Home Made Live Rock/Bedrock?!?

[karlas]

try msn communities thats where i have my pics and its easy to use

[Matt Rogers]

Here is your pic Ryan:





All I did was paste your image URL between the image tags like you did! Weird. ???

Well, hopefully it will behave.

GLAD TO SEE YOU WENT FOR IT!! :thumbsup1:

[NOWICKI]

To all the Fine Folks in Fish Land,
Just had another fun day of making more rock(seriously!). I only had enough crushed oyster shell to make one large rock. I tried a new technique by using large plastic cups to create large caves through the rock. I think it will work! My one concern is that the cement will be smooth around the cup which would look awefully unnatural However, with the last batch I made last week, I could easily chip and chisel the rock with a large screwdriver. So I think I won't be sweating it If this one turns out half as cool as I think it will, I will be off to by some more crushed oyster shell, after all, I do have a 96lb bag of Portland Type I/II cement! That is the only size they had oh_no Oh well, it cost $7, can't complain!

Here, check out these pics and let me know if you have any ideas you'd like me to try! I'm game! Like I said, 96lbs! I havn't made a dent yet!

http://homepage.mac.com/nowicki/PhotoAlbum10.html

Happy Fishing,
Ryan

[karlas]

your homade rock looks pretty good i like that large piece you had a pic of. if it works for 7$ then you cant beat it :thumbsup2:

[NOWICKI]

!!DIY ROCK UPDATE!!
I will post one pic and if it works I will post the rest.
So I mentioned that I made some rock the other day and now it has set so here is a pic. I also mentioned that I was worried about the smoothness of the cup shaping the rock. As you see in the pic, it did just that. I pounded on it with a huge screwdriver and it's not smooth anymore :thumbsup:

[Matt Rogers]

whoa!!

I feel like I am walking through the lava tunnels in Hawaii!!
What a pic! What kind of camera do you have to get that! ahhha ahhh! fantastic! you're a natural at this rock stuff ry! looking good!

[NOWICKI]

Thanks!
My cam is a Canon Optura 100MC. It has good close-up focus!

I had a quick question about aquascaping.
I'm curious how sturdy the rock has to be. Should I glue the rocks? Should I zip-tie them to pvc? Can I just stack them well?
I plan on stacking them from the glass bottom, unless you all think it would be better otherwise.

I'd love your input as always! Oh, and I'm still willing to do any ideas for rock! Let me know!

[Matt Rogers]

You could do any of those things, but I would probably just stack them unless I was going for some dramatic arch or something.

I didn't stack my rock on the bare bottom. I think it is better to do it on top of the sand. If I did it on the glass I would worry about doing something stupid and cracking the bottom pane. You can push the rock down a bit if you are worried about settling.

OK -

Here is my idea for your rock making. Get some material that is water soluble and press it into the cement. Maybe when it's been in the water a while you will be left with holes in the rock? thats_crazy

I have no idea if that would work or what to use! The only thing I could come up with was cereal! oh_no
Pretty half-baked at this point...maybe when I am not drinking beers I can come up with something better!

[NOWICKI]

Here is another rock I just made. It is just like a column! Lots of little cracks and caves. I will probably make a few more of this style to see if I can't make the "perfect one". I was thinking that this would be perfect for a nano reef. Insta-reef What's your opinion?

Matt- I thought about using cereal but it isn't really cost effective I think that the crushed oystershell has the similar effect too. I did considder using newspaper but didn't have a paper at the time Perhaps next time.

[karlas]

how big is that rock its awesome lookin. you know since your gettin some pretty cool rock out of it i have a 20 gall qtank i might eventually change over you can make one for me for some practice LOL :thumbsup1: nice job though