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Cement Pavers for Rockscaping ?

So I was watching an episode of American Reef that featured Sanjay Joshi's famous 500 gallon reef tank at Penn State University. He mentioned using cement pavers from Home Depot as a base for his aquascaping. Anybody ever use them ? How long do they need to cure ? Could I use cement cinder blocks also ? They seem easier to drill through and secure rods and rock to.

Jim
 
no rule of thumb on time. I would soak in RODI and monitor the pH and phosphates. If you can leave them in RODI for a long while with minimal to no leaching of phosphates and pH isnt swinging a lot, then you should be ok (I hope lol)
 
There actually is a rule of thumb Tony, just neither you or I remember it :lol: Pavers and cinder blocks have taken me months to cure when I used them in the past.

Since you're talking about Sanjay, why not email him? He's very open to sharing :) Google his name + Penn state and you'll get his email.
 
BTW I love the new guy. he sounds like Googles little cousin :lol:
 
Beyond the curing, I would really worry about what else is in those pavers.
Could be loaded with silicates. And if colored, could be some interesting metals used for dyes.
Plus, a solid paver is just that, solid. Only the outer thin bit is any good for bio-activity.

My personal preference has been to glue together live rock rubble with epoxy.
It is usually pretty easy to get rubble cheap. Sometimes even free. Epoxy usually costs more.
Seems very safe. No curing issues.
I use West system epoxy, and microfiber filler. Mix it to peanut butter like consistency, spread it
around liberally where the rock meets. Glob it all together.
As a bonus, you get lots of voids throughout the rock as well.
 
rygh said:
Beyond the curing, I would really worry about what else is in those pavers.
Could be loaded with silicates. And if colored, could be some interesting metals used for dyes.
Plus, a solid paver is just that, solid. Only the outer thin bit is any good for bio-activity.

My personal preference has been to glue together live rock rubble with epoxy.
It is usually pretty easy to get rubble cheap. Sometimes even free. Epoxy usually costs more.
Seems very safe. No curing issues.
I use West system epoxy, and microfiber filler. Mix it to peanut butter like consistency, spread it
around liberally where the rock meets. Glob it all together.
As a bonus, you get lots of voids throughout the rock as well.

The pavers are for the base of his rockwork in his 450 gallon tank. Me thinks gluing rubble together is more a small tank duty and not so much for a massive tank build ;)
 
So I got a reply from Sanjay. He mentioned he got the pavers from Lowes and did not cure them before putting them in the tank (which kinda surprised me). Thanks for all the replies...I know I'll have lot's of options once I get to that fork in the road. ;)

Jim
 
GreshamH said:
rygh said:
Beyond the curing, I would really worry about what else is in those pavers.
Could be loaded with silicates. And if colored, could be some interesting metals used for dyes.
Plus, a solid paver is just that, solid. Only the outer thin bit is any good for bio-activity.

My personal preference has been to glue together live rock rubble with epoxy.
It is usually pretty easy to get rubble cheap. Sometimes even free. Epoxy usually costs more.
Seems very safe. No curing issues.
I use West system epoxy, and microfiber filler. Mix it to peanut butter like consistency, spread it
around liberally where the rock meets. Glob it all together.
As a bonus, you get lots of voids throughout the rock as well.

The pavers are for the base of his rockwork in his 450 gallon tank. Me thinks gluing rubble together is more a small tank duty and not so much for a massive tank build ;)

No, I think quite the opposite.
For a large tank, it can save a ton of money. A 450 gallon tank needs a few hundred pounds of live rock.
That effort could save $1000.
The initial hassle of buying/mixing epoxy and such is a waste of time if just doing a small amount.
But when doing large amounts, assembly line like, it should get pretty easy.
So it is really for a massive tank build, not small tanks.
 
I do need to clarify the rubble-epoxy thought a bit:
I have only done a little so far, but it is in the plan for my in-very-slow-progress 250 gallon upgrade.
It probably would not work on wet rock. Only dried out dead rock rubble. Which is even cheaper of course.
 
I've used schedule 40 for framework in all my previous smaller tanks, but was told that schedule 80 would be a better option in this case. Another consideration is that pavers seem a better option to "skewer" rods into also.
 
rygh said:
I do need to clarify the rubble-epoxy thought a bit:
I have only done a little so far, but it is in the plan for my in-very-slow-progress 250 gallon upgrade.
It probably would not work on wet rock. Only dried out dead rock rubble. Which is even cheaper of course.

Speaking from experience here... done it for a 680g and will never spend 4 months making rock work ever again. my time is more valuable to me then simply going out and getting Marco Key Largo rock and doing minimal acrylic rod/hydraulic cement work. My 120g took me exactly 6 hours to do, spread out over a two week period and it did not cost me a fortune.

If you check out other threads Jimmy has posted on, you'll see he got a bunch of very nice rock from another member, no need for rubble.
 
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