Man Made Live Rock poll?

[Delphinus]

I have a cave rock in my tank that was made by shaping it around a hand in a nylon disposable glove. The idea is neat and finally after about 8 years or so I have a fish who loves the spot (my trigger) for sleeping but otherwise nobody (fish-wise) really cared much for it. It took a long time to get covered in coraline and look natural, like maybe 2 years or thereabouts compared to the usual couple of months for a typical reef rock.

I dunno. I certainly see nothing wrong with a mixture of rocks when done nicely and they've been awesome, but I've seen some rockwork that was exclusively DIY rock and either looks contrived or covered in hair algae. So it seems to me the potential is for it to be an epic win, or epic fail, or any point in between.

I understand some DIY rock nowadays people are using rocksalt to increase the porosity of the rock .. interesting. I haven't seen any made like that in person though.

[wingedfish]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

I understand some DIY rock nowadays people are using rocksalt to increase the porosity of the rock

this is how I built my rock a couple months ago. I molded it in the garden dirt. it's very porous. presently it is in my tank and looks nothing like "real" rock. I won't comment on weather or not others should use it. I like the price and the fact that I didn't rape a reef for it.