SamIAm's Homemade LiveRock

[samiam_orami]

Below is a picture of my second batch of my homemade liverock:
http://www.zenreef.com/Office/rock_large.jpg

many of you have purchased my rock either as base rock
or as part of a coral colony or frag

I was hoping to get your opinions on the quality of the rock
regarding aesthetics and functionality

any and all feedback will be greatly appricieated

This will determine if I ever make any more and ease the
concerns of many who are wary of the fact that it is "unnatural"

FRANKENSTIEN ROCK ..... it's alive ....ITS ALIVE ... ITS ALIVE !!!!
(as I laugh out loud menacingly ;-) )



SOLD
I have about 50lbs of my live rock currently for sale if anyone is interested
that I'm selling for a max of $1/lbs not to exceed $40:
(see second pic)
http://www.maast.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=6303

[::pete::]

It looks good in the picture!! Is that stacked or connected?

[samiam_orami]

rock is stacked ...

very stackable made it in layers
has a sedimentary type rock look similar to Fiji rock

once introduced to coraline algea, it colors up very nicely
I added plastic shaving in the concrete mixture to encourage the
coraline and to lightenup the rock

[BA]

I will take the free damsels if you can also meet me at Tim's early saturday morning

[brewercm]

Sam,
Where did you get the recipe for making it and do you still have it. That looks like a great idea for base rock once I get around to my next tankl

[samiam_orami]

Got the recipe from GARG :
http://www.garf.org/LEONELS/rock.html

they have many pages of info in the HOW TO folder
a fun project, a bit time consuming and you have to let the rock cure in freshwater for over 6weeks
before you start curing it in saltwater. This is to stablize the PH of the concrete which is very basic

[brewercm]

Thanks, I'll check it out.

[Instar]

Cool, you're the first person I've known outside GARF to make this stuff. How are you curing it or is that left to the buyer?
Have you ever tried adding pasta noodles and tube ballons to make it holey like crazy and full of caves??

[Tim Marvin]

BA, I'll give you some damsels.

[BA]

Hey cool, thx Tim

[Moonrs]

That's awesome looking Rock; If you hadn't said anything, I'd have sworn it was real LR that someone just dumped out of their tank and let bleach out. Beautiful!

[samiam_orami]

pasta noodles ...
now there's a great idea ! ! !

I would think it would disolve while its curing in the freshwater ....
might get a little messy, but worth it in the long run ....

[Instar]

Yes it will disolve and you can blast it out with a garden hose too. Not too messy when compared to uncured live rock.

[GaryP]

Leave it to Larry to think of that. BTW, GARF calls it "Arragocrete." I've seen some of the pieces thay have made on GARF and think they are really cool, especially the arches and caves. They would be perfect for folks trying to grow carnation corals and other cave dwelling corals. Of course it takes a lot more than a cave to be successful with them.

I was thinking about making some frag plugs by their method, but need to buy a special drill bit that isn't real cheap to make the mold. I might be able to justify it is I can get some of ya'll to buy them from me.

Gary

[samiam_orami]

why not just use a large shot glass as a mold ? ....

oh ...
it's not exactly expensive, but I have about 1/2 bag of concrete
I'm about to throw out if anybody wants it .....

[::pete::]

oh ...
it's not exactly expensive, but I have about 1/2 bag of concrete
I'm about to throw out if anybody wants it .....
Why are you tossing it? Is that your last batch?

[samiam_orami]

concrete is pretty heavy
don't really want to ship it to Hawaii ;-)

I'll either buy a fresh bag there or just use quaried rock
and try to get a permit to cultivate it in the ocean ....

Surfer-SamIam (going to be)

[Tim Marvin]

Anything that dissolves slow will work well for getting a porous look to the rock. You can even use ballons to mold caves and then just pop them and pull them out when the concrete has hardened.

[NosyTeacher]

ReefALot on MARSH is doing this, too. Maybe you could compare notes.

[cvonseggern]

****, that looks a lot better than the pieces I made. I've got maybe 40 lbs in my 100g and it's REALLY obvious which ones they are. The coralline is starting to color them up and make them less ugly, but still, they look awful. I used sand instead of crushed coral, and I wound up packing them way too tight. The result was pieces that are extremely obviously man-made. I wound up using them as much as possible in the base of the rockpile where they can't be seen :D

[Ram_Puppy]

hey chris,

if it means anything, when I pickued up my algae, I didn't notice! :)

[Ram_Puppy]

those of you that have done this, what brand of cement did you use?

[Tim Marvin]

pure white portland cement.

[Ram_Puppy]

Tim is this available locally? all I have ever seen here is the Alamo brand.

I have a project brewing in my mind, where aragocrete would be a neccessity... if it happens, it will be very cool... but $$$ is always a problem! :)