Ways of making Fake "live rock" Please Help

notsonoob

notsonoob

Member
Originally Posted by 1journeyman
http:///forum/post/2775032
Yes and no.
Again, you're correct... dead rock will house bacteria. Then again, so will filtration media, the glass of your tank, pump housings, inside of pumps, etc.
True "live" rock, however, is much more than just bacteria. That's my point that I'm trying to make. People too often overlook the benefit of "fresh" live rock with it's myriad of life it brings into an aquarium.
We don't call old filtration media "live" even though it too contains bacteria.
Usually bring hitchhikers of death to mine.
 
iowafish

iowafish

Member
Originally Posted by SueAndHerZoo
http:///forum/post/2773609
Are we talking about the expanding insulation foam called Great Stuff"?
Sue
I don't know that I'd use Great Stuff foam, personally, since it's not really for aquatic applications. Don't know if others use this for aquarium applications or not. I think the foam that was being referred to was black pond foam, which is aquarium safe.
As a side note to crazy4coral, there are several DIY rock threads on the DIY forum. Also, google "Garf."
KH
 
robertmathern

robertmathern

Active Member
Dude you live in florida like me. Go to a nursery they have coral rock. Lot of pores and cheap. Depending on where you go you can get like 25-45 lbs. For about 30 bucks. In florida especially south florida you cant give it away
 
spiderwoman

spiderwoman

Active Member
I'm going to give my $0.02 here as a reefer who has tried aquacultured rock in one of our reefs (90lbs of it). It's extremely heavy compaired to same size LR (just about no matter which type you use). Over a short period of time pieces of the rock started falling off. The rock was made by a guy who has been making that type of rock for a few years.
To say the least, we were extremely disappointed and took all but 1 piece out of the tank and used Marshall Island and Tonga Shelve instead.
 
notsonoob

notsonoob

Member
Originally Posted by SpiderWoman
http:///forum/post/2790202
I'm going to give my $0.02 here as a reefer who has tried aquacultured rock in one of our reefs (90lbs of it). It's extremely heavy compaired to same size LR (just about no matter which type you use). Over a short period of time pieces of the rock started falling off. The rock was made by a guy who has been making that type of rock for a few years.
To say the least, we were extremely disappointed and took all but 1 piece out of the tank and used Marshall Island and Tonga Shelve instead.
I'd say a bad mix.
Trick is to make it as pourous as possible. You make it too solid and it will weigh a ton.
The big thing to remember, is that it is not the rock, but what is living on it.
 
V

vince-1961

Guest
Here is what I made. The two primary ingredients are portland cement and crushed oyster shell. I used varying proportions of cement to shell, usually something in the 3 or 4 to 7 range. Various batches also added some beach sand and some poultry feed (crushed oyster, crushed shell and some silicates). It's been sitting in the these tubs of water for almost 4 weeks now. I change the water frequently and just recently have started adding a bit of muriatic acid to the water.
Tested the water last night for pH after it'd been sitting there for about 36 hours. Small vat went very dark purple (8.4 or higher). Big vat = 7.8.
I figure it's got another month to go before the pH has stabilized.
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