DIY Live Rock

[darknessheir]

Ok so I have my rock soaking in the garage and change the water twice weekly. Is there any problem with me putting them in a laundry basket and then sinking them in a fast flowing river to cure, then let them dry in the sun and re soak in better water to kill any bacteria or algea that may grow on them from the river.

Good Idea or Bad?

[divedeep1689]

some people have done it before i dont know how it turned out but i thought about trying it in a nice little stream near my house i dont know how itwould look after the river if you know you can get all the algae off then i would say go for it i actually would like to know this as well tho so any body else got a answer?

[thincat]

Okay, If the stream water is clean, go for it. Different algae and bacteria grow in fresh and saltwater, so no problem there. Hose off most of the algae and let your cleanup crew and gobies munch on the rest of the freshwater algae. I would soak in the stream until the lime leaches out of the cement to bring the PH down to 8.4 then soak in saltwtater for a week then into your tank. No need to dry the rock out.

[Bigfoot_reef]

Here's a link on the best way to make it REEF AQUARIUM FARMING NEWS 5 p 1 (scroll down till you see the "PROJECT OF THE WEEK Making sand molded AragocreteTM live rocks"

Also shows a cool way to make shelves, tunnels and cave using a box and sand. And I have heard of others using acrylic or plastic shavings in their mix to encourage Coraline algae.

I think it would be ideal to place some frag corals, Coraline algae, mushrooms, etc onto the newly created rock before it hardens full, it could finish curing underwater.

[thincat]

Here are a few pictures of my DIY rock in verious stages in my tank.

This rock had lots of freshwate algae on it. My hermits went to town on it and completly cleaned it overnight. If you look carefully you will see my gobie and the legs of my brittle star on the bottom left...

The next day with a few snails finishing up the cleanup

Two weeks later and the coralline is really starting to grow///

[divedeep1689]

wat recipe did you user again thincat i used used oyster shell and portland with a little sAND THAT LOOKS REALLY GOOD

[thincat]

That's what I used. I had some mortar cement, also by Portand,So I used that up first...

[divedeep1689]

cool looks good mine still has a while left to sit

[darknessheir]

I use cement water salt crushed coral and 2 types of argonite sand

[thincat]

That's good too! Very porous, the Oyster shells made my rock very light.

[divedeep1689]

well i have set up a small tub in the house its a rubbermaid tub for storage i have a few pounds of real live rock in it and a hob filter water from two of my tanks and its in front of a window i am going to put a piece of my diy rock into it because i tested it today and it had a low ph so i think i will do this i wont be wastin much money on it as its used water and just a rubbermaid lol i will also be catching a blue yellow tail damsel from my other tank which is almost bare enough to be cALLED A QUARINTNE TANK LOL i didnt want to get rid of damsels from display tank so i just stuck em over there i just checked the salt level in it to use in the rock tank and it made my instant ocean swingarm hydrometer go off the scale lol it was high lol well i will let ya know how this goes i will only be doing one rock for now if the fish makes the night and looks healthy i will add another piece then i will let it sit for a few weeks getting seeded from my live rock

[thincat]

Good luck to you and that yellow tail...

[divedeep1689]

alright he made the night stays hidden under the diy rock tho lol at least the fish like it lol i am going to check my ph rating if it has not changed since yesterday i may add another piece this afternoon and so on and so on everyday till all of it is in there being seeded the damsel lived like i said and the bad thing is he escaped during his acclimation proces the second it begun so he was not even aclimated lol tough dang fish i know now why people use them for starter fish lol he might not be a good test dummy for the ph as tough as he is lol

[divedeep1689]

ok ph right now is reading about 8.1 i will test later on this afternoon again to see any changes the rest of the rock is still outside in the rubbermaid trash can soaking

[thincat]

Sounds like a plan.

[divedeep1689]

ok peeps after 2 days in the rubbermaid with old saltwater hob filter live rock and about four pounds of diy rock and two damsels a sgt major and a yellow tail the ph is still about 8.1 same as my display tank the colors in the test tubes match prefectly i think tommorow i will add alot more of my diy rock to it and let it start its process of becoing live rock

[divedeep1689]

ok guys so far everything is looking good so i am using to seperate tanks to seed my rock in my old 29 gal which has been set up for months with a sand bed and a few pounds of live rock and damsels and the rubbermaid i told ya about cant wait till i trust it for my reef tank

[ORayRay]

hmm, i think im gonna make my own rock

[thincat]

dd, that's great and that way you can keep track and see if the ph raises up on you.

[divedeep1689]

yep testing once a day so far the ph after a day the tanks is the exact same ph reading my reef tank already has colors match prefect just going to sit back and watch it become live rock now every other day i take my bio filter bag out of my hang ons from my sump and shake them into the two tanks i dont know if this will really effect the rocks but maybe lol and orayray go for it!!!! I think people should start trying this more often cheaper costs and your saving a bit of the oceans reefs just remember dont rush the process not even in one step one rushed step could lead to a entire wipe out of your tank but its worth the rate i will be posting pics soon maybe tonight i cant sleep anyways lol.