Preparing dry rock?

[MamaLovesHerReefTank]

Over the last year I have been planning a new aquascape using dry cured rock (muriatic acid, bleach and then rinsed and left to dry). I am finally happy with what I've come up with and would like to start the process of getting it ready for my 3 yr old 125g reef tank. I want to replace a lot of the rock I have but will be using some of it to add to the scape I have built.

I have a large rubbermaid container, heater and blower for water movement. I'm not sure where to go from here. I have no timeline and can take as much time as I need to do this correctly. I can also take some of my live rock and use it to help seed the new rock.

Can someone steer me in the right direction?

 

[lapin]

Place the pieces you want in posistion. Take a picture or 2 or 3 . Make some salt water in the container. Add rock. Add blower. Add heater. Plug them in. After a few days add a piece of your old rock to the tub. Add a table shrimp for an ammonia source. Let the shrimp decay and the bacteria grow.
Placez les pièces que vous voulez en position. Prenez une photo ou 2 ou 3. Faites de l'eau salée dans le récipient. Ajouter du rock Ajouter un souffleur. Ajouter le chauffage Branchez-les. Après quelques jours, ajoutez un morceau de votre vieux rocher à la baignoire. Ajouter une crevette de table pour une source d'ammoniac. Laissez les crevettes se décomposer et les bactéries se développer.

 

[norfolkgarden]

(From other people's research)
There is no need/desire to light the rock as it is curing in your rubbermaid container.
Not lighting the rock will produce a bacterial cure instead of an algae based cure.
(I'm *really* doing a lousy job of paraphrasing this. But the jist of it was don't blast it with light.)

(From personal experience)
Adding dry rock rubble directly to the tank as shims or to fill holes for placing corals produces the *best* place to cultivate bubble algae.
[emoji53]

 

[MamaLovesHerReefTank]

(From other people's research)
There is no need/desire to light the rock as it is curing in your rubbermaid container.
Not lighting the rock will produce a bacterial cure instead of an algae based cure.
(I'm *really* doing a lousy job of paraphrasing this. But the jist of it was don't blast it with light.)
Thank you. No worries, I don't have an extra light to use anyway
(From personal experience)
Adding dry rock rubble directly to the tank as shims or to fill holes for placing corals produces the *best* place to cultivate bubble algae.

I didn't think it would be a good idea to take a lot of established rock out and add two pretty large dry islands without it causing an issue. I did however want to confirm to be sure. I'm trying to make this change as seamless as possible. There is absolutely no hurry to change the rock over other than I can't wait to see how it looks in the end.

Place the pieces you want in posistion. Take a picture or 2 or 3 . Make some salt water in the container. Add rock. Add blower. Add heater. Plug them in. After a few days add a piece of your old rock to the tub. Add a table shrimp for an ammonia source. Let the shrimp decay and the bacteria grow.
Placez les pièces que vous voulez en position. Prenez une photo ou 2 ou 3. Faites de l'eau salée dans le récipient. Ajouter du rock Ajouter un souffleur. Ajouter le chauffage Branchez-les. Après quelques jours, ajoutez un morceau de votre vieux rocher à la baignoire. Ajouter une crevette de table pour une source d'ammoniac. Laissez les crevettes se décomposer et les bactéries se développer.

Thank you.
I've glued and epoxied everything into 2 separate islands. Both will fit into the container.
I've learned that it doesn't matter how many pictures you take at every angle possible, the rock will never fit the way it was before.

 

[Heavymman]

I thought if you let dry rock “cure” in a rubber maid, heated and let the water move around for about 2-3 months you wouldnt have any algae issues. You don’t even need to do the acid/bleach portion.

 

[MamaLovesHerReefTank]

I thought if you let dry rock “cure” in a rubber maid, heated and let the water move around for about 2-3 months you wouldnt have any algae issues. You don’t even need to do the acid/bleach portion.

I'm pretty sure that if you get the phosphates to 0 while in the rubber maid then you should be ok. I'm planning on soaking it for a couple weeks to make sure there is no phosphate before adding an ammonia source.

 

[Heavymman]

I'm pretty sure that if you get the phosphates to 0 while in the rubber maid then you should be ok. I'm planning on soaking it for a couple weeks to make sure there is no phosphate before adding an ammonia source.

Hmm I added fish food to get the cycle going without testing for phosphates. I really though time and patience was your key here and eventually it would take care of itself.

 

[MamaLovesHerReefTank]

I picked up most of this rock from our lfs who was moving locations. He has some aptasia in some of his tanks and I didn't want to risk it. I did the muriatic acid, rinsed really well, dried in the sun and then did a bleach bath, rinse, ro bath with prime for a few days and then left to dry in the sun. Gradually over the last year, I have been spending a couple hours a week, twisting, turning, flipping and stacking trying to find the look I want for my tank. I want to make sure I get good water flow through the rocks with no dead spots for detritus to settle. I also want to move my corals around as the scape I have doesn't give me enough surface area to place them properly. I have 3 torches, 4 hammers and 2 frogspawn that I want to spread out a bit. The rest are zoas, mushrooms, leathers and a couple acans.

 

[MamaLovesHerReefTank]

Hmm I added fish food to get the cycle going without testing for phosphates. I really though time and patience was your key here and eventually it would take care of itself.

It can be done that way but since I'm in no hurry, I am going to get the phosphate out first.

 

[Heavymman]

It can be done that way but since I'm in no hurry, I am going to get the phosphate out first.

Got ya... good luck with your tank!

 

[MamaLovesHerReefTank]

Got ya... good luck with your tank!

Thanks, you as well.

 

[DHill6]

Spoke to BRS rep, use Biro Spira in your tub of saltwater with heater and pump. He said should be good to go in a week. Just trying to coat it with bacteria before intro into DT. The dry rock I asked about was Marco premium shelf.

 

[Heavymman]

Spoke to BRS rep, use Biro Spira in your tub of saltwater with heater and pump. He said should be good to go in a week. Just trying to coat it with bacteria before intro into DT. The dry rock I asked about was Marco premium shelf.

I think the dry rock BRS sells is man made. The rock @MamaLovesHerReefTank has been established live rock at one point. I think that’s a huge difference because of all the dead material still in the rock.... anyways just my .02 cents

 

[DHill6]

In a 34g I’ve removed RealReef rock due to insane algae problem. Replaced with Vida Rock, too large for tank. I’m removing it and replacing with Marco shelf rock. The sps haven’t been affected by the rock removal so far. I’ve added Tisbe and feed phyto nightly. Also aminos and FWS a couple times a week, reefroids every now and then for lps. I’m thinking the phyto is helping.

 

[DHill6]

I think the dry rock BRS sells is man made. The rock @MamaLovesHerReefTank has been established live rock at one point. I think that’s a huge difference because of all the dead material still in the rock.... anyways just my .02 cents

Marco Rock is terrestrial dead rock from Florida which shouldn’t have pho’s issues. Yes, you’re probably right about the dead material in established live at one point. The reel reef rock I had ordered was shipped wet from an existing baby clown fish tank, ended up with bristle worms, red algae of some sort that had deeply embedded roots, tossed it.

 

[DHill6]

They suggest Biro Spira for good bacteria cycle.

 

[Heavymman]

Marco Rock is terrestrial dead rock from Florida which shouldn’t have pho’s issues. Yes, you’re probably right about the dead material in established live at one point. The reel reef rock I had ordered was shipped wet from an existing baby clown fish tank, ended up with bristle worms, red algae of some sort that had deeply embedded roots, tossed it.

Yikes , sorry to hear that.... that’s why I’m going with the dry rock and curing it in a covered tub for months.... you don’t think if you did that you would be ok?

 

[jrlg]

watching this, in the same boat

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Dont acid bath it, you will loose a good amount of rock to the acid. A 24 hour bleach bath will break down any organics in the rock. Rinse well and soak in clean tap water and a heavy dose of Prime for 24 hours. Put in a container with a lid, power head, heater if cold weather, add saltwater and start to cycle/cook/cure it. Do this in a covered container so no light gets to it. After the rock is cycled and no more ammonia is present add a piece of rock from your tank and start to seed the cycled dry rock. You can save water by using water from your tank when you do a water change.

 

[DHill6]

I went with Marco from reading feedback on R2R. It’s dry rock, it’s been stacked and glued into place. I have it in a Rubbermaid trash can with a heater and circulation pump. I added a bottle of BioSpira to start the bacteria. The trash can has a lid to help with evaporation and to keep it clean. According to BRS rep it should be good to go in a week. Of course I’ll check the water before adding it to tank. I rinsed it before going into the can and didn’t see anything coming out of the rippled airy stone but clean water. Since this is only a 34g tank I paid for the handpicked premium shelf rock setup from Marco as I didn’t need huge pieces. Pricey but it was a good selection.