DIY Live Rocks

bronco300

bronco300

Active Member
ahhh, i think i bought two tubs that are around 40 gallons maybe, one for the molding, and the other for curing....hope i can find some cheap oyster shells...and some type I/II or type II portland. Ought to be fun! i'll try to take pics of the process i'm gonna try to start out with...i think i may go a bit crazy, lol...do you think if i use aquarim sealant and glue like three pieces ...lets see...some kind of pasta, straight maccaroni...whatever its called, lol...would that be ok to put in the mold, with the sealant? i wanted a bigger hole than just a piece...but i want to control the hole, not let the thing do whatever. but aynways,yep

Luke P :happyfish
 
thegrog

thegrog

Active Member
If you mean connecting two or more peices together, I have a better idea. Find some plastic rod (there are online acrylic stores you can get it from) and drill holes in your rock with a power drill. Then slide them over the rod and voila! Secure, perminant and you don't have to worry about silicone sticking to the rocks (which I don't think it will for very long under water).
If you still want to glue rocks together, they do make a underwater putty stuff that works pretty good. I've used it in aquascaping before with good results.....although using it underwater makes my skimmer go crazy for a day!!
 
tanksrus

tanksrus

Member
I am getting started to start a 55-gal. I am going to be putting in a dogface puffer, lionfish and maybe some sorta of bright fish,can't decide. I would love to learn how to make "the-home-made" live rock. Can someone tell the way?
 
tanksrus

tanksrus

Member
Can some one tell me the formual to make your own live rocks? I have a design in mind but no store has exactly want I want.
 
hckycoz

hckycoz

Member
read these post. we covered about everything in it.
i made another batch and the batch i left in the sand came out a lot better. i left it in the sand for a week and the rock is much stronger.
The batch that i used 4:2 came out really really nice but the color of the rock is alot darker. the rock is very pourous.
 
bronco300

bronco300

Active Member
i meant i wanted to take three pieces of straight maccaroni, and glue them together so the are bigger, so they leave a bigger hole...does that make sense?? itd be a trianlge of the circles, and the sealant on the inside.. id use aquarium sealant, would that possibly be bad?? i'm gonna be start making it in about an hour!!! woo, lol thanks
Luke P
 
shiby1510

shiby1510

Member
I have tried pasta.. with little success.. I have also read where you can use straws.. with the maccaroni especially I am glad that it did not work out... because I would now be afraid that the maccaroni would break down and fall apart in the tank.. think about what it does when you go too cook it and you may wanna rethink it.. :thinking:
 
thegrog

thegrog

Active Member
With several weeks of curing, the macaroni should nearly dissolve. What does not should be able to be sprayed out easily with a hose.
That makes sense now with the sealant. Use 100% silicone, cheaper and would work just the same. If you don't get the silicone out, it will be benign. Not a bad idea! :thinking: Let us know how it turns out!
I also had suggested to me today to take regular shells (that you would find on a beach) and set them into the surface of the rocks! They would be adhered in place and would look great. Just that there are not a lot of beaches to find shells in central Illinois.
 
bronco300

bronco300

Active Member
lol...well, i forgot to buy the straight macaronni..and so i just put a ton of speghetti in its place...should work the same, i hope....however, if there is macaronni, or pasta inside the rock, and does not go completely through it...how will it dissolve? I took a complete photo session of the event, quite fun, lol...it was hot though. Hopefully the shapes will come out good...i used three different ratios for the three rocks i made...i kinda had to just add here and there because i had washed the crushed coral off...and so there was water with that...so when i did 1:3, it was veryyyy liquidy. hopefully i didnt do something wrong, did i?!?! lol
here are a couple of pictures of the event...dont come down to hard on me if i did something wrong, its my first time for pete sakes!!!

Luke P




 
bronco300

bronco300

Active Member
a few of the 3rd mold and the whole spaghetti idea...hope it works, forgot a pic of the second mold, sorry, gotta wait! lol i'll let ya know how they turn out come sunday if i have time, or should i wait till monday to be safe?
Luke P.


 
thegrog

thegrog

Active Member
Looks good!

Like you noticed, looks a tad too liquidy. May want to cut back on the water a tad next try. That is what small batches are for, experimenting to find what works!
Give it 4 or 5 days to set up in the mold before removing as it probably could use the extra time due to it being a little thinner a mix.
Keep updating on the spaghetti, I am very curious about it! As far as it being in the middle of the rock, it will either dissolve or be eaten up durring tank cycling (just starch) by bacteria. Don't think there is anything in there that can really harm anything. Just if you add it to an established tank, watch your water parameters for a week or two and be prepared to do a few water changes.
 
bronco300

bronco300

Active Member
lol, i didnt think that stuff was that liquidy when i put it in the mold....it was even worse when i first started it in the bucket...it think its because all the water that was on the shells from washing it off...but i thought i tried to even it out, but maybe not too well, lol...we'll see mon or tuesday! then i'll compare the ratios i used...see what i like better, and i'll have to make some more, or try even more ratios. What do you all use to mix your cement?? as you could see i used a paint/drywall mixer on my drill...it worked pretty good i thought...dont know how well it would do with a bigger batch though, i just used a small batch each time so it wasnt bad.
Luke P
 
zman1

zman1

Active Member
HCKYCOZ,
Where did you get the sand? I went all over the place looking for the white sand in Edwardsville.....
Grog,
I went and got the oyster shells. I looked at the chick grit, but it had silica sand in it.
Attached are images of the oyster shells. They appear to be a little more crushed than the version you get/described. Our local elevator /coop goes by the name BLANK Feed, but they stopped selling feed in April...
The lesson here is keep your business name generic, you never know what you will be doing the next 100yrs. Anyway they sent me to Rural King and the 50 LBS bag goes for $7.69. That is a dime in the picture
I will try to whip up a couple rocks this weekend.


 
zman1

zman1

Active Member
Bronco,
You asked about what tool would you mix with. I plan on using an old mortar mix drill attachment, left over from my kitchen floor tile job. I think they use them for mixing other items as well. If you want to see a picture, let me know it's a but 28" long. I can't see what's at the other end of yours as it's spinning (to me anyway)
 
thegrog

thegrog

Active Member
Originally Posted by zman1
HCKYCOZ,
Where did you get the sand? I went all over the place looking for the white sand in Edwardsville.....
Grog,
I went and got the oyster shells. I looked at the chick grit, but it had silica sand in it.
Attached are images of the oyster shells. They are a little more crushed than the version you get/described. Our local elevator /coop goes by the name BLANK Feed, but they stopped selling feed in April...
The lesson here is keep your business name generic, you never know what you will be doing the next 100yrs. Anyway they sent me to Rural King and the 50 LBS bag goes for $7.69. That is a dime in the picture
I will try to whip up a couple rocks this weekend.
That be the stuff!!!! Looks a bit smaller, but will work just fine. Love that they put the calcium and carbonate readings on the bag!!!! That will really help the pH of your system!
Toy around with ratios. A few small batches. See what works and then go with it.
Interested in the mortar mixer. :thinking: I've been using a peice of 1x2, you guys have gone all high-tech on me!! I am so depressed that I did not think of using a drill and paint mixer.......got two of them sitting in my basement!!!!
 
zman1

zman1

Active Member
Originally Posted by TheGrog
Interested in the mortar mixer. :thinking: I've been using a peice of 1x2, you guys have gone all high-tech on me!! I am so depressed that I did not think of using a drill and paint mixer.......got two of them sitting in my basement!!!!
I can't take the credit for that... It was my floor, money and I was my bother-in-laws laborer. He's a carpenter and does tile on the side. He sent me out with a list and that was one of the items. Since that I did all the tile around the cabinets myself.
 
zman1

zman1

Active Member
Originally Posted by hckycoz
i have seen it in walmarts garden center but i bought mine at home depot
What city or did you buy the last bag in Edwardsville
 
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