The Ultimate DIY Rocks!

Frag rack rock

Frag rack rock

This is my proposition for more attractive frag tanks... using a custom "frag rack rock like this one." The first picture is of my toadstool leathers shortly after cutting. The second picture includes is about a month after the fragging. In my opinion, this looks better than eggcrate.

<a href="http://s1365.photobucket.com/user/Kevin_Olivier/media/fragrack1_zpsd1f03fc8.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1365.photobucket.com/albums/r741/Kevin_Olivier/fragrack1_zpsd1f03fc8.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo fragrack1_zpsd1f03fc8.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1365.photobucket.com/user/Kevin_Olivier/media/FragRack2_zpsab3fe5e6.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1365.photobucket.com/albums/r741/Kevin_Olivier/FragRack2_zpsab3fe5e6.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo FragRack2_zpsab3fe5e6.jpg"/></a>
 
I wouldn't use epoxy or Urethane paint, as it is thick, glossy, and expensive. Caribbsea used to paint really gaudy designs on base rock.

Latex paint is the industry standard. Just water it down. I use sea sponges and water mister bottles to apply. You can get a lot of variation mixing black and white and purple and red. If you don't like the look, just add more watered down paint or simply spray with water. Splatter techniques look good as well.

Cement pigments look horrible. They are very bold/bright colours and are hard to tone down and mix.

Natural live rock is the colour of normal portland, so I don't usually use white portland unless I'm making a quartz or granite look.

Aluminum and iron are found in common phosphate removers, so a little in the tank won't hurt.
 
Question, for creating rock with perlite, is there a special type you need or just any bag of perlite from a stores gardening section? Want to make sure I don't pickup the wrong stuff. Thanks.
 
tatuaje08 said:
Hey Mr. Wilson, what is your current mortar of choice - quikrete quikwall, or BASF Emaco s88ci ?
Click to expand...

I use standard portland for most work, and BASF Emaco s88ci or Emaco 400 for back walls or covering pipes.

In my experience, live rock is grey like standard portland and dead coral or mined key largo rock is white like white portland. It covers in coraline in six months, so it really doesn't matter, but white cement tends to attract or at least show diatoms more.
 
I wanted to use quikrete to avoid kure/cure time. I'm covering the bottom and overflow of my solana. I wanted to only lay a thin layer about .5" to keep the weight down, but now I'm reading stories of the mortar ccracking.
 

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I used about .75 inch for a back wall and used about .5 inch on my overflows. I had some minor cracking on the overflows. No problems with it failing or anything. How did yours do?
 
I went to home depot and got a bag of sand topping for $ 1.60 !! Its a mix of equal sand and portland cement. Its used to top cracked cement . Will this work if I mix in some crushed coral and salt? There's no way to measure out the sand, cement. So I have to use it as is.
 
Knap_123 - you don't know if the sand contains silicates that would leech into the water for the life of the rock. Unless you can determine for sure if this will or will not be a problem, I would not use that sand & cement product.
 
This is one of RC's legendary threads, so I wanted to make sure to say thank you:

Came out to be just under $0.75 per pound for me to put 80 pounds of rock in my 60 gallon aquarium.



$15 for a 20lb bucket of hydraulic cement.
$30 for a 40lb bag of crushed coral aragonite.
$10 for a 20lb bag of "reef grade" aragonite.

20130607_141856.jpg

I just used a 10 mil painter's tarp from Home Depot to plop the mixture down on. Wait for it to dry enough to handle then flip them over and plop the mixture on the other side for more realistic '3d' rocks (instead of being flat one side). Threw them in water and changed it out every few days for about 3 weeks till the pH of the water tested low enough.

My DIY rock in my 60 gallon now at six months old:
20131206_091649.jpg

The rock has taken on some nice purples and greens over time as organisms decide to make it their home. The softies are placeholders till I start getting more into the SPS/LPS that I really want.
 
Yea in the video I posted he has 3 rocks , The 2 outside rocks are painted with latex paint. I would think a thick paint will cover and coat the pourous rock underneath ( less bacteria ). Where the purple prime looks like it "stains" the rocks instead of a thick coat of paint?? I also think the painted rocks are TOO fake looking. These rocks will eventually take on color and growth in time all I am trying to do is make it "blend " in to the tank till it gets its own color.
 
Gotcha... I never tried latex paint, but from what I read the paint was diluted and dabbed on with a sponge-not at all a thick coat.
 
Wow. Id love to read this thread through, but it seems like it has been split 127 times. Anyone want to give a cliff notes version of the latest findings?
 
Split 127 times???

I'm curious if it would be effective to add acid to the soak/cure water to bring the PH down to 7 or 8 over and over until PH stabilized?
 
After almost 2 weeks Reading this topic i think i'lll try to make my own try.:)

Now a question: Can pool salt be used? That salt to treat pools? The bag says "pure marine salt"...
 
This thread is insane. As a DIY rock maker, it's awesome.

Has anyone considered using the underwater cure cycle's high pH and dKH to intentionally accelerate coralline growth?
 
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