cheesy feet
Fish Aficionado
Andywg's guide to DIY live rock, I thought it was so good I'll post it for the rest of you.
You will need:
You will need:
- Water - Get this from a tap;
- Some Crushed Oyster Shell (COS) - Get this from a pet shop specialising in birds;
- Portland Cement - Get this form a builder's merchants (it doesn't have to be portland but does need to be one where you need to add sand to make mortar (so no just add water mixes like post cement).
- A container filled with sand.
- A device holding water.
- A bucket to mix in.
- Add 5 parts COS to 1 part cement in the mixing container.
- Add water a little at a time until it has roughly the consistency of cottage cheese. It should be able to just about hold its shape when put moulded into a ball.
- Mould a shape you would like and put the shape into the contained filled with sand to set for 24-48 hours (until hard). To make caves you can put the mixture around an inflated washing up glove or even put it in a glove for fingered rock. To make the rock stronger (but less effective for filtration) you can add sand to the mixture at point 1.
- Once the mix has hardened place it in water to allow all the alkaline shizzle to come out. At this time the pH can get into double figures. I change water about once a week in large tubs but for smaller amounts I put the rock in a toilet cistern. This gives you many water changes and cures the rock quicker (not too wise if you have a toilet block in the cistern though).
- After 4-6 weeks you should be able to put the rock in FW and notice the pH doesn't rise above 8. This is good. You can now put the rock into a tank. Easy!
