The Ultimate DIY Rocks!
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Insane Reefer
New member
MDMS The info you want about hydraulics is here:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=993625
Disregard the thread title
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=993625
Disregard the thread title
Insane Reefer
New member
Travis,
Glad the move went well, sorry it had to happen though - sudden moves stink.
Nice write-up - covers the basics pretty concisely.
Glad the move went well, sorry it had to happen though - sudden moves stink.
Nice write-up - covers the basics pretty concisely.
silverwolf72
New member
You could get someone that has DIY rock thats already established and get some from them. At some point it has to be started with already live rock. Your wanting the coralline algae more than the critters the critters usually come with things you pick up along the way.
GuySmilie
Premium Member
Yinepu,
I've built rock several different ways now since joining up with this group.
My favorite recipe uses a mortar mix instead of pure Portland cement. A mortar mix has a pre-measured volume of sand already blended in (for the needed aggregate function). Menards sells a mortar mix that is rather light in color (more so than most of them, IMO).
In a clean 5 gallon poly bucket, I measure out a volume of this mortar mix, then get it wet enough with clean tap water to work with (about like dry cottage cheese). Once I get these two ingredients thoroughly blended, I add an equal volume of rock salt (Mortons in the blue bag) and thoroughly incorporate it into the mix. Then I pour my aggregate into moulds that I create in plastic bus tubs (like the bus boys use in restaurants) that I've half-filled with damp crushed calcium poultry feed additive (looks like fine medium gray sand).
Once I get everything cast and the tools cleaned up, I cut open a poly garbage bag and drape it over the bus tub and secure the bag to the tub with a length of electrical or duct tape just under the lip of the tub. Then I let is set undisturbed for seven full days! (this is a very important step that many folks try to rush. If you try to rush this step, you will probably end up with broken rock)
Wrapping the tubs with poly garbage bags allows the cement to hydrate properly (in a moist environment) until it is strong enough to handle. After waiting 7 full days, I remove them from the moulds, brush them off, and gently set them in a Stearite poly tote container filled with fresh tap water.
For the first few days, I change the water daily. There will be a lot of different leachants on and around the rocks. I just swish them around in the water before dumping the water out and refilling with fresh water. After the first week in the water, I only change the water every week.
This water cure is when most of the pock marks and crevices develop in the rock as the water leaches out the rock salt the longer it sets in the water.
Once you think they may be getting down to a manageable pH range, remove them from the tote, thoroughly rinse out the tote, scrub and rinse the rock again, return them to the tote and fill it with fresh clean water. Let them set for a few days. Some drop a powerhead in there, but I don't since I do this all outside. After a few days swish the water around real good for a few minutes, then take a sample to test.
Once you get the pH in line, you're good to go. HTH!
Guy
Last edited:
Chasmodes
Well-known member
Travis and Insane Reefer, so that your great work on this subject won't get lost, could you please each repost your summary?
I tried to quote it and have it show up again, but since the first split thread is closed it wouldn't let me do it. Then, I was going to quote it from scratch, copying and pasting to look like your posts but then figured that you would be better off posting yourself. At least that way you still show "ownership" of the material.
Nice work to both of you!!!!!!!!!!:thumbsup:
I tried to quote it and have it show up again, but since the first split thread is closed it wouldn't let me do it. Then, I was going to quote it from scratch, copying and pasting to look like your posts but then figured that you would be better off posting yourself. At least that way you still show "ownership" of the material.
Nice work to both of you!!!!!!!!!!:thumbsup:
Nammy
New member
Fiji does the DIY rocks too.
Check it out!
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1091011
Check it out!
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1091011
Its great to see flourishing Live rock farming industries in the US. In Australia there is only one supplier of Aquacultured live rock nation wide.
our strict quarantine laws do not allow the importation of corals , inverts and live rock . We also have a ban on transporting any plants and corals from the east coast into the west coast.
This means in Australia we only get to buy Australian corals. ( fish importation is allowed).
also, there is no law that allows ocean floor live rock farming. however the harvesting the real wild live rock is allowed!
if anyone attempted to farm live rock on the ocean bed, you would first be charged with littering. and retreving your live rock would put in hot water for stealing.
iv noticed on this forum some individuals who have placed live rock to be cured in water ways. Down under this also carries a fine. (unless you have a permit off course)
Over all, there is no policy in Australia in relation to aquaculture on the the open ocean floor. The restrictive quarantine laws leave the aquarist with no choice but to use wild live rock.
currently the Australian price of wild harvested live rock is $15 AUD per kilo. with only one supplier of aquacultured live rock, the idea of artificial live rock has not even been heard of over here.
This thread has been very useful for me, and i am considering options and ideas on how to promote artificial live rock down here.
what do you think i should do to help solve this problem?
our strict quarantine laws do not allow the importation of corals , inverts and live rock . We also have a ban on transporting any plants and corals from the east coast into the west coast.
This means in Australia we only get to buy Australian corals. ( fish importation is allowed).
also, there is no law that allows ocean floor live rock farming. however the harvesting the real wild live rock is allowed!
if anyone attempted to farm live rock on the ocean bed, you would first be charged with littering. and retreving your live rock would put in hot water for stealing.
iv noticed on this forum some individuals who have placed live rock to be cured in water ways. Down under this also carries a fine. (unless you have a permit off course)
Over all, there is no policy in Australia in relation to aquaculture on the the open ocean floor. The restrictive quarantine laws leave the aquarist with no choice but to use wild live rock.
currently the Australian price of wild harvested live rock is $15 AUD per kilo. with only one supplier of aquacultured live rock, the idea of artificial live rock has not even been heard of over here.
This thread has been very useful for me, and i am considering options and ideas on how to promote artificial live rock down here.
what do you think i should do to help solve this problem?
silverwolf72
New member
Has anyone done any displacement tests to see if the DIY rock is the same as live rock. I would think this would be the best way to tell how porous they are compared to similar sized live rock.
Insane Reefer
New member
Silverwolf welcome to the thread, but I have to call you on this one - sorry.
Several places sell most of the organisms that are considered beneficial, and if one is really worried about evil things like hydroids (as for seahorse tanks), that would be the way to go. You can purchase bacteria, coralline, micro stars, 'pods, worms of all sorts, etc. There is really no reason at all to use real live rock, unless you want to.
drauka99
Member
problem with thats idea is the various grades of liverock out there. I have persoanlly seen some large chuns that were very light and porus and then saw small peices that were basiclly solid. So I would think any data gathered from tests like that would be inconclusive.
I belive the amount of lifeforms found in the rock after a substantial time with other natural live rock is the best way to detirmine how well the artifical live rock is doing.
Just my honest opinion
I belive the amount of lifeforms found in the rock after a substantial time with other natural live rock is the best way to detirmine how well the artifical live rock is doing.
Just my honest opinion
Insane Reefer
New member
It has been talked about but no one has actually tried it. My personal thoughts are that since no two live rocks are similar, and no two batches of MMLR ever seem to come out just the same (for me at least), a test of this sort is arbitrary at best - a laboratory would be needed to give it a fair test, with a huge sample base.
There have been no peer reviewed studies on live rock that any of us have been able to find (or at least that have been posted). The closest thing I have found was a comparison of aquacultured rock deposited in several different ocean floor locales.
So no one really knows if there is even a "best" rock or not - without test data it all becomes opinion.
Insane Reefer
New member
You might find this interesting
http://www.hccfl.edu/br/asprograms/aquaculture/files/F00CE52705F64671B8C98D0868BFB18F.pdf
Insane Reefer
New member
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/6279/RaiseCementRock.html
You might want to pull this link up, scroll halfway down and you will see a really inexpensive way to do what you want to do. I have thought of doing this, but in Mid-Mo, winter temps would mean building a greenhouse or something like, and would need to be heated (or really powerful water heaters)..
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