Do you use DIY Live Rock?

Just woundering how many of you guys/girls use DIY live rock? Most of my tank is DIY(only 20lbs is "real")

 

I use about 200lbs of live rock and am also adding 50lbs of the tufa fake rock.
About 1/2 of the tufa has changed color and is looking like the live rock but I would not do mucy more that 1/4 to 1/2 of the tufa. It is good for the base of your structure but is not as pleasing to the eyes when every rock has 1 or 2 holes (which starts to look too consistent / fake) if you have to much.

 

I have 37-40lbs LR and I used 20lbs of tufa for base rock and it started getting coraline, critters and feather dusters within 2 months. If you place it stratigically you can't tell.

 

I like my diy rock you can make it what ever shape or texture you want.

 

I have around a 110# of fiji LR and about 60# of the DIY rock I made. I probably will never buy wild rock again. I real like how the DIY stuff turned out and it only took a month or two for it to look natural.

I like the fact that if you plan it out you can design rock to suit your need. Flat sides for base rock to make it stable, arches, plates, you name it. I even made one rock to the exact measurements I needed to fit a given space.

That and I don't buy for a second that all the live rock that comes in is "storm damage". Plus even if it was all naturally broke off I am sure it was a habitat for something.

 

Hey Covey... I don't recall ever seeing your DIY rock. Did you ever post pics of it?


I liked my DIY rock. I've said this before, but I think what made mine realistic eventually was drilling the heck out of the rock with a masonary drill bit. It lost that clumpy oatmeal look then.

 

No I bought all mine from an on-line company and only paid about 3 bucks a pound.

 

My camera does a generally poor job of redering naturally colors with my 20K lights even though they don't look that blue to the naked eye but I will snap some pics and post some tommorrow.

 

Cool, I would love to save all that money on live rock. But ive heard that DIY rock takes longer to cure because the cement has a high ph that you have to stablize before you can use it. What do you guys think??

 

Anybody know anything or have opinions on the GARF aragocrete?

Some of their arches look sweet.
I am feeling extra lazy after getting my new system up but another DIY project is not in the cards right now.

But I still cant see buying all new live rock for my new tank.