Live Rock

[steelhealr]

Hi..on a DIY website I saw a downloadable manual titled 'Make your Own Live Rock". Is this possible? Has any member here done this? How is it done? Thanks. SH

 

[blout]

ive seen something like it it involves sement, argronite and some other things but its not living rock until about a 3 or 4 months in a tank probly longer does look good though and you can make your own shapes and sizes i just dont know what products are safe to use in marine tanks, if anybody knows then could they let me know

 

[3fsh]

I am in the process of "making my own live rock" right now! Lol... well, kind of. I found this enormous piece of dead coral skeleton on the beach in Hawaii about 3 months ago and put it in my tank. It already has stuff growing on it! I think it's live rock now... probably doesn't have a whole lot of beneficial bacteria on it, but it's definitely alive. I'm not sure about the cement idea... sounds very cool, though!

 

[Def]

Was it http/www.garf.org ? When you make your own "rock", it's not live rock, it's base rock.

 

[amstar15]

ive got about 50 lbs of rock that use to be live rock. my buddy went away and told me to come and get it out of his garage. well when i arrived it was in some nasty water (no powerheads, 85 degrees outside.) anyway I never put it in my tank and i put it up in the attic dry. is this rock considered base rock now? is it good for a refigium? or should i put it in my tank and see what wants to grow on it.

 

[Opcn]

It is base rock now, but given time it will come back to life if it is seeded by inverts from live rock

 

[steelhealr]

To Def...I saw the ad on thelebos.com. I am building a DIY moonlight for my tank and saw it there. BTW Def...I'm using your technque for improving my kH with each water change and it has improved. SH

 

[Navarre]

I have made live rock and have some of it in my system at the moment.

Man made liverock is nothing new, in fact its used alot in the USA around florida. Alot of man made stuff is thrown in the sea and left to mature, its later sold as Florida liverock and is very effective.

Basically its cement and aragonite but you need to add a 3rd ingredient to make it porus with little pitmarks and holes inside. This has been experimented here with 3 things.

Crushed shells. These were not so great, the rock was too porous and although it looked nice, its ability ot filter out nitrate was zero.

Pasta, mixed in with the cement/aragonite and left in water means it will eventualy melt away the pasta and it seeps out of the rock. Its very effective if a little messy looking during its construction process.

Rocksalt. This can be used in the same manner as the pasta and once in water it slowly disolves and leaves the rock nice and porous.

Once the shape of the rock has been made and its set solid, simply plce it in freshwater and monitor the PH You will find it will skyrocket up and over a ph of 12.0 Simply keep changing the ware every week or so (perhaps even put an airstone or powerhead for circulation) and keep checking for PH level. once the Ph drops to acceptable levels (below 8.4) then leave it in salt water for a week and check PH levels again. if the PH rises then it needs longer, if the ph remains the same or drops further then its ready to be put in the main marine tank for cycling.

My 220 gallon is going to have an enormous amount of man made rock designed for it, i wil then place Grade "A" (or better still, "decorator grade") liverock on this to seed it.

 

[steelhealr]

Navarre....excellent reply. Thanks for taking the time to post it. Interesting to read. SH

 

[Def]

steelhealr, good stuff about the kh. Slow and steady is the trick.

 

[Salt Freak]

i HEARD ABOUT PEOPLE DOING IT BUT DON'T WANT TO RISK IT ON MY TANK AS i HAVE TO MUCH MONEY IN THE TANK LIKE 500 DOLLARS AND I'M NOT HALF WAY DONE SO I'M NOT GOING TO RISK EVEN THOUGH IT WOULD BE TONS CHEAPER.

 

[Opcn]

So long as you leave it long enought for the basic elements to be washed away its not much of a risk at all, infact its not as risky as say adding wild live rock that may have mantises on it

P.S. Edit that please, it hurts to read it

 

[RamJet]

i HEARD ABOUT PEOPLE DOING IT BUT DON'T WANT TO RISK IT ON MY TANK AS i HAVE TO MUCH MONEY IN THE TANK LIKE 500 DOLLARS AND I'M NOT HALF WAY DONE SO I'M NOT GOING TO RISK EVEN THOUGH IT WOULD BE TONS CHEAPER.

Seven sixteenths of one inch:
That's the distance you'd have to move your pinky in order to not sound like an idiot. jUST KIDDING, i STILL LOVE YA.