Diy Rocks start up?

[chernandez]

My 90 gal reef has been up and running for about two months I did my own diy rock insted of live rock wanted to save money which it cost me $15 for 100#s my question is I put a couple of raw shrimp in dsb for a couple weeks when I first sarted my tank up my nitrite and ammonia went up now there back down. So I add a couple of snails and crabs
How many crabs/snails and or fish do I had?

When will any coraline start to grow?

Thanks for any help

[seanb1]

first off i have to ask if the rocks are completly done curing, no ph change after adding clean water to them?.

you need to get some real live rock to get everything going, i would get at least 10 pounds.

get as much waterflow as you possibly can going in the tank,

wait for your cycle then add some snails hermits.

youll get a diatom and then hair algae outbreak, then corraline algae will start growing .

i did the same thing as you did after 3 months the corraline really took off.
i did the twopart solution with magnesium chloride from bulkreefsupply.com.
i have magnesium levels and alk, calcium levels as suggested from RHF on this site.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2003/chem.htm

heres a few pics from what my tank looked like starting out to 3 month corraline growth.

from this









to this just over 3 months







after 6 months my rock is really covered now, i would say it has 70 percent coverage.

[chernandez]

I ment How many crabs/snails and or fish do I add?

[Aquarist007]

hermit crabs and snails are not a good mix. I would go with the snails and get a variety of them eg turbos astreas and nassarius snails. I would up it to 30 wait awhile and see if you need more
You might want to consider a brittle star and cleaner shrimp--they are good members of a cuc

the coralline will come you just have to be patient--probably a little longer for base rock since none has came into the system on the live rock

[BLKTANG]

"youll get a diatom and then hair algae outbreak, then corraline algae will start growing" .


This statement is not only crazy its completely false.

[seanb1]

as many as you want, in a 90 i personally would put 50 snails 50 hermits along with some empty shells for the hermits.

if you have plenty of algae for them to eat that should be plenty.

other people would put less than half that.

i put 100 of each in a 125.

its up to you.

[seanb1]

Originally posted by BLKTANG
"youll get a diatom and then hair algae outbreak, then corraline algae will start growing" .


This statement is not only crazy its completely false.

if your going to contridict please enlighten.

[suzimcmullen]

This is probably a dumb question, but if you make your own rocks what's to cure? If there isn't anything on the rocks to die, then how can they need to be cured?

Suzi

[chernandez]

Yes the ph has been steady for the last month I cured the for about 2 1/2 months berfore I ran my tank used ro/di water. I dont want to rush and cause problems later and or waste money by killing livestock your rock looks great. This is newbie ? Is diatom the brown on the sand.

[seanb1]

Originally posted by suzimcmullen
This is probably a dumb question, but if you make your own rocks what's to cure? If there isn't anything on the rocks to die, then how can they need to be cured?

Suzi

you have to let all the lime and all that junk leach out of the cement.

the rocks need to sit in water, the water gets changed as much as possible, you test the ph of your tap water and in a couple days test the water in container rocks are in, if the ph is high the rocks are not done. when ph stays the same after a couple days they are done and can be used safely.

[chernandez]

By "cured" I ment the ph was steady and low

[seanb1]

another thing about curing homemade rock is when you put it in saltwater more than not it will leach what i beleive is calcium chloride from the cement.

when i first put saltwater on my rocks, using insatant ocean mix my calcium tested at 750, i had to let it sit for another month in salt water then freshwater again.

[suzimcmullen]

Cool. I think someday I just have to try making these rocks. It sounds really fun and I'd like to see how to make all the cool shapes.

I'm going to have so many tanks someday!

Suzi

[seanb1]

Originally posted by suzimcmullen
Cool. I think someday I just have to try making these rocks. It sounds really fun and I'd like to see how to make all the cool shapes.

I'm going to have so many tanks someday!

Suzi

yeah well, theres about 80 pages of DIY rock making in the DIY forum, get your self a cup of coffee it will take a week to read it.

theres 20 different ways to make it too.

it was alot of fun to make, i have since been saving sand and am planning on making some more for a really big sump in the basement.

[suzimcmullen]

It could be fun to get some cheap plastic cookie cutters. Then the rock could be shapped around the cutters, leaving them inside the mixture in order to make holes in the rock in fun shapes. It would have to be simple shapes without a lot of detail. But it would be completely covered so I can't imagine it would be able to leach anything out and it's food grade plastic.

Suzi

[seanb1]

Originally posted by suzimcmullen
It could be fun to get some cheap plastic cookie cutters. Then the rock could be shapped around the cutters, leaving them inside the mixture in order to make holes in the rock in fun shapes. It would have to be simple shapes without a lot of detail. But it would be completely covered so I can't imagine it would be able to leach anything out and it's food grade plastic.

Suzi

hmmm well i guess you could do that.

you can make any shape you want really, after making all my rock i had it figured out pretty well. i want to make some pillars with flat peices sticking out to sit frags on.

its endless what you can do with it.

ok now that we have completely highjacked this guys thread, we better appologize.

sorry chernandez

[chernandez]

Yes trust me you better have a starbucks in your house if you want to start reading the ultimate diy rocks thread I've read some way to much info. Anyway thats ok to go off subject

[suzimcmullen]

Thanks for understanding

I don't drink coffee. But I'm totally wired on the energy drinks.

Suzi

[chernandez]

Then better have stock in Red bull and amp. LOL

[suzimcmullen]

Hey, I'm a woman. I have stock in Hershey Chocolate LOL!

Suzi