Aragocrete - Pros/Cons - Anybody made any recently?

M

M@

I'm contemplating the idea of building Aragocrete rocks for my connected 70 gallon tanks. Not only for the cost but I also like the idea of creating some one of a kind structures. Does anybody have experience making there own aragocrete? I searched the boards but there was nothing recent.

I have some ideas of using rock salt and noodles to make it more porous with holes going through the entire rock. While I save up for my lighting I will have plenty of time for it to cure so I'm not worried about that.

Thoughts and opinions greatly welcomed.

Thanks,
M@
 
Cliff (Spar) made some rock out of crushed coral might want to send him a pm for the recipe...he moved to australia so dont get upset if he doesnt reply back asap
 
go to http://www.garf.org/

On the left, click on the How to pages.

Then click on Aragocrete, then on
Making sand molded AragocreteTM live rocks

There are lots of others, check it out.

Muhammad
 
on rc, it seems like the new recipe people are using is 4 parts crushed oyster shell (at any feed store), 1 part aragonite sand, 1 part portland.

the trick seems to be not soaking the rock too fast, but not letting it dry out either in the first 24 hours.

noodles make a mess.
 
OK,
I made a test rock from 1 part oyster shell and 2 parts Quickcrete Hydraulic Water-Stop Cement.

The piece is about 4 inches across x 1/2 inch thick circle.
I let it setup over night and then added it to a 2 gallon bucket of RO / DI water with a power-head to stir. 6 hours lated and the pH was beyond 9 and the KH was 240!

A couple water changes and now in a fresh 2 gallons of saltwater and the pH is still 9 and the KH is about 180 to 240.....

Anyone else seen this? I was told the mix did not raise the pH or Alk...

I'm in the process of a DYI rock wall for the back of my 180 and this was a small test since the tank is full of corals and fish..... Don't want to wipe them all out in one fail swoop!

Thanks for the input and suggestions,
 
@mo wrote:
A couple water changes and now in a fresh 2 gallons of saltwater and the pH is still 9 and the KH is about 180 to 240..... Anyone else seen this? I was told the mix did not raise the pH or Alk... I'm in the process of a DYI rock wall for the back of my 180 and this was a small test since the tank is full of corals and fish..... Don't want to wipe them all out in one fail swoop! Thanks for the input and suggestions said:
It doesn't raise ph <u>after</u> it's fully cured which can take up to 6 weeks or more. They recommend soaking it in fresh water, checking the ph weekly along with weekly waterchanges. When ph stabilizes at ~8.3 and doesn't vary over a week or so then it's ready for the tank.

Cheers,
Click to expand...
 
my friend has made tons of rocks he puts them in a creek bed for 4 weeks then pulls them out and there good to go
 
I was going to do the same thing but using Hydraulic Water Stop. There's a whole bunch of info on reefcentral under the thread Ultimate DIY rock:

http://tinyurl.com/9doemm

It's really informative including the note about noodles made a real mess :( so you might want to read through it.

I did use some hydraulic water stop, it sets up really fast so no working time. Raised the pH in small tanks, so I just use it for bonding rocks together and it works great. Got the info from dp1416 as he did his back out of this stuff. Here's his build log but he just briefly mentions using "quickwall"

http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=41760

Hope this is helpful.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top