DIY ROCK does not Rock it takes forever.

Hello Everyone. I have a question about also about DIY rock. I am an adventurous kind of guy and thought I would try my hand at DIY Rock and also Live Rock is expensive here in Toronto. I used White Portland cement crushed Seashell from my LFS and Rock Salt that we have a lot of here in Toronto, Canada. Ha. The Rock Salt has dissolved completely and I also did a test letting it dissolve into water and it does not affect the PH of fresh water at all.

Anyways this is taking forever to get the Lime out of the rock and the PH is still running very high. I am doing water changes twice a day and using a high rang PH tester. My normal tape water is 7.4 or less and I have just added a pump to the bin in the hope this would speed things along. It does seem to raze the PH faster in less time from 3hours with pump to a high PH of 8.8 or really mostly likely is off the chart PH. Than the 8 to 10 hours it would take with out the pump. I have also tried the white vinegar thing for 7 days as well. I have been doing this for about 12 weeks now. I don’t want to give up on it as I have built what I think is a really cool structure for my tank. Just thought I would ask for other people experience with this.

Has anyone done this and did it work? Does anyone have any tips? Did I use the right materials? Should I be testing the PH? Am I doing the right thing?
Will the PH be the same in saltwater as in fresh. Can I use a PH buffer to off set the high PH from the DIY rock till it is done and put it in a tank.

Let me know your thoughts.

Cheers.

 

Hello and welcome to 3reef

Cure time can be very long, more so if doing large batches of stone at once. yes a pump can help speed it up some, and no i don't think id use them till the ph reading is at least 8.4

I try to make mine in smaller batches these days for this reason.

 

Hi Aaiden,

I did my rocks myself. It does take time to get the lime out. You do need to change the water out twice a day which you are already doing. What I did prior to the water part I actually allowed the rocks to weather for about a month. This helped a great deal.

Towards the end of the water curing for the rocks I changed the type of water I used.
I put my rocks in saltwater towards the end of my curing cycle, which was 19 weeks for me total. I allowed the rocks to sit for a week in saltwater with a pump and alternated from freshwater to saltwater the last 7 weeks of curing. The 6 & 7 week were both freshwater. I wanted to make sure that the level would be accurate so I did an extra freshwater week to get a true reading. When I tested my live rock on the final week it was the same as my tape water PH level which is at 7.4.

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