DIY Live Rock Pics

ezee

ezee

Member
Hey all,
Here are some pics of a couple of my favorite DIY LiveRocks that my 3 year old and I made! Still in the freshwater curing stage.
Big thanks to Oceana and the rest of the crew from that thread.
E



 
ezee

ezee

Member
SooHigh,
I just followed the directions in the DIY Live Rocks to the letter. I think they may be more tan because of the sand that I used. I was not cheap with it. A lot of the rock is grey though. It is just hard to tell from the pic.
E
 
ezee

ezee

Member
Bronco,
Thanks!!! If only you could imagine how much fun my 3 year old had with 50 pounds of playsand...
LOL!!!
E
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
If I can get more picture examples of diy rocks from those who make their own, then I will be glad to place this thread in the Archives.
 
ezee

ezee

Member
Beth,
Thanks! That would be so cool!! Our concrete immortalized in electrons!!!
LOL! I such a geek.
E
 
bronco300

bronco300

Active Member
i cad add some, but itd be some of the same pics from the other thread, i havent made any new ones in a long time.
 
sleasia

sleasia

Active Member
In the old days we used to put ceramic decor items in freshwater tanks. I have a pottery studio in my basement. Any one know if you can use ceramic diy live rock in saltwater tanks??? It would be so easy for me to make them if possible.
 
thangbom

thangbom

Active Member
............ man that a good q? on clay rocks... i know you can use glazed stuff bot not shure on the non glazed stuff.... but yea.. it would be cool to have pottery stuff in a tank.. you can make lots of cool things like a ship wreck.. or whatever..
 
sleasia

sleasia

Active Member
I can certainly glaze things as well, but I'm wondering if over time anything bad will leach into the water??? Most decor items these days are made from polyresins and types of plastics. anyone know anything about this???
 
ezee

ezee

Member
Sleasia,
That's an interesting question. Does all ceramic have roughly the same chemical composition? I would think that might make a difference.
E
 
sleasia

sleasia

Active Member
Glass is really just sand heated to very high temperature. I've been told that glass does not leach silica into tanks (ie tanks are made of glass) Ceramic glazes are essentially the same thing with pigments to make the colors. They are fired usually above 2000 degrees. The clay is also fired at these temperatures. There are many different clays and many different glazes. I tend to use only "non toxic" ones. But what is nontoxic to humans may not necessarily be nontoxic to fish. I guess I should email the glaze and clay companies to see if they have done chemicle testing for "leaching" and see if perhaps they know the answer. otherwise I guess the thing to do is set up a hospital tank and stick a piece of my pottery in it for months and find a way to test the water. Maybe the local township water dept can test it for everything. I'm wondering about all of this because I hate to be using live rock and contributing to the dismanteling of coral reefs. Right now I have only two large pieces of live rock in a 200 gallon tank.. The rest is dead coral I have had for years and "reef replicas" algae grows anyway on my dead corals and my reef replicas. I have 0 nitrites and 0 nitrates and I have copepods as well. If we could make ceramic (or even plastic) replicas impregnated with millions of tiny holes, wouldn't the bacteria and algaes just grow all over it anyway? I will email Spectrum and Duncan glaze manufacturers today and see if they know the answer.
 
sleasia

sleasia

Active Member
scott9311 those live rocks look great and full of holes. I bet they culture up alot of bacteria. It definately would be nice to use something like this instead of real rock ripped off from the reefs. Is your recipe confidential???
 
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