DIY Rock Tutorial/Info Thread (Rocks, walls, floors, etc.)

prsnlty

Jackie
View Badges
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
7,541
Reaction score
5,235
Location
Citrus Co, Florida
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
In the next few days I'm about to start doing a couple of DIY Rock projects. The main reason is because my tank crashed and lost all my acropora very recently. That gives me an excuse for re- aquascaping. I've been wanting to do this for a while so it might as well be now. The main reason is because I put too much Rock in the tank to start with so once the corals grew out it left very little swim room for my tangs. Plus I want to try and experiment for an old-world bridge ;)
 

Grimreaperz

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 17, 2016
Messages
185
Reaction score
64
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
In the next few days I'm about to start doing a couple of DIY Rock projects. The main reason is because my tank crashed and lost all my acropora very recently. That gives me an excuse for re- aquascaping. I've been wanting to do this for a while so it might as well be now. The main reason is because I put too much Rock in the tank to start with so once the corals grew out it left very little swim room for my tangs. Plus I want to try and experiment for an old-world bridge ;)
Looking forward to what you come up with!. And about the other comment I completely agree. I'm always on the side of caution in this hobby!
 

MarsRover

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 18, 2015
Messages
660
Reaction score
513
Location
Los Angeles
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
how cost effective is this. Seems like a lot of work and id rather just buy the rock lol!

It was a heck of a lot cheaper and easier to do this with some cement and rock than just to try and go it with rock alone!!

4949137E-2FE5-45F3-9837-B25450F00A0C.jpeg


8F04AEBA-AC26-45EA-9AE9-08CF57DED97A.jpeg


2E525027-84F3-47D5-9A2D-81B92988F8AE.jpeg
 

vetteguy53081

Well known Member and monster tank lover
View Badges
Joined
Aug 11, 2013
Messages
90,836
Reaction score
200,086
Location
Wisconsin -
Rating - 100%
13   0   0
I think I just found my guy to do my driveway!!

Very nice work, tips and creative ideas
 

naoki

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 30, 2018
Messages
37
Reaction score
30
Location
Fairbanks, Alaska
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Very nice thread, it helped me to make the first batch! Thank you.

I didn't know too much about curing of portland cement, but it appears that curing in the water gives fairly good result. So it appear that it is better to cure them immersed in the water. I wonder why it is recommended to cure in the plastic bag with occasional spraying.

In this paper, they tested air curing, saturated wet covering method (similar to the method by the original poster), water immersion curing, and others.
https://ac.els-cdn.com/S22126708140...t=1537936378_c9f5e08a16566f98f5bb3b28fcba1938

Wet covering and water immersion methods were both good in terms of compressive strength after 28 days. Indeed, water immersion seems to be slightly better.

In another study, http://www.ijastnet.com/journals/Vol_3_No_4_April_2013/7.pdf , curing with wet burlap wrapping was slightly better than water immersion, but they achieve the similar strength.

So it seems that it is easier and quicker to cure them in water (you don't have to soak them too long after curing), but does it have a negative effect?
 

Metasyntactic

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
May 8, 2018
Messages
74
Reaction score
63
Location
Washington DC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I might have missed this but can you safely use concrete that you've acid etched? I mean, assuming you adequately neutralize it and soak it.
 

FLSharkvictim

Shark Advocate
View Badges
Joined
Oct 11, 2016
Messages
1,441
Reaction score
1,329
Location
TAMPA , FL
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Good Article but easier said then done mate~ I refuse to put any concrete in my tank, b/c it could kill everything in your system if you don't properly cure that Portland white cement the correct way... That's not a chance I AM willing to take... Hats off to ya if it all work outs... I am not trying to do any rippers on anyone that DIY's there live rock. Different strokes for different folks. I would never add it b/c it just does not look real to me no matter how porous you get it @MarsRover.. That's just my opinion since i have done many experiments w/ man-made rock and the insane amount of curing ya got to do with it.


Love to see a shot with some of this man-made rock in your tank @Electrobes

I have tried using Portland cement and my man made rock came out terrible and I have tried a few different times. Thank god I had around 50 pounds of some old school Fiji left over from a previous build. I am in the process of recurring it since you can find it anywhere on the market due to the Export restrictions that put on the Live rock in 2008.. No more Tonga, No more Fiji or my all time favorite rock of all times was Marshall Island live rock! A lot of people probably had never seen real Marshall Island live rock. If anyone has some of that rock it's like #gold

I will be going with a Minimalist type scape since I will be going with mainly an all SPS Dominate type tank for the new set up.
Ones, Synergy Reef Systems finishes up my custom CL-44 sump in a few weeks my Live rock will be ready to add to the SCA 150.

Here is a pix of my scape before I started the recurring process.

Ultra Premium Fiji Live rock.

Premium Ultra Fiji live rock.png
 
Last edited:
Back
Top