Man Made Live Rock poll?

[Marlin65]

Originally Posted by SmallFry

I wouldn't have imitation fish either, but they would match my imitation sunlight, imitation current, imitation food and imitation seawater..

All depends how far you're comfortable following the same argument I guess...

Thats funny well said.

[Stones]

I ended up ordering a pillar and a few flat pieces of Aquaroche ceramic rock from a US vendor when setting up my 225 last May. They pieces themselves are made from clay rather than cement and they look great now that they are starting to get covered with coralline algae. However, they are also the only pieces of rock in my tank that have been plagued by hair algae.

I soaked the pieces in RO/DI water for close to 4 months, changing the water out every few weeks to hopefully leach out any residual phosphate. My tank has tested 0.00 ppm phosphate with a hanna phosphate colorimeter since the get go so I believe the nutrients are bound up in the rock and are not leaching out into the water column. Either way, I don't know if I'll ever be able to get rid of the hair algae on the ceramic rock since my fish show no interest and manual pruning is alot less fun than it sounds.

If I had to do it again, I don't think I would use man made rock despite all of the amazing shapes and sculptured pieces that are becoming more readily available to the hobbyist. Drilling live rock and inserting acrylic or PVC rods along with the conspicious use of zip ties in my opinion can also create shapes and structures that are equivalent to some of the ceramic rock being manufactured.

[plutoniumJoe]

When I first got back into the hobby I was and still am very impressed with the Garf project. I was also on a budget (Oh how things change). I made rock using a variety of techniques including adding acrylic shavings and pasta to increase coralline growth and poricity.

I put the rock in the toilet water collection areas(not the bowl collection area) so that it would get fresh water several times a day. At first it did not look natural in the tank but over time it was difficult to tell what was natural and what was made. I used mainly for structural bases or places where I needed tunnels. I was able to get some pretty good deals on rock as things progressed and now have more than I need but have kept some of the original man made rock in places that are less visible.

If you can find white portland cement then sure. The grey portland cement we have just throws it off. It takes a long time for the salt rock to dissolve and cure. I wasn't pleased with my final product as the oyster shell look did not even compare to compare to actual live rock. Then again, that was just the recipe I used.

[SmallFry]

I've already made a batch for my new build, and am trying to cure it, which is taking a while - water still goes off the scale of my pH test in a day, though I am using warm/hand hot water to accelerate the leaching process. This is after two weeks seriously trying i.e. a water change every day. I don't have a great idea of what's going on because my test kit only goes up to 8.8 so no actual pH, just how fast it goes up..

A far as I have got with the adventure, the plusses are that it's cheap with no pests, and you can design your own aquascape right from scratch rather than make do with what you get in your box(es) of rock.

The minuses so far are the fact it's probably heavier, and the curing process is a pain in the ass..

Assuming that it gets the filtration job done, which a lot of people's experiences say it will, then the really authentic look is a luxury in my view, whereas lighting, for instance, is not. I am under no illusion that my rock will look just the same as 'real' rock.. I'll be using the savings to go the LED route which will (hopefully) ultimately save me money and be less damaging to the environment.

If I had unlimited funds, for sure I'd have good dry rock as well as the LED lighting, but in the real world I have to make my choices..