what is your DIY rock method for rocks going in FW tanks?

psariandras

psariandras

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May 18, 2007
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I made some rock using hydralic water stop cement along with ~40% CC. (the water stop doesn't need to cure as long as normal portland) I let them dry cure for about one week, then cure in water for one week, with complete water changes every day. I also gave them a vinegar bath, then let them soak in water for a few more days. they passed the vinegar test after this but just to be sure they were not leaching harmful things into water, I put them in a small tank with a powerhead and powerfilter overnight. I tested the rocks and they tested okay. Since I haven't gotten any bad readings from my tests so i added them to my tank.

I am curious about how others make rocks for FW tanks. I have read a lot about rocks for reefs tanks, but I have not read much about rocks for FW.
 
i have done mine in the same way as you really, used a similar cement and have them soaking as i type.

Vinegar is a good idea, but someone on the chiclid forum mentioned that when they tried the vinegar soloution that it took even more water changes then the more common rock salt soloution.

also interestingly people who have put driftwood into there tanks while the BG is cureing have all managed to get the PH down to normal quicker then people that don't...wonder if it is something to do with the licin(if thats how you spell it?) leeking into the water.

do you have any pics of your finished background then?

mine are in the link in the signature if you are interested (still not finished YET! but getting there, only another week or so to go i think)
 
i've never heard of a water stop cement (although i haven't done a lot of looking either)

but if you two have had success with it i'd definitely give it a shot.. anything that can cut down on the cure time without harming the fish is certainly worth a try IMO.

i've heard of people using "softening salts" but i dont know what that is exactly.
 
Silentskream-
I found the recipe on another forum.Its a great place to reseach if you would like to. I can pm you a link if you like. It goes into great detail. the water stop cement hardens really quick though, which is bad or good depending on how you look at it. It is called Quikrete Hydralic Water Stop Cement, home depot sells it, 13 dollars for 20lbs. (there are other products with different brand names - you'd need to read the thread on the other forum to find those names). The OS is cheap and at feed stores(I just bought 50lbs for 8 dollars).
You mix other stuff as an aggregate with water stop cement mainly CC, OS and possibly sand or water softener salt, or perlite, but I'm not sure about the optimal mixture for FW rock. Might not want to use sand in the mixture for FW, I'm not sure. You might still want to use sand for forming caves though.
I think you can get by (someone please correct me if I am mistaken) with the water stop and CC or OS mix for FW rocks(I am not sure though if small amounts of CC or OS will increase PH)
You might want to use something other than OS or CC if you are trying to keep the PH low, I am not sure but I am thinking that perlite might work(it is light too) or use driftwood or leaves.


the composition of rock with water stop cement is not as porous as rock used with standard cement so it does not provide as much area for bacteria colonization which makes it less effective for bio-filtration, but I don't think that anyone uses rock ecusively for filtration in a FW tank anyway. As far as I know it is a good way to make rocks for FW. (although I am no expert by any means). Using standard cement is cheaper and makes more porous rock, but for our purpose for FW tanks, the water stop works(as far as I know) just as well because it cures much faster if you don't mind it being slighty more expensive. I don't think the cost would matter unless you are going to be making a lot of rock.


I think the softening salts are water softener salts, you can use them to make voids in the rock as they dissolve when the rock is being cured.

Bahney-

I also heard something about using some acid solution instead of vinegar, commercially called grout haze remover I think, from the other thread I was reading, I think that it is better than vinegar but I can't remember why.

I like your rock, it looks natural. Very appealing. Did you scrub your rock with toothbrush or something similar? also, what kind of cement did you use, and what as an aggregate? Have you used perlite as an aggregate?

I saw some cement coloring agents at the home depot today for 5 dollars enough to color 80 gallons of concrete but I don't know if it would be tank safe. I need to look into coloring rocks. My rocks are kinda ugly brown, but the flourscent light makes them look grey.


I'll put a pic of my two rocks in my tank on soon, my camera is in anohter room atm.My rock is a little strange, perhaps unatural-looking.
 
I also heard something about using some acid solution instead of vinegar, commercially called grout haze remover I think, from the other thread I was reading, I think that it is better than vinegar but I can't remember why.
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yeah i have heard of that as well, the guy who said he used it in the thread i was reading never bothered to reply to say if it worked or not!! lol

I like your rock, it looks natural. Very appealing. Did you scrub your rock with toothbrush or something similar? also, what kind of cement did you use, and what as an aggregate? Have you used perlite as an aggregate?
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thanks for the compliment, i tried to make it look as natural as possible but it it hard to recreate nature and it is hard to stop playing with it, i kept thinking...1 more crack here 1 more line here another rock here etc etc it is hard to know when to stop and draw the line so you dont overkill it. hopefully i have managed that.

i used a waterproof "pond and outdoor" quick fix cement, from what i can gather it sets semi hard (ohh err missus?) in 24hours and then sets completly hard once submerged in water over a 48hour period, so it was ideal for this type of job i thought.

i dident use perlite as an aggregate, i just used the cement on it's own, nothing added to it (well apart from water, lol) i know people have used expanding foam or cement with perlite to make there cement set harder but i thought it might be overkill.....i may be wrong, lol and may regret it lol but at the moment i cant chip the cement in my tank, and if i scrape my finfer nail across it i can't damage it, i have jabbed it with a knife and it is really tough.

i dident scrub it with a toothbrush or anything :) i just used diffrent textures of cement painted on to give a diffrent texture to diffrent parts, which sounds complicated but it basically means i mixed the cement runny..i painted loads of it on...waited 10min for it to harden more and painted some more on and then waited a few minutes more and painted some more on,lol it basically meant i had 3 levels of texture per coat

I saw some cement coloring agents at the home depot today for 5 dollars enough to color 80 gallons of concrete but I don't know if it would be tank safe. I need to look into coloring rocks. My rocks are kinda ugly brown, but the flourscent light makes them look grey.
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i dident bother with colouring agents, i wodent bother worrying about the colour too much, mine has turned out a nice browny colour, despite the pics i have taken making it look anything from grey to yellow, lol every background i have seen 6months+ has a realy nice layer of algae built up on it, so i dident see the point of trying to colour it in making it look natural when the algae will do that for me, i will be adding clumps of java moss and java fern as well to add to the overall effect, but once the algae starts to grow it should give it a more greeny/browny colour and look 10X more natural then any cement pigment can do (in my opinion anyway)


I look forward to seeing your pics :) as for the natural looking, i think no matter what you do to make one of these backgrounds it will always look un natural to YOU, because you were the one who made it and knows it is fake, when my fathe rin law came round and asked just how bloody thick i had to have the glass to support all that rock weight and how many angle grinder disks i went through...i knew it must look pretty realistic lol

and in all honesty i think it has cost me around 15pounds i think for the cement/polystyrine and the aquarium selant, so it was well worth a go, and it was great fun doing it i am sure you will agree.
 
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