View Full Version : live rock kits
liquafaction
09-18-2003, 12:42 PM
What the deal with these live rock cave builder kits?
are these things a joke or what?
I"ve never heard of such a thing. do you have a link?
Guy
liquafaction
09-18-2003, 2:04 PM
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2345865113&category=20757
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2347230619&category=3212
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2347703245&category=20757
http://www.garf.org/
look at "making aragocrete". Its the same thing.
Guy
liquafaction
09-18-2003, 2:31 PM
yea, but does it work as well as live rock?
well i've never used it, but according to Garf.org is does. For what thats worth.
They are supposed to be a non-for-profit research facility so why would they lie? Anyway I think it's ugly personally so I never cared much to look into it more.
Guy
liquafaction
09-18-2003, 2:40 PM
thats what I was looking for........some honesty............lol
Originally posted by liquafaction
thats what I was looking for........some honesty............lol
I hope you don't think I was being too blunt. I just neverd cared for the look of the aragocrete. From the cost standpoint it almost can't be beat, but for me and the amount of time and money i've already invested in my tank I want it to be exactly the way I want it. ya know?
Anyway to answer your first question. In my opinion I don't see any reason why you couldn't make your own live rock with this recipe. But don't pay 5 bucks on ebay for it. I'd just copy the steps that garf.org give.
Guy
liquafaction
09-18-2003, 7:25 PM
I do not think you were being to blunt, that is what I wanted to hear was an honest opionion. I want real live rock too. Believe me, I am not a person to settle for less. My wife says that I am the tightest extravigant person she has ever met. I always get what I hope is the best, but I will wait for the right price.
You may have seen my other post were my tank is taking too long to cycle. I was thinking of getting the cheapest live rock I could find to see if it would help my cycle. I was also going to use this "DYI" along with some cured live rock to see what would happen. I am just getting tired of staring at a tank of water and dirt......lol
I will say straight up that I have never used or built anything with this stuff. But basically it looks to me like you would use it like base rock. What do you end up with - well a synthetic, highly porous limestone. I would consider it if I had a big tank and wanted a particular shape, like a cave or overhang or whatever that I would have to otherwise create by ziptieing together anynumber of smaller pieces.
Also if you're building up say a 125 gallon, you would have quite a substantial costsaving if you made a nice bunch of shapes and then seeded it with 50 lbs of 'real' live rock of real good quality, rather than buying 125 pounds of lesser quality.