Pukani Rock and Phosphates

[User1]

Acid will deplete the Pukani, there is no doubt about it. BRS video showed it has did others. The higher the concentration and duration, and a combination of both, will determine how much you lose(why pay the money for rock / lb only to lose it ). To me it wasn't worth it. Having just cleaned up 150 lbs of dry Pukani from BRS I sort of went the lazy and easy way. Arrival to unboxing to pressure washing to soaking it was probably all of about 5 days give or take.

Pressure wash
Soak in a tub of bleach - 1 cup per 10 gallons
Dump and fill with more tap water and bleach after 24 hours
Dump and refill with tap water but added phosphate remover sit 24 hours
Dump and refill with tap water and added phosphate remover for another 24 hours
Rinse with tap water
Pressure wash
Set in tank for aquascape
Added sand
Filled with RI/RO water
Dechlorinate
Test ammonia after 24 hours - using Dr. Tim's - measurement was between .2 and .4
Added 20 ml of ammonia set 24 hours
Retest ammonia 2.0 now
Added Dr. Tim's

There will be phosphates after this I'm sure but it isn't going to bother me much. If it is excessive I'll worry about it but single digits I'm not going to chase. I'll just enjoy the ride...

 

[Whispers]

I’m curing my Pukani and cycling in my dt
It barely had a smell but the water did have a tint of yellow . It’s in salt water at 77 degrees . Im running rowa after the First week .48 down to .19 running two weeks in total. I called brs they told me most people do it this way and I should add bacteria and sand after the 3rd week

 

[waxhawreefer]

Hope u have better luck with it than me, nothing but trouble for 1 1/2 years, never again, it looks nice but too many nooks and crannies for the snails to get at!!

 

[Whispers]

Phos and algae ?

 

[waxhawreefer]

Ur always going to have higher phosphate with new rock, gfo or the like will handle that, but the rock has so many crevices that it seems there’s was always crap falling out, dead organic stuff which means high nitrates, personally I wouldn’t put any sand in for at least 6 months, every week take a nice power head and blow the crap out of that rock, the debris will then end up on the bare bottom and u suck it up, if there’s sand u just deposit in the sand and welcome cyano etc, I ended up taking out my sand to finally control my nitrates, but Each to their own!

 

[Whispers]

I have my mp40s blowing on the rock and on my bare bottom I see what your talking about thanks for your input. I’m going to take a power head to it tonight