DIY Rock Help

Nope you're doing fine! If you keep up the every day water changes, you'll be diong better than I did... I got sick of it after a while...

 

I made my first batch as well two days ago, got 'em curing in a water tub outside. I didnt have any crushed coral, but I had some crushed river rock I used instead. Used the river rock, cement, small bit of sand, and solar salt. They came out looking great! Now if I can just have the patience to wait.....lol

 

Got some pictures?

 

I just took these a few min ago. You can see (kinda hard with the ripples in the water) where the solar salt is starting to dissolve away and leave holes in the rocks surface. Im gonna probably make another batch today or tomorrow...

 

Very nice. I'll try to post some pictures of mine tonight when I get home from work.

 

Not bad at all! You've just got to get creative with the shapes! Try this... Once they are a little more cured, pile more on. If you have a flat side, filp the flat side up, and pile it on that flat side making it more 3D. I've also piled it into towers with branches.

 

Thanks man, Lol, I should have flipped them over before I took the pics, the large one actually has caves in it I did by making hills in the sand mold. I made another small batch yesterday, hope they came out just as good...They arent flat by any means, lol. I think I might try some tonga like branches on the next batch, any suggestions on those? Or just use the sand mold? I thought about taking a small tree branch and pressing it into the sand mold first, then remove it for the cement mix....

 

Tryin to recreate Tonga rock is very difficult, but if I were to do it I do it without the rock salt. I'd just do portland and sand in a mold like you said. Because it's so long and relatively thin, the rock salt will create too many pores for it to hold up under it's own weight. It just too weak to be that thin. I meanit could be done, but in addition to being difficult, it isn't an accurate replication of Tonga, which is very dense in composition.

 

You're right, the salt would be a problem on those...Never thought of that. Thanks!

 

You could always put a plastic reinforcement rod inside your tonga branch for extra strength.