The Puffer Forum

Whatever y'all might do get WHITE Portland cement. Our first batch we used grey...they are ugly. The white costs twice as much but is worth it! We have made somewhere around 100lbs (estimate). We have three more containers that will be ready tomorrow night. We do have to get one more bag of crushed oyster shells to make our final batch tomorrow night. We are making more than needed but it will be nice to have so many shapes to choose from. We plan on making some flat pieces to use as overhangs. We hope to have the rock ready by mid January. I will, of course post pics! These are fun to make. I love digging them up to see what they look like! It's like opening a present...lol! I'm such a nerd and get so excited over fish stuff!

Don't feel bad. I asked for all the stuff to make it, for Christmas.

Nuclear_Glitter wrote:Don't feel bad. I asked for all the stuff to make it, for Christmas.

LMAO!!!

I'm so jealous = / wish I knew about this before I bought all mine. I love the formations!!

goldielocke76 wrote:I'm so jealous = / wish I knew about this before I bought all mine. I love the formations!!

Well if you ever set up another salt water tank you can do this! =]

Haha true, but, it will be a while. Maybe I can make some of these for Luau's upgrade....eventually, I will upgrade, but Denzil doesn't even want another 10 gallon right now...LoL can't say that I blame him....

Srkoe wrote:Whatever y'all might do get WHITE Portland cement. Our first batch we used grey...they are ugly. The white costs twice as much but is worth it! We have made somewhere around 100lbs (estimate). We have three more containers that will be ready tomorrow night. We do have to get one more bag of crushed oyster shells to make our final batch tomorrow night. We are making more than needed but it will be nice to have so many shapes to choose from. We plan on making some flat pieces to use as overhangs. We hope to have the rock ready by mid January. I will, of course post pics! These are fun to make. I love digging them up to see what they look like! It's like opening a present...lol! I'm such a nerd and get so excited over fish stuff!

Where are you getting the shells from?

Do you have a photo of the grey rock? I have plenty of grey cement I can use lol?

I got 40 lb bags of oyster shells from Tractor Supply...it's a supplement for chicken feed. Any feed store should have it. $8.99 a bag. I will try to get some pics of the grey pieces tonight when we change the water. They are not as interesting, they were our first batch. You can use grey, it's just kinda ugly but will eventually get covered in coralline. I've also read that you HAVE to use "Portland" cement. Other cements are not appropriate, I haven't found why though. The salt I'm using is pool salt. Water softener salt can be used as well. I picked one that was really course. These rocks are extremely porous, lot of area for bacterial growth.

a guy I sold my tank to is doing the exact same thing, but he is using 1.25 for the cement. He thought the 1.00 was a little too brittle in the pact.

I'm not sure I understand. 1.25?

most of the ratios are 1 to 1 to 1, but he added an extra 1/4 Portland cement.

I use 1part cement, 3 parts shells and 2parts salt. I guess only time will tell if this formula works. It's gonna suck if it crumbles when I stack the rocks. Cement itself has a curing time of 28 days. This tank won't be set up until January, hopefully that's enough time for them to really harden up...not to mention getting the pH stable.

doing this would be a good idea for a small side business for locals if there is enough of a market for live rock. take custom piece orders, its not like you would have to buy separate molds, just reshape sand and restock in the sand when needed. theres always tons of people on CL looking for live rock or looking to sell live rock. imagine if you could just make 100+ pounds and sell it as dry base rock for $2-3/lb. just a mere 20 pounds would make your money back if not more!

and then if you had the extra time to cure it... you could make a killing on it

It has to be cured for 6-8 before being put in a tank. It needs that time so the chemicals can leach out. My husband has already brought it up..lol. We plan on selling our leftovers on CL. We only have one store here in town to buy LR from and it is crappy. The next closest place is a 1 hour drive. Hopefully we will be able to sell what we have left and make our money back...in turn that would make our LR free for us in the end!