DIY Rock Curing in Pond

[Zhewitt04]

I am curing my Portland cement in a large pond. How long should it take? I have heard everything from 2 weeks to 3 months. I know I will have to pull it out and test in a bin to truly know but what is your guess. I dont want to pull it out too soon and obviously want to get it out so I can set it up... thanks in advance.

 

[Spare time]

So the idea of curing comes from if it was previously used. In this case, there shouldn't be anything dead to rot on it so really what you should do is get some ammonium chloride for fish tanks (doesn't create phosphate like fish food does though a tiny bit of phosphate is handy) and some bacteria and let it go wiht a pump and heater. Once ammonia and nitrite are gone, you can keep "feeding" to have the rock going till you get fish. You can just dose the bacteria for cycling or you can add some variety to make the rock more diverse.

 

[Zhewitt04]

Correct, but with man made diy rock it needs to cure from the process of manufacturing it. The cement will leach and drive the pH up to around 10. So I was told. Letting it leach in a pond or stream speeds up the process due to the vastness of the water and constant flow of lower pH water around it. I am looking g for a time limit for this process.

 

[Spare time]

Correct, but with man made diy rock it needs to cure from the process of manufacturing it. The cement will leach and drive the pH up to around 10. So I was told. Letting it leach in a pond or stream speeds up the process due to the vastness of the water and constant flow of lower pH water around it. I am looking g for a time limit for this process.

Thats interesting. I misread the pond as an artificial pond tub that you are letting rocks sit in as I have seen people do that before. I'm following this! Out of curiosity what led you to go with the cement?

 

[Spare time]

I also wonder if @Randy Holmes-Farley would have any input on this as it seems chemistry related

 

[Ratherbeflyen]

I made my own 3d background of sanded grout, (portland cement product) lighting diffuser, and rocks. It was all of 3 months to cure before the PH balanced out.

 

[Spare time]

I made my own 3d background of sanded grout, (portland cement product) lighting diffuser, and rocks. It was all of 3 months to cure before the PH balanced out.

Thats a pretty cool idea. I have always wanted to do some sort of background rock.

 

[Ratherbeflyen]

Thats a pretty cool idea. I have always wanted to do some sort of background rock.

Thread hijack, I recommend it.

 

[Zhewitt04]

Thats interesting. I misread the pond as an artificial pond tub that you are letting rocks sit in as I have seen people do that before. I'm following this! Out of curiosity what led you to go with the cement?

I actually did this on my 2nd reef tank 10 years ago but then sold it with the rock. I stole the idea from other threads.