DIY Rock Tutorial/Info Thread (Rocks, walls, floors, etc.)

[Andrey Grodno]

The cement contains quicklime. CaO. When fresh live rock is placed in the aquarium, the Pn rises sharply. It is a calcareouser. After a month, the reaction stops and the rock is already safe. It cannot be otherwise. Rocks do not need to be kept in water. Just water them occasionally. In water, without access to oxygen, the right reaction may not occur.

 

[yosemite07871]

I know this thread is somewhat old , but for those of you who successfully made your own rock, 2 questions on curing - did ph drop quick or slow when it was fully cured? My experience is it was super high 9/10) then dropped to 8 and seemed to level off there, which brings me to my next question.. if my tap water ph (that was used for curing) is at 7.2, and my rock has sat at 8.0 for the past 3 days(changed water every day since starting the cure), and my tank ph is at 8.3, would I expect the cured concrete rock to ever get lower then 8?
Note my mix was aragonite, Portland and sand with water softener salt..
thanks!

 

[Bobbienbilly4life]

Chapter 4

The Cure

This is a crucial, but mostly mis-followed step in the creation of our man-made rocks. I say this because this is the step where patience is most necessitated but often overlooked. The good news? It's a fairly simple step to follow.. up to this point, you've already done the hard part!

What do I mean... "Cure"? Cure is a term, meaning the rocks are undergoing chemical reactions, and the one we're most concerned about is hydrolysis, as mentioned earlier.

When cement workers do their thing, they follow very similar steps, in fact we use the very same things they employ... it all came from them. After cement workers cast their piece, you'll sometimes notice that there is a damp cloth covering it. You can add too little and too much water, but a damp cloth seems to do just about right for water dispersion. But since we're making rocks.. transportable pieces, we can take it a step further with little difficulty.

What the rocks would love is to be in a hot and humid environment. By adding heat and humidity you help out the hydrolysis process, increasing the strength and in effect, shortening the Kure process. There are any number of ways to achieve this, but the common practice is to just leave the rocks in a plastic bag, spray some water in it, close it off, and leave under the sun. In winter, you can do this by keeping the bag inside the house but by a window.

You really need to have patience and just leave the rocks in the cure process for the full 28 days. Every now and then, remember to re-spray the inside of the bag, with water, to keep the humidity up.

That's it... tough isn't it? ; )

I thought they also had to cure in water, or is that not correct?