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#2
07-21-2005, 01:30 AM
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Scott, the rumor is that the silicates in playsand cause diatom blooms. Whether or not this is try or not is for you to research and decide.
If you do chose to use your home made rock, make sure you cure it for a long time in salt water. You will need some real live rock to seed this home made stuff.
__________________
If it is just us, It seems like an awful waste of space. 
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#4
07-21-2005, 05:33 AM
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I read somewhere that you can also use crushed oyster shells. From what I hear, it's pretty cheap, (wall, at least here in the lower mainland, it is... but, it should be in Alberta as well). Hope that helps.
Robert
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#5
07-21-2005, 05:49 AM
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oyster shells
you can get oyster shells from a animal feed store. they feed chickens with it or something weird like that.
if you use oyster shells, the rocks come out really light and porous. if you really want to use aragonite, i would use it as the mould so the outside of the rock is covered with aragonite while the inside is oyster shells. or you can also use oyster shells for the mould as well.
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____________ If people don't die, it wouldn't make living important. And why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.
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#6
07-21-2005, 06:11 AM
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yah i have heard of using crushed shells although i have heard
that there is a lot of detrius that builds up in them takes a while to properly cure dont act as a buffer for ph and calcium correct me if im wrong thanks
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#7
07-21-2005, 02:07 PM
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Me and a buddy made some rock and we used a mixture of aragonite sand, crushed oyster shells and crushed coral. The crushed oyster shells are pretty much mostly calcium if I recall correctly and so is the rest of it. The rock looks really nice but isn't done curing yet. I expect it will take 4 - 6 months to be fully cured. When the rock is fully cured the PH should be fine as well.
IMO if you make rock out of just sand and cement it will not be near porous enough to really make good rock. The more porous the better for the bacteria to live, as well as the pods and other critters.
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#9
07-21-2005, 11:44 PM
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the playsand works fine, silicates (sand will not dissolve in water) as for crushed oyster shells be cautious, they are very high in phosphates and these can be released in our environments.
Steve
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 *everything said above is just my opinion, and may or may not reflect the views of this BBS, its Operators, and its Members. If cornered on any “opinion” I post I will totally deny having ever said this in a Court of Law…Unless I am the right one*Some strive to be perfect.... I just strive.
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#10
07-25-2005, 04:56 PM
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The rock I made was cured in about 6 weeks, I put the rock in the back of the toilet and every time you flush you get clean water, it's a great easy out of the way system for smaller bits of rock.
Doug
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