Dry Rock Curing Phosphates

[Heavymman]

Hi all, I am currently curing dry rock in a 32g brute pail with a heater and some powerheads. Keeping temp 78 and Sal 1.026(prob can use RODI but I opted this way). It has been curing for about 2-3 weeks and I did nothing to the rock other than brush and clean. My phosphate levels are at .68 and I was wondering what level would be acceptable to show that they were fully cured.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Do a water change (and this is the one place 100% water change is not an issue) and wait about a day and test for phosphates again....probably high. Let it sit for a coupe more days and again, water change. Keep on doing this until phosphates have reached an acceptable level.

 

[Heavymman]

Do a water change (and this is the one place 100% water change is not an issue) and wait about a day and test for phosphates again....probably high. Let it sit for a coupe more days and again, water change. Keep on doing this until phosphates have reached an acceptable level.

What would you say that “acceptable” level is? .03?

 

[WVNed]

Curing is used to allow bacteria to eat dead stuff on the rock until is stops producing ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. You cure live rock that has been stressed so that some of the stuff in it died.

What you are doing is leaching. Something is in the rock and you want it to come out. With leaching frequent water changes accelerate the processes. If you don't change the water you are soaking the rock in water containing what you want removed.

 

[cracker]

0.03 would be nice but "maybe" not that Low .

 

[Heavymman]

Curing is used to allow bacteria to eat dead stuff on the rock until is stops producing ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. You cure live rock that has been stressed so that some of the stuff in it died.

What you are doing is leaching. Something is in the rock and you want it to come out. With leaching frequent water changes accelerate the processes. If you don't change the water you are soaking the rock in water containing what you want removed.

So I guess I should be doing water changes more frequent , like every week

 

[cracker]

@WVNed That was a great explanation the differences .
@Heavymman man , Weekly would be real good . scrub & swish , rinse out any debris the collects at the bottom . You have the stuff needed to make your own water ? iv'e been down this road before in fact I have a barrel all the time . I keep a lid on mime though to keep it dark.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

The bacteria will eat n03 and the Po4. Let it ride till it’s cycled.
Do a wc at the end , test the Po4.

I’d use a lanthanum to lower it honestly. Drop it in. Wc.
You can lower it more in a more controlled fashion once it’s in the tank too with better filtration.

With all the dino and Chryso threads I answer with Po4 limitations I’d leave some in. Most seem to wind up dosing Po4 after the they strip it all out.

I’d target the Po4 reccomendation for Randy Farley.

 

[Heavymman]

The bacteria will eat n03 and the Po4. Let it ride till it’s cycled.
Do a wc at the end , test the Po4.

I’d use a lanthanum to lower it honestly. Drop it in. Wc.
You can lower it more in a more controlled fashion once it’s in the tank too with better filtration.

With all the dino and Chryso threads I answer with Po4 limitations I’d leave some in. Most seem to wind up dosing Po4 after the they strip it all out.

I’d target the Po4 reccomendation for Randy Farley.

Awesome insight, and I reluctantly graze through the Dino/cyano threads too and I am getting nervous starting my main display up. I guess too much or too less of anything in a reef tank is not good, have to maintain the symbiotic relationships everything has in your mini eco system

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Awesome insight, and I reluctantly graze through the Dino/cyano threads too and I am getting nervous starting my main display up. I guess too much or too less of anything in a reef tank is not good, have to maintain the symbiotic relationships everything has in your mini eco system

Bingo.

Once it’s in it’ll be a balancing act. Always will be no matter what.

 

[Heavymman]

@WVNed That was a great explanation the differences .
@Heavymman man , Weekly would be real good . scrub & swish , rinse out any debris the collects at the bottom . You have the stuff needed to make your own water ? iv'e been down this road before in fact I have a barrel all the time . I keep a lid on mime though to keep it dark.

@cracker Yea fortunately I have two brutes devoted to this and a mixing station, so pretty simple to do a water change.

 

[cracker]

i did this with a bunch of really old LR. Like 1 1/2 months. I have to dose now it's in a tank . Nice setup on the barrels !
Thanks for this starting this thread I had forgotten to change the water. It's was around 6 weeks.

 

[Heavymman]

i did this with a bunch of really old LR. Like 1 1/2 months. I have to dose now it's in a tank . Nice setup on the barrels !

Thanks! I’m dying to do the real ones lol but too much $$$ spent my wife doesn’t even have an idea yet lol.... it’s for the kids! And me haha

 

[NY_Caveman]

For me, I bleached for two weeks then cured in RO/DI for about 2 months (powerhead and no heater). I did bi weekly 100% water changes. I got the rock from around 0.7 ppm Phosphate to about 0.2. There it plateaued. From then I switched to saltwater and added a couple of small live rocks and a heater. The Phosphate jumped back to 0.64 ppm and then over time, it came back down to 0.2. My point is there is likely only so low you can go unless you use something like Lanthanum Chloride. I eventually did use some Lanthanum Chloride early in the display without issue, but I should have done so in the bucket probably.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I'm going to speculate that freshwater bacteria moved in to digest the remaining death in your rock. Once you changed to saltwater, you killed all this bacteria which now caused for the phosphate spike.

 

[NY_Caveman]

I'm going to speculate that freshwater bacteria moved in to digest the remaining death in your rock. Once you changed to saltwater, you killed all this bacteria which now caused for the phosphate spike.

That is certainly possible and likely was a contributing factor. I guess the reason I attribute it to the rock is when I added more live rock later (going from 8 to 24 pounds) I had a similar spike in Phosphate. The big add was a 20 minute drive with the rock and I assumed little die off since I never read any Ammonia.