If you do track down some Thorite let me know, I am interested in some as well.

Me too.

If the pieces are small enough I've heard of people curing the cement by throwing it in the toilet tank, several easy water changes a day.

Wouldn't work for you as I'm sure your pieces would be much to large but for people will small tanks it might work out alright.

I have located a local source of Thorite! I just spent the last 2 hours on the phone talking to all sorts of people who think I'm nuts for wanting a concrete product to use in an aquarium (yeah, tell me something I don't know! :lol:) but I FINALLY found a stash here in town!

Some background though. "Thorite" as a brand name no longer exists (which explains part of the difficulty of tracking it down). BASF, the manufacturer, has merged product lines and the new product name is "EMACO R400 Architectural". There is another product people have been using, mentioned over at reefcentral, and that is "EMACO GP" ("general purpose"). Either should be fine to use. From what I understand, the difference between R400 and GP is colour - architectural is blended at a lighter colour to better match the colour of precast concrete products, since this product's "intended purpose" is as a patching mortar (concrete repair).

There are two local suppliers in Calgary,

1) Unicon Concrete Structures
and
2) Brock White (formerly Manstar)

I just spoke to the folks at Brock White, they have in their warehouse some 46 bags of the R400. It is technically "past shelf life" which means it is not warranted for structural use anymore but it should be just fine for holding pieces of liverock together. Because of this though they have a sale price on the bags at $31.86.

Here is the contact info:

Brock White
2703 61st Av SE
(403)287-5889

They close up shop at 4:30pm so go on a lunch break or something ..

Thanks for doing the legwork Tony. I'm going to abandon rods and ties and use this product. Please post your steps in putting it altogether =)

Sweet, just in time for some aquascaping fun with my new tank this weekend. I'll be grabbing a bag on my way home today. Thanks so much for tracking this stuff down Tony!

and you can put it together in the tank and it will cure in the water and have no ph effects too that is what i heard.

There is no instructions on the bag but I found this info.

I'm glad it is on sale, the guy there told me the regular price is 98 bucks a bag.

98 bucks, ouch.

I'm going to have to go tomorrow to pick up mine, I have no wheels today. I can't wait to get a bag though and try it out though.

ya let me know tony i could get some too ,and they buildign the stacks in my tank.