Sugar in aragonite rocks?

Cody Ray

Cody Ray

New member
I have been trying to think of different ways of making the rock more porus, this way it can hold more bacteria. I was thinking about using sugar in the mix, it will dissolve in water as it is being mixed, so that as bacteria that grow in the rock develope, it will slowly dissapear. This should make the rock much more porus. Any thoughts? This should also speed up the seeding process, correct?
 
I would think that sugar would dissolve far too rapidly to be of any use in creating voids in the cured rock. Pasta, which is starch, dissolves much slower and lasts through the mixing process thus creating voids in the cured rock.
 
Sugar inhibits the PH shift required for the cement to setup. I imagine you could subsitute large granular solar salt for the sugar. Salt is used in cement certain cement mixes and doesn't stop the curing process. You can also add calcium chloride to accelerate the setup time but you have to work quickly to avoid "flash setting".
 
If you want porus concrete, do what the concrete companies do. Blow it full of small bubbles. Its called air entraned or something like that. It is used to reduce weight.
 
Some people use rock salt. This is what I am planning to do.

Here is a link:
http://www.aquariumpros.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=9667&highlight=Hark's+rock

He uses:
5 parts oyster shell
1 part concrete
1 part rock
some rock salt to make it porous

the salt melts away when you are curing the rock. if you wanted to change the size you could crush some of the salt to make it different sizes/shapes.

Some people have been complaining about the pasta because it doesn't all disappear when soaking in water. Thats just what I have heard...
 
Eshook has it.

Concrete companies use rock salt all the time to make the surface of walkways porus to increase traction when wet. They trowl it in after it's been poured, let it dry, then hose it off and let the weather do the rest. I don't see why it wouldn't work the same for your application.
 
samtheman might also be onto something. What if you used rocksalt and used an aircompressor (or similar) to aerate the cement before forming it. This would make the rocks even more porous. Good suggestions samtheman
 
I'd say do your mix:

5 parts oyster shell
1 part white portland cement

mix the above 2 very dry as not to disolve your rock salt very fast and the right before you form your structure add

1 part rock

This method should keep the rock salt from disolving as quickly as mixing them all together at one time and keeping the entire mixture dry will make a stronger rock as a whole.

I know when pouring concrete, the wetter the concrete is, the weaker and chalkier the dried product is.
 
I think some people scatter rock salt on a soft cement slan, then use a little roller to press it in. After the cement sets, they hose it off, or wait for a nice rain. You end up with a nice porous no slip kind of surface for your sidewalk. I'm sure you could use a similar principal to get a nice porous surface on your rock.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6504736#post6504736 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by samtheman
If you want porus concrete, do what the concrete companies do. Blow it full of small bubbles. Its called air entraned or something like that. It is used to reduce weight.
Click to expand...


Hrmm I have pumped HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of cubic yards of light weight concrete products ( did this for living for almost 15 years in the coal mining industry... those things called "seals" that were destroyed at the SAGO #1 mine... they were made of lighweight concrete blocks). I didn't make "blocks" rather I pumped void fills, seals and dozens of other undergroudn projects full of lightweight specialized concrete products. We don't really blow it full of small bubbles. There are two basic ideas at play here.

THE most important point is that most "air entrained" concrete products are closed cell, that is they are lightwight but not pourous. The structure is not that of a sponge, rather it is that of foam rubber like you would find in a life preserver.

First many lightweight concretes are mixed with little or no portland in them. Fly-ash and other bottom ash products are used instead. The mix is "air entrained" simply as a matter of the way it is pumped. This takes several hundred feet of hose and a moyno pump that is capable of eating more "mix" than you feed to it. It sucks in air with the "mix" and then uses the several hundred feetof hose to entrain the air as the product starts to slightly gel. The material comes out of the hose end similar to shaving cream or a milkshake. Not something you are going to be able to do at home witha blender or food processor.

The second type of "air entrained" or lightweight concrete is portland based. This is also mixed in a moyno pump but once it is under pressure in the line, a surfactant (soap) is added. We get real fancy and call this a "foam generator". The product comes out of the hose end more like water. The end product is pretty heavy and has very very tiny bubbles in it. Useless for our needs in a reef, and certainly not shapeable.

Bean
 
Also sorry for rambling on.... I just figured somebody might like to know more than just "thats not really how it works". For those of you who could care less... well ignore all but the last sentance :)
 
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