Agrocrete / man made LR
 

Well, where to begin...... ?
I emigrated from Scotland a couple of years ago and brought my tank with me.
My tank is still in the "re-planning" stage, as I need to buy all new electrics (240V in UK), so I'm actually thinking of making my own LR. (not all of it obviously.... lol)
I have the crushed coral sand from my tank, which I have seived to separate the big stuff out and I'm toying with the idea of making some structures using portland cement, softener salt (big grain stuff) and the bigger coral crush (it's about 5mm x 3mm ish).
I have some of those "green" packing peanuts which dissolve in water, so I think I'll use them to create some rock with some bigger holes for critters and higher surface area.
I was intending to just put it in the rain butt and let the rain from the roof flush it out, but that won't work til spring. lol
Any advice / links would be helpful?
K

Check out www.garf.org. They have lots of info on their methods for producing agrocrete.

To cure you can put it in the reservoir of your toilets. Water gets changed often and you use less water when you flush.

Good luck!:biggrin:

I have been trying to make my own aragocrete rocks as well. Here is a link to check out. Be forewarned it is extremely long and has been split numerous times. It will take a few weeks to read the whole thing, but there is a lot of information there.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...5&pagenumber=1

One of the mistakes I made was using the used sand from a previous tank in my rock mix. The sand was so loaded with PO4 it took a year to leach it out. It grew great algae for the first while.

I wouldn't use water off the roof to cure it, too many impurities will contaminate your rock. By the way it takes for ever to cure, allow 3 or 4 months at least.

Water softener salt mixed 50/50 with my cement/sand mix worked great for porosity.