Homemade Live Rock from Cement & Oyster Shells and cycling your new reef tank!

[@felipecohen6939]

Excellent video! I'm glad to see the science working along with the market and hobbyist needs. Thank you for spreading our research in a clear and captivating way

[@adrianoakirahino5313]

Very nice video! Thanks for sharing the information from this paper. Very helpful

[@H2GoAquariumResource]

I live at the beach and so oyster shells are readily available. I'll definitely give this a go being i just can't find the shapes I need, not to mention the cost. Thanks for sharing!

[@themenagerie5247]

Came here to say that If you are doing this at home you can add rock salt and/or perlite to make airier and lighter rocks with more surface area for bacteria.

[@ReefMan]

Salt would dissolve and leave voids, which could be nice or not depending on what you're after. Perlite could be a good idea!

[@lkapitan8232]

Very interesting. Given the price of dry rock and man made rock, it is worth a try. Thanks.

[@ReefMan]

Good luck! I’ll probably try this as well when I need rock, it’ll be nice to be able to make it in exactly the shape and size we need.

[@seancolinclark]

Taking "Live rock man" to another level.

[@GwonkReefkeeping]

Good video. I have been considering making my own rock for a few years now. Being near the Chesapeake bay, I have easy access to loads of oyster shells. Thanks for your research.👍🏾

[@ReefMan]

Good luck!! It seems like it’d be simple enough to try, none of the ingredients are that hard to find it seems, or expensive. If it doesn’t work out, you’re just out a little money and some time

[@danielroberts2888]

Would using an oyster based diy live rock screw up a freshwater planted tank?

[@ReefSwens]

Awesome video. Thanks

[@ReefMan]

Glad you liked it!!!

[@garrycole9187]

Is the rule of thumb about a reef tank needs to be a year old before adding sps true in your experience? I have a tank that is about 8 months old, parameters are spot on, .02 phos, 6-7 nitrate, 9.2 alk, 440 CA and 1400 Mg. Dosing ESV-bionic 2 part and mag plus Kalkwasser to keep ph about 8.2. I added some frags of hardier corals, stylo and 3 monti caps, couple of birdnest and a couple of pocillopora. They are not doing well with the exception of the pocilloporas. There is no amonia and these readings have been steady for a month. What do you think is the problem?

[@hoodroad9585]

Great Video I've been thinking about trying to make my own rocks but didn't know what or if any materials would be safe and just a FYI livestock feed stores sell crushed Oyster shell for hens

[@rhombifer566]

interesting 🤨

[@MikiCab1]

I got chickens so I got oyster shells. Maybe I will make some bio-Balls out of them.

[@zaher.w]

Thanks 😊

[@encrustingacro]

I have a question. Is type 2 Portland cement the same as CEM 2 Portland cement?

[@ReefMan]

Probably. I learned a lot about cement during this video though, so probably good to triple check just in case. I would think it'd be the same though. Keep in mind that CEM II just means that it has up to 35% "other stuff" added that's not portland cement - so you want to make sure that other stuff is limestone or something you actually want in your tank.

[@encrustingacro]

@@ReefMan Thanks. Also, I’ve always wondered how porous artificial live rock actually is. I have seen a picture of a real reef rock cut in half and it didn’t look like it had that many pores. However, pictures you showed of the artificial rocks they made in the experiment looked very porous. From what I know, mined marco rock is currently the most porous rock not mined from the reefs. I’m thinking maybe someone could cut open different brands of artificial/mined rocks to see how porous they actually are.

[@ReefMan]

I suspect, but have no proof, that the micro pores in a lot of our rock are mostly full of crud pretty soon after we put them in. For sure, this oyster rock would have as much or more surface area, and I bet that’s good enough for most of us.

[@SteveProp]

Type IL is about the US equivalent. The industry use of things like this is CO2 reduction. The overall difference shouldn’t be too much though, with Type IL you’re basically switching out ~25% of the Portland cement with lime, instead of the approx 5% that’s in the regular Portland Type I/II cement. If that 20% of cement is gonna do your tank in the rest of the cement in the regular stuff will too.

[@PatrickJewellTheGreat]

Ah yes, living in Louisiana will finally come to my advantage.

[@stevegee8010]

That should be 1kg per 10 litres. 1 Kg per 1 litre is 2.2lbs per 1/4 of a gallon.

[@puliraja4801]

yes. according to his calculation we should use 150 kg live rock in 40 gallon tank. the calculation was 15 kg to 40 gallon breeder tank

[@nigelcox5029]

I thought it was Bill Gates talking about reefing

[@rhombifer566]

🪨 interesting 🤔