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Chrisrush
11/10/2001, 08:47 PM
Howdy,
I have read a couple of articles about making your own rock and I was wondering if it is as easy as it sounds. Has anyone else made there own rock, and if so, was it easy and inexpensive?

Chris

Pomacanthus1
11/10/2001, 10:22 PM
GARF :rolleyes: makes a lot of their live rock. Their website is www.garf.org They have a lot of useful info about coral propagation, but other than that don't believe anything they say right away. Most of their pics are doctored too.....

Even if you did make your own, you wouldn't get all the critters and other life forms like you would on real LR.

piercho
11/10/2001, 10:50 PM
Yes. Properly cured by soaking in water for several weeks before use, it works. It's the same as getting "base" rock, except that you have control over the shape (caves, arches, tubes, etc) of each piece.

A downside to this method is the rock looks and is bare in your tank when it is first placed. Most natural reef-keeping methods depend on colonies of many different types of animals being imported into the aquaria on live rock and live sand, so you have to provide this by other means.

I have no idea if the rock will develop any denitrifying capability. When using a deep sand that may not be important.

Impaler
11/10/2001, 11:43 PM
Hey, Chris, where in Texas do you live? If you are near the coast, take a trip to one of the jetties or dikes. I scored some choice rock from Texas City. Super porous, as it was fossilized coral frags, and tons of Mysis shrimp. Some people warned me about contaminants like oil and such, but I've had no problems from it. You will still want to get some liverock from a lfs to supply the more appropriate lifefroms, but for baserock, hit the coast, man!

Purely my own opinion, as I'm too "po" to afford many things.
Dan

Chrisrush
11/10/2001, 11:45 PM
Thanks for the insite. I'm only about 2 hours away from Galveston. Maybe a little farther from Tx City.

Chris

Chrisrush
11/10/2001, 11:46 PM
Dan,
Would I need to cure the rock that I got from the ocean? How would I get the rocks from the ocean.

Chris

Impaler
11/10/2001, 11:50 PM
I didn't, but I've got an established tank that I was rebuilding. I put the only fish I had at the time, a pseudo, into a 10 gal quarantine when I put everything into a 40 from the 20 I had to replace. I didn't see any spikes of any kind, so the pseudo went in after 2 days. No problems at all, and the pseudo ate very well, from the little bugs he got from the new rock. That was early this week, and no trouble as yet.

HTH
Dan

Chrisrush
11/10/2001, 11:52 PM
Cool. So you just recently went down to the coast. How many #'s did you bring back.

Chris

Chrisrush
11/10/2001, 11:54 PM
Do you think bringing back sand from the coast would be benefical?

Chris

Impaler
11/11/2001, 12:07 AM
I bet the sand would work if you were to get a way out, onto a sand bar away from the immediate beaches. I have thought about it, since a 40 pound bag of aragonite is $40 or more. It's silicate sand though, and probably wouldn't work as well as the Calcerous sand. Maybe around San Luis Pass. Good sand bars out there.

I figure I got around 15 or 20 pounds of really super porous rocks. Base rock, since there isn't any coralline algea on them, but the tubeworms and pods like them plenty. You'll still want a bit of "real" liverock from an lfs for the algea, but rocks like I found are great as base rocks.

Dan

Chrisrush
11/11/2001, 12:09 AM
Cool. Could you mix the ocean sand with the calcerous sand the same way that you would mix the ocean LR with the LFS LR?

Chris

Impaler
11/11/2001, 12:20 AM
You might could. I don't see why not. I don't know for sure, but the only real problem I've heard of is the threat of pollution. Gotta love the oil industry! I'll likely do just that on my next tank.

Dan

Chrisrush
11/11/2001, 12:21 AM
Did you have to cure the rocks from the ocean when you got them? Do you cure rocks to start growing coraline algae on them?

Chris

Impaler
11/11/2001, 12:33 AM
Well, curing liverock, simply, is letting things on the rock that are going to die, die, and decompose, before you introduce the less tolerant species of animals to the tank. Also, included, is the establishment of the denitrifying bacteria in the sandbed and rock. When you set up a new tank, this is all done at once in the tank, over a period of a few weeks, or months, depending on the size of the system. Not everything on the rock is going to live in captivity, and unfortunately this means you get to deal with it dying and turning into Ammonia, etc.....This is when the bacteria establish to do their jobs, and when all the Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate are 0, you can start adding the mre interesting and colorful parts of the reef.

Dan

Impaler
11/11/2001, 12:36 AM
The coralline algeas are part of a reef. We do not have this type of algea near the Texas coast. This is why you want to get at least some "real" rock from the lfs, so it can spread to the others that do not have it. Plus, all the bugs and such on traditional live rock do not exist here, so you need to get it somewhere. Liverock from the lfs is one of the better ways to get it. Also, a cupful of sand from an established aquarium helps, too.

Dan

Chrisrush
11/11/2001, 12:54 AM
So if I was trying to get a 75 gal. reef tank going, do you know how much LR and sand I would need to get, assumming I want a 3-4" DSB?

Chris

Impaler
11/11/2001, 01:02 AM
Well, the general rule is 1.5-2# rock per gallon, depending on personal taste and the density of the rock. I've got 100# of sand and crushed coral making a 5 inch average bed, but try the calculator link on the top of this screen to figure your actual needs, as your footprint may be different than mine.

HTH
Dan

pickront
11/11/2001, 05:34 AM
Is it okay to take live rock out of your tank and rinse it off with fresh water and put it back.

Skipper
11/11/2001, 09:43 AM
pickront.......
I wouldn't do that. You are likely to kill most all of the desirable critters and fauna on the rock by doing that. You could rinse it with saltwater, though, if you needed to. Why do you want to rinse it?

Impaler
11/11/2001, 05:20 PM
Picront,

I used a stiff horsehair shoe polishing brush on my rock. Put the rock in a bucket of fresh SALTWATER, and scrub away to get the junk off. Or, get a shrimp, or better yet, a lawnmower blenny can keep the rocks pretty clean of stray junk.

Dan