Brs pukani dry rock

revhtree · Mar 14, 2016

Nice video here to explain the rock and curing.

JackDE · Mar 14, 2016

He recommends doing a 100% water change after cycling with dry rock. What are your thoughts?

Ryengoth · Mar 14, 2016

Depends on what the "dry rock" is. If it's new fake stuff, no I don't think it matters as long as you soak it and rinse it well. If it was alive and dried, yeah it doesn't hurt to purge the tank of what's in solution now after the rock is established. Excess minerals and especially metals should be removed if you are putting sensitive stuff in it.

JackDE · Mar 14, 2016

Ok, thanks!

Wayneb332 · Mar 14, 2016

The reef cleaners rock is with and clean absolutely no phosphate problem. I have had mine in for about 2 months.

jgvergo · Mar 14, 2016

I just went through this with BRS Pukani and Tonga Shelf (100 lbs. total). First, I put the rock in a 64 gallon garbage pail (plastic). I added two gallons of Muriatic Acid (34% concentration). I let it sit for 3 hours. I then neutralized the acid with 8 lbs. of Baking soda. I then dumped the neutralized liquid and soaked the rock in fresh tap water for 24 hours. I then power washer the rock and a LOT of gunk came off. The rock held up very well under the power washing. It seemed that some trapped sand was dislodged, but I don't think the power washing caused any erosion or structural damage to the rock. After drying, the rock has minimal smell and looks great.

dgrigor02 · Mar 14, 2016

Pukani is my favorite for growing out zoanthids colonies. I hate the looks of frag plugs so I use pukani pieces to mount on. When time to frag it is so soft and super easy to cut/frag.

armyguy · Mar 14, 2016

Just look on Craigslist, nice live rock can be had for 2$ or less a pound!! Dry rock doesn't have all the bacteria, and hitchhikers that make a reef tank awesome, I have little corals and all sorts of sponges that hitched a ride and are thriving!

Ginu · Mar 15, 2016

Mmmm I don't understand how some folks are putting the pukani straight in their tank without any issues....

I started two tanks with pukani and let me share my experience with this rock.. First, this rock is AWESOME, super light, very unique and porous. BRS tends to send some larger rocks which require some modeling... I did just this and made a cave in one of the boulders from BRS and guess what I found in the middle of the rock? A dead 12"-16" dead eel, dead sponges and other funky visible stuff on the rock and crevaces and probably even more dead stuff on the inside of this rock...

For my home tank (120gallon) I cycled the rock for almost 11 months in a barrel with a skimmer, heater, circulation pump, GFO along with water changes and I still got this funky brown turf algae after introducing it to the new system; I am in the process of shutting this tank down due to brown turf algae, bubble algae and zeovit crash which killed all my sps.

I also have a RSM S500 at the office and I started the system up with the same rock, but a different process. I used lanthanum chloride in a barrel and washed it a few times... the smells i got out of this tub were horrendous and after about 9 months the rock is still leach some phosphates and it needs more time to mature...

In my new tank which is cycling now I went with 35-40lb's of BRS Dry saver rock and in the sump I'm going to add 5-6 liters of sera siporax to aid with the processes of nitrification and denitrification. Also the rocks in the DT are very easy to remove if needed to treat for different things like bubble algae, aptasia and unwanted algae.
I plan to add 5-6 liters of siporax in the office tank and 3 liters in my 20gallon frag tank for filtration.

Now if I was to do it again, I would not chance and do the following... a muriatic acid bath followed by a bleach bath followed by anolther muriatic acid bath then rinse really well and dry in the sun for a couple of days then cycle for one month unless aided with different tank starting bacteria and I plan to do exactly this to my DT pukani liverock once the tank will be shut down. Also I suggest obtaining a piece of good mature liverock from a friend (so you know the rock and whats in that tank) and seeding the rock with the cycle.

Ryengoth · Mar 15, 2016

I would suggest to let it rot and cycle the tank at the same time. I dosed Stability as needed while waiting for the diatom bloom to go away. I should have soaked my Fuji rock in RO water for a couple of days to draw off some of the calcium but the curing wasn't an issue and it happened fairly quickly in-tank. The initial rotting ramped up over a week and then it cleared out over the course of a couple of weeks. Low concentration hydrochloric acid and sodium hypochlorite will strip all carbon-based materials, even some that could get reused to re-establish the rock.

Ginu · Mar 15, 2016

Found a pic of the dead eel in my pukani, enjoy!!

Jakepen · Mar 15, 2016

This is a very interesting topic. I'm pretty torn, I have 30lbs curing, I'm thinking that it will either take a year, or I need to bathe it in acid.

Ginu · Mar 15, 2016

Jakepen said:
This is a very interesting topic. I'm pretty torn, I have 30lbs curing, I'm thinking that it will either take a year, or I need to bathe it in acid.

Since you haven't used it in the tank, do yourself a favor and stick it in acid. It won't hurt anything and you will be glad you took that extra step. Since you have been curing it for a while, it probably doesn't need to be dropped in acid twice. Just take the time to fully wash and dry it before starting the curing process again.

Jakepen · Mar 15, 2016

Ginu said:
Since you haven't used it in the tank, do yourself a favor and stick it in acid. It won't hurt anything and you will be glad you took that extra step. Since you have been curing it for a while, it probably doesn't need to be dropped in acid twice. Just take the time to fully wash and dry it before starting the curing process again.

What kind of acid, and what's the ratio recommended?

jgvergo · Mar 15, 2016

Muriatic acid (which is hydrochloric acid). You can get it from some hardware stores and pool supply stores. I used 2 gallons of 34.5% Muriatic Acid to clean about 100 lbs of rock. The acid, rock and water took up about 50 gallons of my 64 gallon garbage can. I soaked the rock in acid for 3 hours. Important: wear eye protection and skin protection and do it outside in a well ventilated area. Neutralize the acid with baking soda (5 lbs. per gallon of acid).

Ginu · Mar 15, 2016

Here is a decent vid on this

Make sure you do this outside and wear protection

badstorm48 · Mar 16, 2016

I'm in the process of curing my 13 pounds of brs pukani dry rock. So far it's been curing for a week and I'm gonna cure it for another 3 weeks maybe. Whenever the nitrogen cycle is done I will put it in my tank. I plan on doing water changes every week. I am just using a 5 gallon food grade bucket that you can get from lowes. With bucket and lid it came to $6.66 unfortunately. I have a bubbler in it that I got with a 2 gallon tank that I had for a little bit with freshwater and am using a heater I got with a 20 gallon kit. Everything is going good have a nice stench to it lol. Just really excited to get it in my tank so I have more room to put corals [emoji3]. It's definitely been fun doing this so far.

For curing it I just put the rock in the 5 gallon bucket put saltwater I got from my lfs and then put the bubbler and heater in and that's it.

dacianb · Mar 16, 2016

I am in process of replacing my older, ordinary rock with pukani (already made 70% of change).
The way I cure it - a bath in hot water + bleach (concentrated solution, something like 4:1 water/bleach ratio). Keep it like this for 2-3 days.
Then for one week or up to 10 days I change the water daily in that bucket with hot boiling tap water. In almost 2 weeks I have brilliant white rocks, no issues with nitrates / PO4. I have quite some sensitive corals / nems in the tank, but they are not affected at all about a new piece of rock added every 2-3 weeks.