long-term side effects using DIY LR

[drew22to375]

For those of you that have made your own LR out of cement/oyster shells/sand, ect. I was wondering if any of you have noticed any problems with your setup. Any problems with alage, nitrates, phosphates, mysterious deaths, ect. I am mostly interested in those of you that have had yours setup for awhile say like around a year. I need about 200lbs for my new setup and am considering giving this another try. I had problems curing mine the last time. After 6 months it was still leeching salts and I gave up on it. I think I did use way to much cement in the mix tho. I think I used 1 part cement and 2 parts oyster shell.

Thankx Drew..

[drew22to375]

Also anybody have any pics of their DIY LR that has been in their tank for awhile. I am curious how it looks after it has matured a bit.

Thanks Drew..

[Fl_seagull]

I just pulled the last of my homemade live rock out of my tank. I used oyster shell. My ratio was 4 parts oyster shell and 1 part high-strength cement.

I found the rough surface collected everything except coraline. It always had hair algae on it.

I suspect I would have had better luck if I had rinsed the oyster shell more.

Would I do it again? Maybe. I would not use as much oyster shell and I would rinse the shells until the water ran clear.

[Fl_seagull]

Here is someone with a better experience.
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaver...ementRock.html

[dl1030]

I used crused coral as the oyster feed was a bit to worrysome for me. Both the southdown and coral was washed clean before use. I used a 4/1/1 mix of coral/southdown/portland type I. longer they cure the harder they get.


Here is a close up the rocks. bunch of different types of algee growing on them right now. Coraline had no problems starting when i put new DIY rock in an established tank of a friend of mine. My tank is not 100% yet so the coralline is just hanging around, not growing just yet on the rocks in the pics below.




I will see what i can do about an updated pic now that i have a cleanup crew and another two weeks of letting the tank grow out.

If i had to do it all over again, i would make my own rock without a question. The curing time was the only negitive, but water changes every day will cure it much faster. mine took about 2 months to be ready to be put in the tank(a friends estabilished tank and had no ill effects). I am going to make some plugs that i will cure using the waste water/water change water from the RODI and tank. I also have a branch of PVC that i am going to cover and cure to fill in a spot in the display tank.

[LittlePuff]

Was buying salt for the daily water changes less $ than more live rock?

Kim

[BruiseAndy]

Originally posted by LittlePuff
Was buying salt for the daily water changes less $ than more live rock?

Kim

You cure in freshwater.

[Reefin' Dude]

here is a post from someone you all know. the chart that is posted is very discouraging. not only for the amount of phosphates that cement has, but also for the amount of phosphates that our normal aquacultured LR has. looks like everything needs to be "cooked".

G~

P.S.-complete thread if interested.

[Mr Bojangles]

well I have had mine for about 3 years and no problem what so every! I used the GARF recipe with oyster shells and Mine are covered in coraline

[coyoteseven]

Going 2+ years in the 45g and almost 2 in the 90g with my oystercrete. Lots of coraline and no problems.

LittlePuff, here's a thread you may want to check out:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=288154

[GARFVolunteer]

Originally posted by drew22to375
Also anybody have any pics of their DIY LR that has been in their tank for awhile. I am curious how it looks after it has matured a bit.

Thanks Drew..

Drew,

Here is a link for my tank that has been setup 6 1/2 years: http://www.garf.org/40watt_vho.html

I have not had any problems that I could point to the rock or anything else in the tank. The biggest problem I have is when I totally ignore it from May to September during the summer kayaking season.

I started out with mostly man made rock with about 40 lbs of live rock. Currently it is all man made except for one limestone rock I saw and bought dry.

IME the smoother the rock the faster the coralline will form. Some of my original rock may be 15% covered where some of the rock I made later is much smoother and was 90% covered withing a few months. It is pretty easy to see the rock in my tank now since I added Raccoon butterfly to the tank to control aiptasia. He ate all the aiptasia then continued with the zoanthids, palythoa, xenia, mushrooms etc. so now all the rock that has been covered for years is visible. If I get around to taking pictures of the rock I will post them here.

Thanks,

Scott