"Cooking Rock" - Well, not in the oven...

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

2-3 months ago I bought 20 pounds of that Life Rock and quickly decided that buying gulf rock shipped up in water was the route I would rather go. So I took a 5 pound rock out of my 135G system's sump, and along with the 20 pounds of plumbing primer painted rocks I put them in bucket, filled with 35 ppt water, a wave maker and a heater. Every two weeks I would toss some Rod's in the bucket. Fast forward to today and I wanted to add about another 15 pounds of rock I had laying around and put them in a 32G bin. I was surprised to see some snails and asterina made it into the bucket and they were doing well, there were dozens of those asterinas, in fact look at the snail in one of the pics, lol.

I don't think this will be display rock, likely sump rock or break some up for rubble for refugiums, etc. But the idea of having some already cycled rock just waiting to be deployed is very appealing to me.

I tested and NO3 (0.09) and PO4 (0.43). I had not touched the water since I sealed it up. It was still at 34.9 ppt. Temps are in the mid 80's. If you look at the rock I used to seed, there are some things growing on it, any IDs?

Time is on my side, I am in no rush. What should my next steps be?

 

[KrisReef]

I think I see some snotty looking sponges, and you should get some lanthanium chloride for the bucket to pull the p out of the water. Dose LC, wait a day, and change all the water, repete until you are getting more like zero phosphates.