Has anyone made their own rock using cement and aragonite, GARF style or otherwise? If so, did you use "white" cement (with low alkalinity), or just regular? If you used "white" cement, where did you get it? Has anyone made rock using something besides cement as the binder (like an epoxy or something)? Any experience would be appreciated. I like the idea of being able to sculpt arches and caves and such.
DIY Rock
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bump b/c somebody has i cant remeber the thread or guy though
I found this reefcentral thread http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=807988&perpage=25&pagenumber=1">http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=807988&perpage=25&pagenumber=1</a>
The thread is huge, but to sum up...
You can make really cool rock very cheaply with just cement mix and rock salt from Lowes.
You can use regular Portland cement, but the white stuff might give prettier rocks. It might take longer for the regular cement to level off the pH.
Mixing water softener rock salt (from Lowes) in the cement mix instead of sand will create porous rocks when the salt dissolves. Some people report being able to pour water through their rocks and others report if they use too much salt versus cement, their rocks float. A ratio of 3:1 salt to cement seems to work well. Some people mix in crushed coral or aragonite sand. Others don't.
You have to let the cement harden for a couple days, then let the pH settle down by soaking the rock in water (in a rubbermaid tub or something) for 4-6 weeks with frequent water changes. The salt will dissolve quickly during the soaking. If you make small pieces, someone suggested soaking them in the toilet tank-- free water changes multiple times daily...
You can create all kinds of shapes by casting in sand (or salt) in a Rubbermaid bin, by using baloons, gloves or plastic bags to form holes and tunnels, by building cement up around a PVC form or a ton of other ideas. One really cool idea was to create a panel to cover the back of the aquarium. You can create customized structures designed to fit your aquascape that look natural and are much more open than just a stack of "natural" live rock. Imagine a tangled stand of DIY faux elkhorn, sized exactly to your tank, with a nice stable base...
You'll need some natural live rock to bring your DIY rock to life. Opinions vary on the proportion of natural live rock to DIY rock required, and the time required for the DIY rock to become "live". GARF uses 100% DIY rock seeded with their "grunge". This would be the same for the DIY rock as for any "dead" base rock added to a system.
The thread is huge, but to sum up...
You can make really cool rock very cheaply with just cement mix and rock salt from Lowes.
You can use regular Portland cement, but the white stuff might give prettier rocks. It might take longer for the regular cement to level off the pH.
Mixing water softener rock salt (from Lowes) in the cement mix instead of sand will create porous rocks when the salt dissolves. Some people report being able to pour water through their rocks and others report if they use too much salt versus cement, their rocks float. A ratio of 3:1 salt to cement seems to work well. Some people mix in crushed coral or aragonite sand. Others don't.
You have to let the cement harden for a couple days, then let the pH settle down by soaking the rock in water (in a rubbermaid tub or something) for 4-6 weeks with frequent water changes. The salt will dissolve quickly during the soaking. If you make small pieces, someone suggested soaking them in the toilet tank-- free water changes multiple times daily...
You can create all kinds of shapes by casting in sand (or salt) in a Rubbermaid bin, by using baloons, gloves or plastic bags to form holes and tunnels, by building cement up around a PVC form or a ton of other ideas. One really cool idea was to create a panel to cover the back of the aquarium. You can create customized structures designed to fit your aquascape that look natural and are much more open than just a stack of "natural" live rock. Imagine a tangled stand of DIY faux elkhorn, sized exactly to your tank, with a nice stable base...
You'll need some natural live rock to bring your DIY rock to life. Opinions vary on the proportion of natural live rock to DIY rock required, and the time required for the DIY rock to become "live". GARF uses 100% DIY rock seeded with their "grunge". This would be the same for the DIY rock as for any "dead" base rock added to a system.
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I contemplated it many, many times. But I heard you really needed type II portland cement and I wasn't ever willing to wait the 6 weeks for it to cure! 
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I made most all the rock in my system. White portland cement and crushed coral.
I worked for coral in a propagation greenhouse here in Birmingham, AL.
We had a chance to experiment with many many variations of plugs and mounts. Everything from flower pics to aragacrete to ceramics. BOTTOM LINE - aragacrete (i.e home made LR) may be cheap, look pretty (if you know what you are doing are artistic) etc. but algae will proliferate. We eventually poured and fired our own ceramic plugs which were inert, and did not contribute any minerals etc. I believe the Alum or aluminum creates much of the problem. Take a look at the EXACT composition of whatever cement you are using and look for Fertilizer type stuff, it will do exactly that... Fertilize algae and snuff out your frags. IMHO Get a group buy together for an 800lb pallet of dry lace rock from Walt Smith and split it up. One summer in a tub in the backyard with your changed out water and a pump ought to bring it back to life. Then get a sandwich bag of substrate from everyone you know and toss it in. The pallet would likely be $1000 shipped from LA to ATL freight.
We had a chance to experiment with many many variations of plugs and mounts. Everything from flower pics to aragacrete to ceramics. BOTTOM LINE - aragacrete (i.e home made LR) may be cheap, look pretty (if you know what you are doing are artistic) etc. but algae will proliferate. We eventually poured and fired our own ceramic plugs which were inert, and did not contribute any minerals etc. I believe the Alum or aluminum creates much of the problem. Take a look at the EXACT composition of whatever cement you are using and look for Fertilizer type stuff, it will do exactly that... Fertilize algae and snuff out your frags. IMHO Get a group buy together for an 800lb pallet of dry lace rock from Walt Smith and split it up. One summer in a tub in the backyard with your changed out water and a pump ought to bring it back to life. Then get a sandwich bag of substrate from everyone you know and toss it in. The pallet would likely be $1000 shipped from LA to ATL freight.
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With any of the aragacrete type rock a considerable time must pass with much soaking and rinsing to remove the high phosphate levels . Most people fail to do this and end up with the above mentioned problem. Trying to finf the size and shapes that I wanted was my determining factor at the time, of course the 40 cents per pound cost was ok as well:thumbs: mine did grow algae like crazy the purple kind!!!
