Curing DIY rock

[Joshsmit56001]

This may be a weird question but here goes. Recently I amde some rock plugs for frags and I let them harden for 30 hours. I read somewhere that a good way to cure them is to put them in the tank of your toilet so everytime you flush the toilet it is like a water change. My question is I think that the pipes in the tank are copper. It is quite an old toilet and I am not sure if that has anything to do with it but will the copper go into the rock and stay in the rock forever? If so than the rock I made is useless. If anyone knows this answer please inform me before I use the rock.

Thanks,
Josh

 

[malkore]

wow, that doesn't sound safe at all.
I read something just yesterday, and they cured the rock they made in a rubbermaid tub full of treated saltwater.

 

[BillyZ]

I would guess about 95% of all plumbing in homes these days is copper. I wouldn't worry about the copper plumbing. But what I would worry about in using your toilet tank is other latent chemicals that may be lingering. Cleaning chemicals, anything from the fixtures in the tank corroding, etc. I wouldn't suggest using your toilet tank. i would use a plain, clean rubber tub and just change the water out every 3 or 4 days.

 

[Joshsmit56001]

They have only been in there for a few days can I take them out and would they be ok you think??

 

[BillyZ]

they should be, perhaps cure them for a few extra days elsewhere. you don't use any toilet tank flush chems do you? (or have you ever in the past?) what i'm talking about are the little tablets that you drop into the toilet tank and they "clean your bowl" every time you flush. that would be the biggest thing that would lead me to say, "toss em"

 

[XXFirefighter]

why would you cure something for saltwater in freshwater?
What were you trying to cure? The cement?

 

[Sparky]

Yeah, actually the cement will "cure" harder in freshwater. It makes the cement real hard. I have been doing it for a while. After I get the pH level consistantly at 8 or below I put it into a saltwater mix and circulate the water. It doesn't even have to be sea salt. Once I get the pH stable in the saltwater, I move it to my final curing tank whick consists of some regular live rock with corline on it. I am trying to get the coraline to grow on the "cement" rock. I have got it once so far. It started growing about 4-5 weeks after I put it in. I am dripping calc into the curing tank but not a lot. I use the water changes mostly. Once I am convinced it (the rocks) are OK I am going to put one piece at a time into my tank and watch the water quailty daily until I am sure it's OK.

 

[Joshsmit56001]

I think I might buy a molly and acclimate it to saltwater and maybe put a small mushroom in with the rock in a bucket to see if the rocks are ok to use. I don't want to screw anything up in my tank so I am gonna be very cautious. If the fish dies than I know the rock is bad.

 

[odysseysteve]

Curing DIY Rock

There is a website that contains detailed instructions on how to make and cure DIY Rock. It's www.GARF.org Check it out. Once at the site click on "How to - Pages" and then click on "Aragocrete" and there you go!