diy rock questions

noob101

noob101

Member
well like and idiot i asked this question on the new hobbyist thread and got the norm for answer.
is this diy rock worth putting the time into i think it is was just curious would like some feedback from peeps who have actually done it.
i have read the thread in archives and the stuff garf.org has on it so i pretty much get the jist of it.
basically tryin to find out if worht tryin to do and any hints anyone might have for me to do this.
thanks
scott
 
bronco300

bronco300

Active Member
i have made lots, have yet to use it though because i want to make it live before puttin it in, and dont have a big enough tank yet...but it was fun to do...just play around with it, you can make some awesome things as you can see in the live rock thread in archives
 
scott9311

scott9311

Member
It is WELL worth it! It costs about 9 cents a lb to make, which makes it very economical. Here are a couple of pics of my rock before I put it in my tank:

 
noob101

noob101

Member
scott
those rocks look awesome was it hard to do at first or did u get what u wanted the first few times u tried
well the whole purpose of this is i am makin roughly a 200g out of acrylic and it gonna take sometime and everything i have read says let cure for at least 6 weeks.
wh i was thinkin of doin this that way i get the shape of rocks i want and don't have to spend about 5 tp 6 bucks a lbs down here.
 
scott9311

scott9311

Member
The hardest thing about making your own rock is just mixing the concrete/oyster shells (which is the recipe I used). It does take about six weeks to cure, but it's well worth the wait. I stocked a 30 gal tank at my gf's house with some of my rock, and it only took a couple of months for it to be about half covered in coraline algae.
 
noob101

noob101

Member
i was reading about placing the rocks after they cure in a seperate saltwater tank with a powerhead and a few good live rocks so the coraline will spread to the homemade rocks and it works in about a month.
have u tried that yet?
 
scott9311

scott9311

Member
After curing, I just put them in that 30 without a powerhead, a regular florescent light, and one live rock with coraline. It didn't take long for it to spread to the homemade stuff ...
 
noob101

noob101

Member
so what would anyone suggest as a good mefium to use with the concrete crushed shells or aragonite sand?
and has anyone tried using macaroni noodles to make more pourus?
 
bronco300

bronco300

Active Member
i have used spaghetti....and rigatoni...no, manicoti i think it was, the big big kind....they work pretty well i think...it can make a mess of your water, and you may have to do some extra curing to make sure the noodles come out, but they will in time..when i used spag when i changed the cure water i would take a hose and spray in the holes to help it all come out and dig in t here...but in time it all came out as far as i could see
 
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