just hearsay. That is why some people put CC in there calcium reactors. But the pH in a reactor is like 6.3 - 6.6 give or take. I like the finer crushed coral myself for substrate, not sugar fine as that stuff blows around and can cause sand storms and dead corals.