curing homemade rock

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
S

stephclay

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 26, 2007
38
0
0
san diego
since the use of portland cement causes the water to become more alkaline, can"t you just use a pH buffer at the same time the rock is in the tank? Or are the compounds that are leached out toxic to the fish.

I am sculpting some rock for a friend and these suckers are huge(200-250lbs) :( , he wanted to know how we can do this while having fish in the tank as well.
 
Absolutley not. You will kill the fish. It needs to be cured on it's own. You might be able to get away with it if your using foam as the base with skim coats of concrete then seal it with epoxy but I would not try it.
Somone else might have done this with small pieces but the amount of concrete your talking it's just not worth the chance.
 
Seal it with epoxy, and call it done.
 
will the epoxy leave a shiny coat and will bacteria be able to flourish in th holes of the rock? this is in a salt tank
 
There are people here that have cured their concrete rocks with a salt bath. I don't remember how much or how long...but salt is cheap. Since you are going with solid rocks, you should check to see if it raises the pH after soaking it. If the pH goes up, just repeat the salt treatment.
 
I'm using a fair amount of concrete in my tank, and I plan on using peat and a large amount of salt to "cure" the concrete. Given the nature of the background (10'long x 4'tall) I can't very well cure it outside the tank, and I don't know how much salt it would take in 1000gallons to cure it, so this is all a shot in the dark.

The concrete people seem to think that other than Ph, concrete is fine for aquarium use.
 
If it's a marine tank, you shouldn't need to worry too much about it raising your alkalinity since it's basically the same rock found in every ocean on earth.

Do a search for aragocrete on www.reefcentral.com and www.garf.org
They've got tons of info on making rocks for marine tanks.
 
wouldn't it just be easier to seal it all with clear epoxy? that much salt will cost a fortune.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom