speckled trout
New member
That really bites. Sorry for your losses. 
I hope you get everything figured out.
I hope you get everything figured out.
The Ultimate DIY Rocks!
- Thread starter JohnL
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Travis L. Stevens
Active member
Me, too. If the new light doesn't do it, I'll just tear it down with what I have and start again from scratch. I'll put the corals in a seperate tank and see if that has any effect.
JOSEPHLB
New member
I purchased my materials for DIY rocks yesterday afternoon, and got my hands dirty and did some quick experimenting.
Bought some Portland Type I/II cement and a couple of bags of water softener (Same stuff Travis Stevens has posted in his photos)
Grabbed a cheap mop bucket, wooden hobby dowel rods, cheap powerhead, and 20 gallon "kuring" tote from Walmart.
This is the beginning to my journey of getting my SW tank planned and I've never done anything similiar to this before.
After about an hour, it seems the optimal ratio (my opinion) for salt/cement is about 2>2.5:1. I tried 3:1, but it didn't appear to hold up right.
Bought some Portland Type I/II cement and a couple of bags of water softener (Same stuff Travis Stevens has posted in his photos)
Grabbed a cheap mop bucket, wooden hobby dowel rods, cheap powerhead, and 20 gallon "kuring" tote from Walmart.
This is the beginning to my journey of getting my SW tank planned and I've never done anything similiar to this before.
After about an hour, it seems the optimal ratio (my opinion) for salt/cement is about 2>2.5:1. I tried 3:1, but it didn't appear to hold up right.
JOSEPHLB
New member
I purchased my materials for DIY rocks yesterday afternoon, and got my hands dirty and did some quick experimenting.
Bought some Portland Type I/II cement and a couple of bags of water softener (Same stuff Travis Stevens has posted in his photos)
Grabbed a cheap mop bucket, wooden hobby dowel rods, cheap powerhead, and 20 gallon "kuring" tote from Walmart.
This is the beginning to my journey of getting my SW tank planned and I've never done anything similiar to this before.
After about an hour, it seems the optimal ratio (my opinion) for salt/cement is about 2>2.5:1. I tried 3:1, but it didn't appear to hold up right.
Bought some Portland Type I/II cement and a couple of bags of water softener (Same stuff Travis Stevens has posted in his photos)
Grabbed a cheap mop bucket, wooden hobby dowel rods, cheap powerhead, and 20 gallon "kuring" tote from Walmart.
This is the beginning to my journey of getting my SW tank planned and I've never done anything similiar to this before.
After about an hour, it seems the optimal ratio (my opinion) for salt/cement is about 2>2.5:1. I tried 3:1, but it didn't appear to hold up right.
Here's my trick to make very strong and very porous rock.
I use a 3:1 ratio first. Afte a couple days, I apply a top coat of plain cement of varying cement/water mix. A wetter cement mix fills in the gaps better, but a drier cement mix leaves a nice texture, and it allows holes to form between the clumps of cement that I drip over the rock. The mix of textures on the surface also looks really nice.
One of my larger pieces of rock toppled off my work table this evening. It fell about 24" onto a concrete floor. It didn't break. Most of my rock is soaking in water right now, and I've had no problems with it crumbling apart. The insides are definitely leeching out salt, as water pours out of the rock when I pull it out of the water tub. The water tastes salty and gritty, too.
I'm going to drill out areas where the surface got more cement than I had anticipated. I tried drilling a test piece of rock; it works well. This will allow greater surface porosity, it will let the rock kure better, and it will still leave me with a very strong batch of rocks.
As mentioned in my earlier post, I made three levels of interlocking rock. There are eight pieces in total, and they fit together snugly. Here are some updated pictures of my rock. The pictures were taken before adding the final touches on the front top rock, and before I started soaking them. They're wet from the water sprayer I used on them liberally a few times daily for a week or two:
This is the back side, where it wraps around my overflow:
I use a 3:1 ratio first. Afte a couple days, I apply a top coat of plain cement of varying cement/water mix. A wetter cement mix fills in the gaps better, but a drier cement mix leaves a nice texture, and it allows holes to form between the clumps of cement that I drip over the rock. The mix of textures on the surface also looks really nice.
One of my larger pieces of rock toppled off my work table this evening. It fell about 24" onto a concrete floor. It didn't break. Most of my rock is soaking in water right now, and I've had no problems with it crumbling apart. The insides are definitely leeching out salt, as water pours out of the rock when I pull it out of the water tub. The water tastes salty and gritty, too.
I'm going to drill out areas where the surface got more cement than I had anticipated. I tried drilling a test piece of rock; it works well. This will allow greater surface porosity, it will let the rock kure better, and it will still leave me with a very strong batch of rocks.
As mentioned in my earlier post, I made three levels of interlocking rock. There are eight pieces in total, and they fit together snugly. Here are some updated pictures of my rock. The pictures were taken before adding the final touches on the front top rock, and before I started soaking them. They're wet from the water sprayer I used on them liberally a few times daily for a week or two:
This is the back side, where it wraps around my overflow:
I forgot to mention:
Just as a reference, the base of this rock covers roughly a 20" x 18" footprint. It's going in a 24" x 20" x 18" H tank, eventually (I still need to make the tank).
The two bottom pieces (the largest of the bunch) weighed 15 lb. each before I started soaking them. I'm going to weigh all the pieces once they're kured to see how much lighter they really are.
Just as a reference, the base of this rock covers roughly a 20" x 18" footprint. It's going in a 24" x 20" x 18" H tank, eventually (I still need to make the tank).
The two bottom pieces (the largest of the bunch) weighed 15 lb. each before I started soaking them. I'm going to weigh all the pieces once they're kured to see how much lighter they really are.
Rhodophyta
New member
Why do you want to bond them together? If they are unstable, I'd add a latex fortifier as a bonding agent to your mortar, or drill matching holes in each piece and insert sections of acrylic rod or PVC pipe to stick them together like tinkertoys.
Travis L. Stevens
Active member
Very nice everyone keep up the good work and keep on taking pictures.
leeweber85
New member
How low does the PH need to get before it's ready to put in the tank? I made some frag discs and they've been curing for about 2 months. The PH still reads 8.4 -9
Travis L. Stevens
Active member
Ideally, 8.3. But I've used rocks with a pH of 8.6+ with no side effects. Your milage may vary.
I started my DIY rock tonight... Glad I did it in the garage as it turned out to be messy! I made about 8-10 pieces of 5-8" rock. Hopefully it turns out! I ended up using this salt:
http://www.unitedsalt.com/usc/products.nsf/StoreInternet/b36ab80fdebc39a9862569a60012860d!OpenDocument&Click=
It is about the same size as the stuff Travis is using.
How do you guys make big pieces? I couldn't make pieces much bigger than what my hands could support so I would lay the piece in salt and try to form another piece in with the first piece to make a bigger one.
I'll probably get a little more creative with it later on, I just had to try it out tonight. I don't even have a tank yet!
http://www.unitedsalt.com/usc/products.nsf/StoreInternet/b36ab80fdebc39a9862569a60012860d!OpenDocument&Click=
It is about the same size as the stuff Travis is using.
How do you guys make big pieces? I couldn't make pieces much bigger than what my hands could support so I would lay the piece in salt and try to form another piece in with the first piece to make a bigger one.
I'll probably get a little more creative with it later on, I just had to try it out tonight. I don't even have a tank yet!
How do you guys make big pieces? I couldn't make pieces much bigger than what my hands could support so I would lay the piece in salt and try to form another piece in with the first piece to make a bigger one.
I'll probably get a little more creative with it later on, I just had to try it out tonight. I don't even have a tank yet!
Do you have a pic? It sounds like it could be to wet. The dryer the mixture the easier it was for me to form.
JOSEPHLB
New member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8520623#post8520623 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tslabaugh
I started my DIY rock tonight... Glad I did it in the garage as it turned out to be messy! I made about 8-10 pieces of 5-8" rock. Hopefully it turns out! I ended up using this salt:
http://www.unitedsalt.com/usc/products.nsf/StoreInternet/b36ab80fdebc39a9862569a60012860d!OpenDocument&Click=
It is about the same size as the stuff Travis is using.
How do you guys make big pieces? I couldn't make pieces much bigger than what my hands could support so I would lay the piece in salt and try to form another piece in with the first piece to make a bigger one.
I'll probably get a little more creative with it later on, I just had to try it out tonight. I don't even have a tank yet!
I mix mine in a mop bucket. I then, just dump it all out onto my salt mold. Dump as much as needed for whatever size you want. I find that just dumping it out makes nice peaks also.
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