Reefer33

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Anybody done or tried this and been very successful with it? Any opinions would be appreciative. Thanks
 

vp39

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If you meand curing it yourself, yes. It isn't that hard, but you'd have to have a tank for it to cure in. Not your main tank, or it will cycle it. It's not that bad. If you mean getting it yourself, that's illegal.
 

H@rry

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I've never tried it but I've seen a couple of pieces other people did and was unimpressed with it, kinda looked like chunks of concrete. I think it you want to make some a good way to cure it would be to put it in a stream for a month or so.
 

CJK

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If you want a cheep way to cure DIY liverock, Put it in the holding tank of your toilet and leave it there for about 3mo. Automatic water changes will happen naturally.
icon_biggrin.gif
 

DeathWish302

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CJK:

I wouldn't advise that unless you do not use sanitizers or have not for a couple months. Also, those with well water it also is a no go. That iron will play with your parameters forever, believe me. Also if your conditioning your water, you must watch for toxins from these compounds. If none of this applies to you, go for it!!!

Harry:

A stream??? Not where i'm from, your asking for pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers to contaminate your rock. Yes, if you live in the foothills it would be a great way. But not a "normal" stream will be safe, you have to back-track into no-man's land for safety.

Just my $0.02

DW302
 

Lunchbucket

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i was just thinking...yeah this might be cheap for rock...but how much time and effort are you gonna have to put into it? curing time? water cost? that would take for ever to set up a reef! also, one thing i am curious about is...how long does it take to get infested w/ pods, bacteria, and bristle worms...the stuff that makes live rock, live rock. that would take forever i am sure...plus quite a bit of $$ to get "seeding kits"


just doesn't seem to outweight the cost of buying lr

just thinking about other stuff

later
Lunchbucket
 

cstolp

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My reef buddies father-in-law lives on the Keys. There they mine old coral very much like we mine limestone here. What we did was add some of these old coral skeletons to our existing reef as base rock. Within a short period of time we had coraline coverage and critter populations thriving. The only drawback seems to be a bloom of hair algea at the very beginning. Perhaps a good soak for a weak or so before adding the rock might help.
 

howie099

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Troops, yes the rock is not the prettiest rock, but use it for base rock and put the good LR on top. It takes practices to make the rocks look more real. It depends on waht you are making them out of also on how it will look. The cheapest is to use oyser shells from a feed store and regular portland cement mixed in 5-1 ratio. I have made to batches and have 25lbs in my 30g Reef tank. The whole processes takes 5-6 weeks for the rock to be ready. All I did to cure the rock is put it in a bucket and changes the water every week. that is it nothing special is averages about $.25 per pound of the rock. You do the math and see how much you save is you have an average tank 55g, you need about 100lbs of LR it cost you $3.50 per lb on MO average and homemade LR $.25 per lb. So 50lbs for HM LR is $13 or so and about $150 for a 45lb case of Walt Smith delivered I would rather save the $140 and use if for other things in your tank. Either way you have to cycle the rock when you get it so what is few more weeks.
 

DeathWish302

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Also remember(like Howie said), if your looking to make rock like Marshal Island...Good Luck. Base rock is all i've used mine for, except for a cave i made which took 3 tries and nearly 20 hours between the first two goofs to make it similar in appearance (note: Similar, not exact).

Just My $0.02.
DW302
 

clwnphish

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I take old coral skeletons from my FO and cement them together and make caves and stuff with cement,then I glue sps and xenia frags to them and they look great.
 

RichMacys

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Im sold on the homemade rock thing. I used about 80% homeade rock,15% dead aragonite and 5% seed rock. And I added old coral skeltons here and there for a more realistic look. After 6 months Ive got feather dusters, all sorts of worms(bristle, spagetti,etc) and coralline algae covering all of the rock. The rock is quite a bit cheaper!!! $3 for the portland cement, $3 for the southdown sand, old aragonite sand I had left over $free, my time priceless
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, water change in 25 gallon bin once a week for 6 weeks $???(not that an*l). Then I used my reef water for the 7th water change. You have to do water changes anyway RIGHT? I didnt get any cyano blooms, algae outbreaks and I didnt hurt a thing on the real reef. Plus I have more rock than I want in my tank. Who can say that at $3 and up a pound? Here is a link to a pic of my 37 cube tank. HTH
http://homepages.about.com/rmacys/spsreefcom/
 

saltydog6988

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<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Reefer33:
<STRONG>Anybody done or tried this and been very successful with it? Any opinions would be appreciative. Thanks</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

WORK?????TOXINS???????????PLZZZZZZZZ....WHAT A BUNCH OF OLD WOMEN....MAKING YOUR OWN LIVE ROCK CAN BE VERY ENJOYABLE. IF IT LOOKS LIKE CONCRETE YOUR NOT USING YOUR IMAGINATION. TRY DIFERENT FILLERS IE: SAND,BASE ROCK CHUNKS, SEA GLASS, SHELLS, NOODLES....YOUR FALSE TEETH!!!! ECT. I ACTUALLY MADE MOLDS AND HAVE A SUNKEN LINER IN MY TANK (TITANIC). AND A SPANISH GALION (UKNOWWHATIMEAN)........I CURE IN A POND IN MY BACK YARD. WORK TIME EFFORT (WORTH IT) SISSY'Sweb page
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yznhmr

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85% of the rock in my tank is made of crushed opstershell, and concrete, i bought some covered rock to seed for coraline.. check out my tank..
 

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