Making aragacreate....

[gkw]

With the budget I have right now, I am going to make my own rocks and seed them with a premium LR from my LFS.

Anyway, I was wondering if it's better to use aragonite sand as molding sand. I will be using the sand as subtrate after I finish with the rocks. Will the cement leech anything into the sand?

Also, anybody here did this have a few tips for me?

Thanks!
GKW

[Matt Rogers]

I personally didn't like sand in my rock. It made it hard to drill.

Here is a good read of what I did:
MY DIY rock

[gkw]

actually, i am gonna use crusched oyster shells, but i am going to use sand for making the shape.....just like they do it at GARF. Just wondering if I should use aragonite sand and will the cement leech anything in that subtrate(gonna put the left over sand in my tank).

Or any HD brand is fine?

Thanks!

[Matt Rogers]

I made the shape with my masonary drill bit.
I found that if you did not drill it, it looked like clumpy oatmeal.

If you want to use aragonite sand, that should be fine. Personally I found it made the rock look like sand that was rock shaped. But the key here is to experiment and try a lot of stuff to see what you will like.

If the sand has cement bits in it, it will affect your pH if you haven't cured your rock (or cement) yet.

Good luck!

[Covey]

Do you have any updated pics of your rock now Matt? I wanted to see how they look when they are fully seeded. I was consider making SEIO rocks to hide my two 1100.

[Matt Rogers]

Most of them look great now and have things growing all over them. I will take some new pics soon.

[gkw]

I just made my first rock. It's a 3 floors condo.

It has caves in every floor. Also, when I spray the caves to clean the sand off, I see bubbles and fine sand comes out through the "walls." It's like the walls has tiny little holes. I hope that's a good sign cause it is porus and it's strong enough to hold other rocks on top.

[chetrod]

Any pictures yet

[JohnO]

We want pics, we want pics

[jonathan]

show me the pictures!