It occured to me at the november meeting that live rock is VERY expensive, having bought a cubic foot or so for $70. now i was not expecting to get it any cheaper but money doesn't grow on trees,(well technically it's made of trees but...), and I only make $20 a week. subtract the live rock, fish, fish food, any equipment i forgot, etc. I could use a different way to get live rock. if anybody could help me out (with ideas I don't want to steal your rock) that'd be nice.
Live Rock
- Thread starter conner
- Start date
Who was is at the meeting that made rock? If anyone would be interested in sharing the technique it would make a great article for the website - or at least I think it would make a great article...
Anyhow, if my understanding is correct, even if you make your own rock you still have to wait quite a while for it to cure before it is safe to go in your tank. If you are more into instant gratification you can get "base rock", it runs about $2 a pound dry. I usually look for rock that is porous, or light for it's size. I've had good luck finding what I am looking for at Clarks (the one not on Lomas). I tend to stay away from the volcanic rock just because it is so heavy - but I've heard that others have had problems after adding it.
Rinse base rock off really well before putting it into your tank. If you are looking at adding a lot you might ask someone with a bigger established tank to add it to their sump/fuge/somesuch for awhile before you use it. The rock will be "dead" when you add it and as life moves in interesting things can happen with chemistry.
The base rock is rather ugly, but a drill can help you to shape it and anything that is currently living on your live rock should colonize your base rock given time. So yeah, it costs less upfront but you have to wait to get the filtration benefits and you are going to be looking at ugly grey/brown rocks for a few months. Still, works for me.
Regards,
Colleen
Anyhow, if my understanding is correct, even if you make your own rock you still have to wait quite a while for it to cure before it is safe to go in your tank. If you are more into instant gratification you can get "base rock", it runs about $2 a pound dry. I usually look for rock that is porous, or light for it's size. I've had good luck finding what I am looking for at Clarks (the one not on Lomas). I tend to stay away from the volcanic rock just because it is so heavy - but I've heard that others have had problems after adding it.
Rinse base rock off really well before putting it into your tank. If you are looking at adding a lot you might ask someone with a bigger established tank to add it to their sump/fuge/somesuch for awhile before you use it. The rock will be "dead" when you add it and as life moves in interesting things can happen with chemistry.
The base rock is rather ugly, but a drill can help you to shape it and anything that is currently living on your live rock should colonize your base rock given time. So yeah, it costs less upfront but you have to wait to get the filtration benefits and you are going to be looking at ugly grey/brown rocks for a few months. Still, works for me.
Regards,
Colleen
No worries little man. I got your back. I started out when i was real young too, and i too lacked the financial backing. Hit me up i got 10 or 15 pounds of high quality live rock, and a few corals to donate to your cause. Give me call or i could bring it to the next meeting. Just let me know.
-Michael
-Michael
israelnajar
Active member
Here is a post I have ben following for a while. Which I stopped because my tank has enough live rock.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=807988&perpage=25&pagenumber=1
If you still want to make your own rock I have about 80 pounds of portland cement and some rock salt you can have if you want it yuo can give me a call on my cel 264-8377
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=807988&perpage=25&pagenumber=1
If you still want to make your own rock I have about 80 pounds of portland cement and some rock salt you can have if you want it yuo can give me a call on my cel 264-8377
Last edited:
israelnajar
Active member
You read the whole thing? it is 40 pages, it took me 3 days to read it. Oh well. Also try www.garf.org they have some good tips on making your own live rock.
This is off topic but check it out. It is geared toward a 10 gal nano but all the info still applies to non-nano tanks.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=912378
This is off topic but check it out. It is geared toward a 10 gal nano but all the info still applies to non-nano tanks.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=912378
Making you own live rock is simple....as Colleen said get your self base rock ($2 per pound) and add it to your tank with some actual live rock, the base rock will eventualy become live rock as it ages. Also you can ask around the club I think some people have some excess live rock they could sell/give you. take care
Jason
Jason
We've been making our live rock from a modification of the GARF "Aragocrete" recipe.
Home Depot at Central and Eubank has white portland cement, which is supposed to be a lower alkaline concrete. It comes in 80 lbs. bags, which would make enough live rock to make a scale model of the Sandia Mountains!
I make plastic shavings by drilling holes in some PVC pipe. The plastic shavings lower the weight of the finished rock, and coralline algae are supposed to like it.
I use one part white portland cement, one part plastic shavings, two parts aragonite sand (like SeaChem), one part oyster shells from a feed store, and one part of the ReeFloor "puka" shells.
Don't use regular sand...it is a silica, and will mess up your tank chemistry.
There is a tendency to make too much aragocrete, so temper your mixing enthusiasm. Smaller batches are easy to work with.
Get some of the styrofoam boxes used to ship fish. Put the aragonite sand in the box as a mold. Make irregularly shaped indentations in the sand in the shape of the rock you wish. Sprinkle the surface with the ReeFloor puka shells. These will be included in the surface of the rock.
Mix fresh water in the aragocrete mixture until it just begins to clump together in your hand. There is a tendency to make the aragocrete mixture too wet. The rock will look more unnatural with too-wet crete.
"Glob" the aragocrete mixture into the sand mold. Experiment with making holes in the rock using a dowel and filling the holes with more sand. Experiment with arches, tables, branches, anything you can imagine, by molding and globbing.
We have some old dead acropora and brain skeletons and shells, and they make neat "inclusions" in the top of the rocks. Stick them in the sand in the mold, and glob the aragocrete around them.
Cover the whole mess with aragonite sand, and let it cure for 48 hours...less if it's cold. Remove your rock from the mold, wash it, and then start curing it.
The rocks are very alkaline when they first come out of the mold...pH much higher than 10 by my primitive measurements. We put ours in a cooler, and keep fresh water on them for 4-6 weeks, with approximately daily water changes. I'm experimenting with how to shorten the cure time, but I have no results to report yet.
Once the rocks go into an aquarium, seed them with coralline algae scraped from another tank, or get some GARF Grunge, or something like that. Keep them under some plant lights, and they'll grow beautiful coralline for a fraction of the cost.
For a complete dollar outlay of about $100, you can make a huge amount of aragocrete...I estimate around 500 lbs. And it's a fun art project, as well!
Home Depot at Central and Eubank has white portland cement, which is supposed to be a lower alkaline concrete. It comes in 80 lbs. bags, which would make enough live rock to make a scale model of the Sandia Mountains!
I make plastic shavings by drilling holes in some PVC pipe. The plastic shavings lower the weight of the finished rock, and coralline algae are supposed to like it.
I use one part white portland cement, one part plastic shavings, two parts aragonite sand (like SeaChem), one part oyster shells from a feed store, and one part of the ReeFloor "puka" shells.
Don't use regular sand...it is a silica, and will mess up your tank chemistry.
There is a tendency to make too much aragocrete, so temper your mixing enthusiasm. Smaller batches are easy to work with.
Get some of the styrofoam boxes used to ship fish. Put the aragonite sand in the box as a mold. Make irregularly shaped indentations in the sand in the shape of the rock you wish. Sprinkle the surface with the ReeFloor puka shells. These will be included in the surface of the rock.
Mix fresh water in the aragocrete mixture until it just begins to clump together in your hand. There is a tendency to make the aragocrete mixture too wet. The rock will look more unnatural with too-wet crete.
"Glob" the aragocrete mixture into the sand mold. Experiment with making holes in the rock using a dowel and filling the holes with more sand. Experiment with arches, tables, branches, anything you can imagine, by molding and globbing.
We have some old dead acropora and brain skeletons and shells, and they make neat "inclusions" in the top of the rocks. Stick them in the sand in the mold, and glob the aragocrete around them.
Cover the whole mess with aragonite sand, and let it cure for 48 hours...less if it's cold. Remove your rock from the mold, wash it, and then start curing it.
The rocks are very alkaline when they first come out of the mold...pH much higher than 10 by my primitive measurements. We put ours in a cooler, and keep fresh water on them for 4-6 weeks, with approximately daily water changes. I'm experimenting with how to shorten the cure time, but I have no results to report yet.
Once the rocks go into an aquarium, seed them with coralline algae scraped from another tank, or get some GARF Grunge, or something like that. Keep them under some plant lights, and they'll grow beautiful coralline for a fraction of the cost.
For a complete dollar outlay of about $100, you can make a huge amount of aragocrete...I estimate around 500 lbs. And it's a fun art project, as well!
