Freshwater - "concrete live rock"

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DiverDan

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 1, 2008
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I've been reading about making Live Rock for Marine in pages like: http://www.3reef.com/forums/live-rock/home-made-live-rock-bedrock-31919.html

I think it sounds like a lot of fun. but as I consider which kind of tank to setup, I think I'm going to do freshwater with cichlids instead.

but I still think creating my own sounds fun and I like the flexibility of of doing the design.

Is there any suggestions for doing using cement to create Freshwater Live Rock? It seems to work well only once algae covers your rock-- I'm not sure freshwater will work as well.

Looking forward to any ideas.


thanks!
 
Beneficial bacteria will colonize on the rocks, but I doubt it would act the same way it does in saltwater tanks. Might be worth a try though.
 
Yes, it would work in exactly the same manner as with a SW tank. The problem with making your own rock is the obvious looking man made structure appearance, and that it needs to cure for several months for the ph to stabilize. It's a long process to cure the rock, and involves a lot of water changes.

I haven't really seen any that look all that good (to me).
 
I've seen SW that I like-- after a year it looks good anyway.

I'm concerned it won't get good algae growth on it, but I think what I'm going to do is make it and get a kiddy pool that I'll leave out in the sun while I let it leach. That way, there will hopefully be a lot of algae growing on it.... though I might have to do something to keep mosquitoes from growing in there.

Hoping the Algae will stain it pretty well.

Not going to be a project for about 6 more months, but I'll take pictures and let everyone see before and after shots. Won't know if it looks good until about 18 months from now.
 
SW and FR guys use concrete all the time to make some very cool structures. I would take a weekend and fool around with it. Also, do some more research on what types od concrete are best and how long they take to cure. I'll try and look on reef central for a thread that a guy did some amazing reef work all in concrete. Good luck!

Mark
 
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