removing Phosphates from pukani

[SVP]

Helllo everyone, I know this topic/question is going to drive some of you more experienced posters crazy,but I gotta clarify a couple of things:
1. I have about 150lbs of dry pukani live rock.
2. I started with a fresh water hose spray out of the box just to get rid of any easy to remove organics and just to get all the dust off from shipping.
3. I have three 30 gallon tubs of ro\di saltwater with refractometer salt reading of .024ppm, mixed with clorox bleach 7:1 ratio, each tub has an air stone and two power heads moving the water. I live in Florida so no need for heaters lol.
I plan on doing this for at least 48hrs (I am at 36 hrs) up to a week or longer if needed. Phosphates running about 0.50ppm as of now using red sea algae test kit. This where I am at and here are my plans going forward. Please feel free to correct/give me your input on my times ratios or whatever you feel I am doing wrong in your opinion.
4. After I remove the rock from clorox I will do a quick rinse with hose then I am going to do acid bath for 12-24 hrs.(this is where all the posts that I have read literally hundreds all do it their own way) I will be using sulfuric acid 38%.
5. After removing the rock from the tubs I plan on putting it back in same size different plastic tub with ro/di saltwater with a salinity of .024ppm and using phosfree to leach out and gather the phosphates the acid bath helped release. Now I have read of using a 10 micron sock to catch the phosphates, but I don't have those, so one plan I have is using chemi-pure elite bags which are made for phosphate removal I would have to hook up some type of external power filter. My other plan is google find the 10 micron sock (my lfs hasn't ever even heard of one that low) then set it up to run one of my pumps through it to catch the "snow"/free phosphates that are in the water to rid the tank of phosphates.
6. Keep doing this (whatever process I use) until the phosphates are below .05ppm and are no longer going to be a problem in my brand new 300 gallon deep reef tank 96X24X30. I don't want to deal with all the problems I have read about setting up my reef tank, or problems in a few months to a few years down the road. I like doing things right the first time so I only have to do it once. An ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure.
Please if you made it this far give me your input on anything from number 4 on, that's where I am still undecided. And I will be buying more dry rock so if you have any tips period I would appreciate it!

 

[cmcoker]

If there's no livestock I don't see any need for socks. The precipitate shouldn't go back in solution, just be sure to rinse any precipitate off the rocks before adding to tank.

I cure my pukani in buckets using lanthanum chloride and have never used socks.

 

[Untamedrose]

Umm one Q....where are these rocks going after you have done all this?

Edit:
Oh i see now into a new tank....I think your ounce is like a 5 gal bucket on the prevention here.

You are still going to have to cycle that tank....and you can cure dry LR in a new cycling tank. Least if you do it the old fashioned way no fish, no fancy bottles, feed the tank and dont try and rush it. takes 4 to 6 weeks.

 

[cmcoker]

Umm one Q....where are these rocks going after you have done all this?

Into the display, I did this when I upgraded from biocube 14 to 20g, 20g to 55g, and again from 55g to 120g. I'd get rock as first part of upgrade and start curing / cycling. .

 

[peter fumo]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/r...thum-chloride-seaklear-and-cured-rock.258024/

 

[peter fumo]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=24655774#post24655774

 

[cmcoker]

Umm one Q....where are these rocks going after you have done all this?

Edit:
Oh i see now into a new tank....I think your ounce is like a 5 gal bucket on the prevention here.

You are still going to have to cycle that tank....and you can cure dry LR in a new cycling tank. Least if you do it the old fashioned way no fish, no fancy bottles, feed the tank and dont try and rush it. takes 4 to 6 weeks.

Yes but pukani is notorious for leaching phosphate. It's very porous and is almost like a woven rock, there is usually tons of dead stuff stuck inside the rock. It will spike phosphate bad and you get a lot more than new tank uglies going on. But it is beautiful rock so worth the extra steps.

 

[SVP]

Umm one Q....where are these rocks going after you have done all this?

Edit:
Oh i see now into a new tank....I think your ounce is like a 5 gal bucket on the prevention here.

You are still going to have to cycle that tank....and you can cure dry LR in a new cycling tank. Least if you do it the old fashioned way no fish, no fancy bottles, feed the tank and dont try and rush it. takes 4 to 6 weeks.

Yeah I can see why you can say that, some people just throw the pukani rock into their tank and have no problems ever, other people throw pukani rock on have massive algae blooms right away and yet I've read posts where its been years before the rock starts leaching phosphates. With such a big tank (imo) and then wanting to make it a reef tank I would really hate to have to rip everything apart and do this later not to mention the possibilities of killing corals from high phosphates. But I do hear you on not rushing it, I have had aquariums for 25 years off and on but this will be my first true reef tank so I am reading a lot and asking questions and taking my time. Thanks for your input!

 

[SVP]

Yes but pukani is notorious for leaching phosphate. It's very porous and is almost like a woven rock, there is usually tons of dead stuff stuck inside the rock. It will spike phosphate bad and you get a lot more than new tank uglies going on. But it is beautiful rock so worth the extra steps.

I agree it is a very porous but it has really cool features like no other rock I have seen. Yeah I have been doing a ton of reading on here and RC just learning the ins and outs of reef keeping. Everyone has an opinion which is fine but there are about a thousand different posts on what people believes to work on pukani. Acid vs.bleach vs. vinegar, so on and on. I am sure there are more than one way to skin this cat I was just wondering if what I had gathered together info wise would work on getting this rock organically clean and phosphate free.

 

[SVP]

If there's no livestock I don't see any need for socks. The precipitate shouldn't go back in solution, just be sure to rinse any precipitate off the rocks before adding to tank.

I cure my pukani in buckets using lanthanum chloride and have never used socks.

Ok so my phosfree is 11% lanthanum chloride according to its msds. So after freeing the phosphate binding it to the chloride I could just do full water changes and rinse the rocks to get rid of the snow/participate?

 

[peter fumo]

If you go the lanthanum route, add it slowly to flowing water upstream of some sort of filter than can catch some of the solids that precipitate so you can export it. If you are treating rock before tank setup, you can just dump it in and then rinse the solids away later.[/QUOTE]

 

[cmcoker]

Ok so my phosfree is 11% lanthanum chloride according to its msds. So after freeing the phosphate binding it to the chloride I could just do full water changes and rinse the rocks to get rid of the snow/participate?

Yes, I added lanthanum chloride daily, and would test po4 like twice a week.

I wasn't too concerned about water change during the process, maybe every couple weeks..

 

[SVP]

Yes, I added lanthanum chloride daily, and would test po4 like twice a week.

I wasn't too concerned about water change during the process, maybe every couple weeks..

One question you said you dosed daily I am using a 30 gallon tub how much would you recommend dosing everyday?

 

[cmcoker]

I used 10ml, iirc, in whatever container I was using, usually ended up being several 5-10g containers. With no livestock there's not really any worry of overdosing, in my opinion. No corals to be upset of stripping po4, no fish to be disturbed by the precipitate.
I know lots of people test daily and do more water changes, but my goal was get out po4. I didn't care to test daily or any of that. Once, the po4 quit climbing up on biweekly tests, I did a water change, stop dosing and check again in a few days.
And just to be clear, If there was livestock involved I would not be so flippant about just pouring lanthanum chloride in.

 

[SVP]

I used 10ml, iirc, in whatever container I was using, usually ended up being several 5-10g containers. With no livestock there's not really any worry of overdosing, in my opinion. No corals to be upset of stripping po4, no fish to be disturbed by the precipitate.
I know lots of people test daily and do more water changes, but my goal was get out po4. I didn't care to test daily or any of that. Once, the po4 quit climbing up on biweekly tests, I did a water change, stop dosing and check again in a few days.
And just to be clear, If there was livestock involved I would not be so flippant about just pouring lanthanum chloride in.

Yeah I get that as you know I am not dealing with livestock either. Which is why I am going through all of this now, so when my aquarium is fully loaded with fish and beautiful corals I am not dealing with leaching phosphates and doing lanthanum drips into 10 micron socks. Thanks for all your help its really appreciated.

 

[cmcoker]

Yeah I get that as you know I am not dealing with livestock either. Which is why I am going through all of this now, so when my aquarium is fully loaded with fish and beautiful corals I am not dealing with leaching phosphates and doing lanthanum drips into 10 micron socks. Thanks for all your help its really appreciated.

No problem, just didn't want someone else to skim the thread and dump 100ml of lanthanum into their fully stocked tank[emoji15]

 

[SVP]

Yeah I have seen that a lot, people only reading part of the thread then asking questions that were dealt with earlier in the thread especially on those threads that are 30/40 pages long with a couple hundred posts.

 

[LittleMaui]

I'm not an expert, but just for discussion sake. I shipped 100 pounds of live pukani rock which I cycled for 4-5 weeks. Since adding to my tank I've never had a phosphate issue.

 

[jjstecchino]

I don't know about sulphuric acid. I did my Marco rocks with white vinegar and boy the rocks where fizzing like crazy, the water was almost boiling. They came out as white as it could be. Sulphuric acid may be too strong. I had those rocks 10 years and phosphate has been an issue. I guess the BRS pukani are very similar. Mine are very porous and light and great shapes.

 

[SVP]

How long has the live puking been in your tank total. Besides the 4-5 weeks cycle time?