DIY reef rock

yogoshio

yogoshio

New member
Just got back from a quick trip.

Picked up a bag of crushed coral (15lbs) aragonite sand (30 lbs) Type 3 Portland cement, playsand, and rock salt.

I'm gonna play a little experiment since I have some time before I set up my 110, so I'm gonna try and make some rock myself and perhaps rock up the back wall like Kieth (gonebad). In fact, if you see this Kieth, throw up what you know and some pics!!

I'll be stirring some stuff up later and making a few small pieces and keep everyone up to date.

My current dollar per rock is .50 per lb. Hopefully it'll get a tad better too since this doesn't include water...

http://www.reef-eden.net/diy_9.htm

I'm trying this recipe first to get some light, porous back wall rock.

Anyone have any other helpful info?
 
You mix the cement and sand first, then get it the right viscosity, and then mix the salt in, but lightly, otherwise the salt will dissolve before curing is done. I'm expecting to wait at least 2 months before the pH is right, but I have the time.


If you want VERY sturdy structures, you'll want to use less salt.

If you don't use salt, you can use the rock in two weeks, but it'll be heavier and not as porous.


Long term, I'd like to try some interesting shapes, but I've got a few dry runs to make first :)
 
First attempt: too much cement and too much water. I know its not fully hardened yet, but it's not what I was hoping for in terms of texture.

That's mostly my fault. I added too much water and added stuff to compensate, but lost track of measurements, lol.

Still potentially useful as a bottom piece. Has a nice well in the center. It's big, but not too heavy either :)

Second batch I was more careful, and the mix turned out a lot nicer. Will add pics tomorrow after the concert :)
 
Following too. I hope to do this on a future tank. Did you see the 1000 plywood tank build on 1reef.com?

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Yeah the 1000 build was my inspiration. After a few weeks ill have a better feel for this lol.


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Ok, so the large piece is the first attempt. Very bad mix. I might completely scrap it... Too heavy, porous, but not overly so. The mix was too wet, and too much cement, so it's more flattened out.

Second two rocks are a lot more like it :) Much lighter, very porous, and will get even more so when the salt breaks
down more. Every day I change the water in the holding bucket, and have a maxijet 600 stirring the water. I might not need to change the water as often, but the water is to break down the salt and help cure the cement, so I would assume more fresh water would expedite the process....


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Ok, what shapes should I make? It's easy enough to get a round, or oval shape, but what should I do to get creative? For the back of my tank I plan on covering and having some shelves for frags and whatnot. Any other ideas?
 
When the cement is wet make holes in it the same size as the bottom of a frag plug ... Then u will b able the put frags right in there without them falling over
 
I got frag plugs to make some actual reef rock frag holders!! Is there anyone interested in me making some for them?
 
Ok, have a loot more rock now. Rob, your frag rock is in here too. It's not the best, but it'll hold 5 ocean wonders normal plugs. I've got the mixture down pretty darn good, but am going to need multiple curing buckets because some of this stuff is going to be ready soon, and I'm going to put some of it in my tank now. If I could figure our a stupid cheap way of plumbing a small bucket I'd do that too so I could cure this stuff now instead of later. Including the first screw up (which I broke down into some rubble and chucked the rest, WAAAYYYY too dense and heavy...) I'm still at about 50 cents per lb cost wise. The most expensive part is the sand/crushed coral. I might try oyster shells next time round....
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Whats stopping you from making a slab and hammering it to get more random "rock" shapes? If you are gonna scrap the first piece try giving a smash to see what that would look like.

Wonder if there are molds for boulders somewhere. Im loving the diy element.
 
I did smash it, but it didn't give me anything decent. My rubble is from doing that to a piece that turned out the wrong shape. I did just get an awesome dry macro rock from gonebad I'm going to use. Also, the bulk of the rock I'm making is to cover the back of my tank, so I need flat-backed pieces with depth only on the front.

I'm going to be getting more creative with my rock soon. For now I want to see how long it will take to cure what I have.
 
yogoshio said:
I did smash it, but it didn't give me anything decent. My rubble is from doing that to a piece that turned out the wrong shape. I did just get an awesome dry macro rock from gonebad I'm going to use. Also, the bulk of the rock I'm making is to cover the back of my tank, so I need flat-backed pieces with depth only on the front.

I'm going to be getting more creative with my rock soon. For now I want to see how long it will take to cure what I have.
Click to expand...

Tagging along for sure. Im interested to see what you end up with. Ive done some research on it and some people got great results others it looks like a tanked tank.
 
Yeah, most of the issues people have is due to impatience. You have to be dam sure the rock is completely cured before it goes in the tank, or it will leach phosphates and skyrocket the pH from the rock salt.
 
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