Home made Live Rock

[Henry]

I'm new to the group and need some opinions. I started to make some home made live rock out of cement and crushed oyster shells. They look good, but I was just wondering if anyone else had tried this. These rocks would be going into a new(to me) 200gal tank after a curing period. Thanks for the help.

Henry

[Henry]

I tried that on several rocks, but didn't like to results. Instead I would fill w/sand until cured and then empty. I made some pretty cool shapes. One that I have introduced to the tank has a little corraline algea on it. almost looks natural. but i'm worried about calcium levels and ph spikes, so i'm going pretty slow w/introducing rocks to the tank.

[Chris]

Welcome to the group! ;)

Sounds like fun... you'll definately want to cure the rock though before using it in your tank. It could take up to 2 months before the ph spike passes. That's part of the problem with making your own rock... it'll take some time before you can use it.

Did you take any pics of the odd shapes? Not too long ago we did a group order of base rock from www.hirocks.com, their stuff is pretty cheap and well worth it.

[Henry]

I have some pics. I just need to load them on my computer. The first batch of rocks cured in freshwater for about 5 weeks, then an additional 4 weeks in saltwater w/reg water changes. Its been a big project but the cost is about $0.20/lb. not bad considering i can make different shapes and sizes. Hopefully I can report the progress or regress. which ever.

[Tim Marvin]

You can get with Chris and buy some real reef rock that is not live and cure it out. Then you don't have to worry about cement in the tank.

[Henry]

I might have to look into that option.
I was told that the cement is much like dosing that tank w/kalkwasser. After sufficient curing. Is this true.