# D.I.Y. rocks or buy fake rocks?



## Bradyk

ok fella's heres the deal....

my wife is having our baby very soon and she doesnt want me to start the 180 in wall project yet. she doesnt want the house all torn up while the baby is here for a while. so since i cant set it up in the wall she told my i can buy whatever i want before the baby is here to get the tank up and running.  so i purchased a very nice canopy and stand along with a 3d background and canopy lift system.

so the question is that i want big rocks in my tank but i really dont want to use real ones because of weight and they dont serve that much of a purpose other then looks, and i want to keep the layout simple. so i was looking at making my own rocks and then talked to the manufacture who made my backgrounds and he suggested these below. they have holes in the back that are different sizes for fish that are really deep and they have caves. they said they can make me huge big rocks that will add alot of function to the tank. now *** seen cichlid stones and think they look fake and they dont have many options and they dont serve a purpose for big fish. but these ones work for all fish and they told my that fish love to spawn in all the deep small holse they put in the back of them. so my question is what would you guys do? buy 3 big rocks that are just over $100.00 for all 3 of them or just put real rock in or try to make my own? so heres some examples they sent me and they told me if i have a picture of a rock i really like they will make it for me with caves for the fish so whatcha ya guys think? i cant sleep as i have the rest of the week off and just want to get this finished soon!

thanks brady


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## ndblaikie

Personally I would male a nice DIY rock set out of styrofoam and some dryloc, would be a nice addition.

Styrofoam is cheap and you can create whatever you want really easily, it also gives you the satisfaction of having made it yourself.

There is the option to go with concrete as well. 
I find the cichlid stones become worthless after not too long as the fish simply outgrow them and dont like using them. I have several in my tank (all freebies so cannot complain on that).

You can create several rocks over a weekend or as you mentioned have the week off.
There are a lot of threads on here about doing DIY rocks.

This is my 2 cent worth, hope it helps and congratulations on your soon addition to the family.


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## PfunMo

You might note that DIY rocks made of concrete will not be ready to use quickly. They will need time to leach out before they are ready for the tank. That will blow your one week schedule if you go that way!


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## Bradyk

So I gave it a shot at making my own the other day and they just don't look natural. Creating rock is not as easy as you would think. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but it just doesn't look right. It seems easy to create rock that looks like live rock but that's not the style I'm going for. I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and let the pros make them for me since they haven't failed me yet. This will give me time to build the sump. By any chance for giggles does anyone have any pictures of fake rocks they have made?


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## PfunMo

I have no pictures because my rocks never looked real enough to take pictures. Nature is a hard mother to copy.


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## Sub-Mariner

I tried real rocks, many different ones (black river rock / multi-colored river rock; TX holey rock; some Arkansas creek rock; big heavy limestone type boulders) but I never found the right look. I ended up buying 3x: resin rocks. Pricey but I like them and they have plenty of caves and pass through holes so theyre perfect in my opinion. I think on my next water change I'll try removing the center rock and bring the 2 sides rock in towards the center just a bit, that way theyll have a wide open swimming space in the middle.

*Flash OFF*









*Flash ON*









I had originally wanted to join all 3 together to make one big center rock but I choose to separate them so there was some pass through swimming spaces.


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## Bradyk

Sub - nice tank and rocks, understand why you spaced them out but it does look better when they are bunched up IMO. Do you guys think the rocks above look real? I wouldn't know the difference with those ones. I'm thinking of just ordering big boulder rocks like the ones above.

Pfunmo - I agree, I've tried to make them look as real as possible and I can't even get the colors and blending right. To me my rocks look really fake....


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## pistolpete

I am all for real rocks. Find a large landscaping place and pick some relatively thin rocks so that they don't weigh a tonne. Some sandstones and tufas are quite light. Cheaper, more durable, and obviously quite realistic. Weight should not be an issue. With a 180 gal, so what if it weighs a couple of hundred pounds more.


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## Bradyk

pistolpete said:


> I am all for real rocks. Find a large landscaping place and pick some relatively thin rocks so that they don't weigh a tonne. Some sandstones and tufas are quite light. Cheaper, more durable, and obviously quite realistic. Weight should not be an issue. With a 180 gal, so what if it weighs a couple of hundred pounds more.


I agree, but the only reason I want fake is because of the caves. I have a tang tank and the fish like to hide alot. My problem with real rock is that I have to have a bunch in the tank to make the piles and caves look right, I just don't like a pile of rocks. To me there is nothing special about the tank. Now if I had mbuna that really don't care to much for caves I would stick some real big rocks in the tank but I would keep it simple. Sometimes I think to much rock is over doing it. I think 3 or 4 big fake rocks in my tank would look good and serve a purpose with built in caves in them.

I dunno I'm lost and running out of time! Lol


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## Sub-Mariner

Just speaking from my experience with real rock.

Real rock is alot cheaper that fake rock but the first time you have to re-arrange / remove rock to catch a fish or for whatever reason youll appreciate the fake rock!! Real rock is a pain and a mess to remove. And if youre using alot of rock to make caves forget about remembering how they all fit together to make those perfect little caves that you spent hours on getting just right!!!!! :x :lol:

Heres one of my rock setups I made in my 55g using real rock. It looked great but even with powerheads too much poop / debris was getting stuck around / behind the rocks and it was a pain to try and vacuum. I even made a special vacuuming device using 3/4" PVC pipe with a 4" section of 1/2" Eheim hose at the bottom of the PVC to use as the suction point to get into hard to reach places.




























And my Mbunas loved the caves!







































Bradyk said:


> my wife is having our baby very soon


Oh and I forgot to say, CONGRATULATIONS!!


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