home made live rock

[wildmike]

I just got done making my first batch of rock. I think its going to turn out good. I cann't wait to see what it looks like in a few days. How many of you guys and girls made your own rock?? If you did can i see some pictures? Tell me about your exprence making it. Was it worth it or not?? I will post some pictures when I un cover them.
Mike

 

[armageddon]

A guy i know told me he made some a few years back. He said he used like maceroni on the outside, then placed the rock in some water until the noodles rotted away. Then your left with a bunch of holes in the rock. Did you do something like this? I want to get ideas because i'm thinking of making my own batch.

 

[krux]

from what i understand, the curing process can take literally months. i have seen a few threads in the past. maybe a search will get ya some more information.

 

[wildmike]

I am going to drill holes in the rock with a drill bit. I will egg them out badly so they they look more natural. The curing process will take some time. I am not sure but I have heard that it can take a month to two months. I think it will be a fun project.

 

[armageddon]

Yeah it would take some time to get them cured. The guy i talked to said he has had his rock in his 125 for so long that you can hardly tell what is real rock and what was made.

 

[robb]

How did you do it? Do you have a recipe? How about some pictures?

 

[balistidae]

i also know the guy who did this and all he did was mixed up some cement and added all sorts of diferent shapes of pasta to the mix. He then put it in a big tub of saltwater and let all the noodles decompose and they left behind all sorts of holes and tunnels.

 

[pbuck]

I made several pounds of LR just the other day. I used the recipe on www.garf.org The rock looks great, I added some acrylic scraps to make holes in the rock and went with portland cement and crushed shells. I patted aruba shells to the wet mixture to make it look interesting. I also made some reef plugs to mount my new frags to. Overall I like my homemade LR. It takes a few weeks to cure the stuff, but if you replace the water everyday you can expedite the process.

 

[jhead]

GARF has a creek that runs behind there place. I understand that they put there fresh batchs of homemade rock in it to cure so they don't have to change the water. If I ever do this I think I'll find a quite stream and stash the rock there for a few weeks, doing water changes every day on 100+ lbs of rock would suck. I read their site awhile back and they have some info on using pasta for holes. I can't remember exactly what they said worked best but I'm sure you can search on their site and find it. They have a ton of info.