Dry rocks leaching

Fishingandreefing · Apr 13, 2020

zoomonster said:
Hmmm... me personally I would use muriatic acid. I stepped out of the hobby a few years and when I restarted about 6+ years ago I unboxed all my rock and etched it all. Now that said some of the dead rock out there (Pukani and Marco come to mind) for sale would probably dissolve like an alka seltzer tablet. Mine was all originally dense Hawaiian, Marshall and Fiji etc.

In any case use care if you go the acid route i.e. read how to do it and wear at least goggles and chemical resistant gloves.

I did 2 buckets with vinegar two months ago. Then just did another with bleach.

zoomonster · Apr 13, 2020

Fishingandreefing said:
I did 2 buckets with vinegar two months ago. Then just did another with bleach.

Ok whatever works for you but let me put it in perspective... Properly mixed muriatic acid will remove in minutes what even cleaning strength vinegar won't do in days.

BYU · Apr 13, 2020

muriatic acid x15min then bleach one day and you are done
much easier and rock won’t leach phophates

Fishingandreefing · Apr 13, 2020

thanks for all the advices!

mitch91175 · Apr 13, 2020

This process will be faster if you have a power head and skimmer in the container

waleedreef · Apr 13, 2020

Fishingandreefing said:
Can you explain why a heater is needed? And what’s the different soaking in rodi vs saltwater.

Heater because it’s salt water and dry rock will start seeding by good bacteria and this bacteria require proper temperature.

If you starting new tank I suggest curing with salt water to leach phosphate and ammonia and any unwanted organic material and seeding with beneficial bacteria.

if phosphate stopped rising then water change till reach 0.00. You won’t face any algae issues in future

Curing dry rock in fresh water will seed it with fresh water bacteria which will die in salt water. This is the difference.

Fishingandreefing · Apr 13, 2020

waleedreef said:
Heater because it’s salt water and dry rock will start seeding by good bacteria and this bacteria require proper temperature.

If you starting new tank I suggest curing with salt water to leach phosphate and ammonia and any unwanted organic material and seeding with beneficial bacteria.

if phosphate stopped rising then water change till reach 0.00. You won’t face any algae issues in future

Curing dry rock in fresh water will seed it with fresh water bacteria which will die in salt water. This is the difference.

Does beneficial bacteria helps reduce phosphate? One of a members recommended me to dose bacteria since I was fighting high phosphate at the current tank but it seems like the microbacter 7 is causing higher phosphate.

if seeding the rock helps reduce the level of phosphate, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to just set it up with the rocks and let it run it’s course.

run full blast on gfo since there’s no corals.

waleedreef · Apr 14, 2020

Fishingandreefing said:
Does beneficial bacteria helps reduce phosphate? One of a members recommended me to dose bacteria since I was fighting high phosphate at the current tank but it seems like the microbacter 7 is causing higher phosphate.

During curing process: nothing will stop leaching phosphate except PH 8.4. let it leach for months till stop.

if seeding the rock helps reduce the level of phosphate, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to just set it up with the rocks and let it run it’s course.
This is something else: seeding will help for cycling only. Phosphate will keep leaching even if specific bacteria eat it.

run full blast on gfo since there’s no corals. :: no need to run GFO during curing.

esther · Apr 19, 2020

Miller535 said:
If it were me I wouldn't worry about .25. I would just set it up. While that is high it's not that high.

Little story, I had high phosphates, too high to even use the red sea phosphate test which I think goes up to 4. I eventually started using GFO, which lowered my phosphate down to a good level. I stopped monitoring it. My PO4 bottomed out and I got dinos. Got rid of dinos but had to start dosing PO4 because I stripped it out of the rock to a point where my rock would just drink PO4 every time I dosed it. And I was dosing daily. Had to dose for weeks.

I would set the tank up and get it cycling, and dose Phosphate RX if you have to at the end of the cycle. Just my 2cents

I agree. Our PO4 is currently at .46 and tank is thriving. It's been running since February. We used dry rock too and it's consistently leaching phosphate. We added ROWAphos and Tirton AL99 to maintain. Been working like a charm so far. It's not a quick fix, but slow & stead wins the race. Good luck!

Shooter6 · Apr 20, 2020

Bacteria does not require a heater, unless the water is in artic conditions. The bacteria ma grow slower but will still seed the rock.
Hell heaters are really over used in the hobby.

Duncan Tse · Apr 20, 2020

Waterchanges won't do much to reduce phosphates. Just keep dosing lanthanum chloride or use gfo

Once your rocks stop leaching phospahtes then you can do a 100% waterchange to reduce your nitrates to 0.

Fishingandreefing · Apr 20, 2020

Shooter6 said:
Bacteria does not require a heater, unless the water is in artic conditions. The bacteria ma grow slower but will still seed the rock.
Hell heaters are really over used in the hobby.

True but heat will help speed it up

Fishingandreefing · Apr 20, 2020

Duncan Tse said:
Waterchanges won't do much to reduce phosphates. Just keep dosing lanthanum chloride or use gfo

Once your rocks stop leaching phospahtes then you can do a 100% waterchange to reduce your nitrates to 0.

It be will be running in saltwater with gfo full blast style for a week, do a 100% water change. Wait for a few days and see how much it leeches.