Live Rock Question?!?!?!?!?

[xXxSpyderxXx]

so im tempted to make a few live rock pieces of my own because im going to be setting up a golden dwarf tank and i cant seem to find any LR that has good "caves" in them. my question is this, is there a difference between the LR i buy from the LFS than the LR i will be making? now by difference i mean will one grow more coralline than another? or in time will they both work the same? i would love to buy some actual LR but i cant find any with caves in it.




p.s. if you have a few nice LR pieces that have caves and arnt super huge let me know, i might be interested in buying it. post a few pics of them.

 

[swannyson7]

I'd recommend building your own caves using a few pieces of LR or dry rock along with some cement like the stuff that Marco Rocks sells.

 

[xXxSpyderxXx]

I'd recommend building your own caves using a few pieces of LR or dry rock along with some cement like the stuff that Marco Rocks sells.

i was thinking about doing that also. just was wondering what everyone thought on DIY LR. also maybe seeing if anyone had any spare "cave" pices laying around :-P

 

[swannyson7]

The problem with making your own rock (I'm assuming you're talking about the stuff made with portland cement) is that it requires quite a bit of curing to prevent issues with your pH due to leaching. If you go with LR or dryrock with the cement it will be a much faster and less labor intensive solution, but you may lose flexibility in the exact size & shape of cave that you're looking for unless you start chiseling the pieces of rock.

 

[xXxSpyderxXx]

The problem with making your own rock (I'm assuming you're talking about the stuff made with portland cement) is that it requires quite a bit of curing to prevent issues with your pH due to leaching. If you go with LR or dryrock with the cement it will be a much faster and less labor intensive solution, but you may lose flexibility in the exact size & shape of cave that you're looking for unless you start chiseling the pieces of rock.

good point. this will take some thinking, hummmm......