Cooking Rock.

[reeferkeeper420]

Hit it with dynamite

Crazy how much is leaching out.

 

[Nonuser]

Yup my thoughts exactly. Would it be more beneficial changing the water every couple days or just once a week? I change 100% everytime.

You do a 100% water change?

 

[reeferkeeper420]

You do a 100% water change?

Yeah on the barrel full of ny rock. You can do 100% water changes on your tank aswell, aslong as all your params match up. Whenever i did a tank switch i used 100% new water, with 0 losses.

 

[Nonuser]

100% just sounds excessive. Wonder why everything is so out of kilter? If you just bought rock from a store would it be as much of an issue?

 

[reef keeper]

I changed the water every 7-10 days. It will smell like the walking dead for the first bit, and then progressively get better. The nitrates don't really matter too much right now because of the die off and the cycle and all that. Get the PO4 out of them and you are sailing.

I've had zero algae issues in my tank, other than some Chicano at the beginning. I clean the glass less than once a week. I think the fuge makes a huge difference, but it only really settled in about 5 months ago.

The key is to knock down the PO4 every time it gets high. If it stays high, it just reabsorbs into the Rock.

The budget will balance itself, from the heart outward. Wtf lol

 

[reeferkeeper420]

100% just sounds excessive. Wonder why everything is so out of kilter? If you just bought rock from a store would it be as much of an issue?

This is old rock and a mixture of dry rock that was bought a year or so ago.

 

[reef keeper]

Totally saturated with crap. This will make it like new. Keep in mid it will take a couple months depending on how much rock you have.

Tell me you aren't using tap.....

 

[reeferkeeper420]

Theres about 150 pds. Maybe more. And hell no, using rodi putting out 0 tds.

 

[scubasteve]

if your rock is plugged up that much it sounds like you were lacking flow and cuc. it takes mass amounts of detritus to plug up rock that bad.

for cooking i never ever use any chemicals they will all leave some sort of residue behind and elements that have binded into larger particles are even harder to remove from internally. keeping flow with water will pull everything out pretty well the same speed and alot safer. just use freshwater and change twice a week till all algae has fallen off. after about a month your levels should be very low where you want them if not keep doing it.

Dont wait for it to read zero on yoir tests once its down to managable levels start the cycling in saltwater. The little bit of residual phos and nitrate will help kickstart the cycling

 

[reeferkeeper420]

if your rock is plugged up that much it sounds like you were lacking flow and cuc. it takes mass amounts of detritus to plug up rock that bad.

for cooking i never ever use any chemicals they will all leave some sort of residue behind and elements that have binded into larger particles are even harder to remove from internally. keeping flow with water will pull everything out pretty well the same speed and alot safer. just use freshwater and change twice a week till all algae has fallen off. after about a month your levels should be very low where you want them if not keep doing it.

Dont wait for it to read zero on yoir tests once its down to managable levels start the cycling in saltwater. The little bit of residual phos and nitrate will help kickstart the cycling

So i should be cooking the rock in freshwater and not saltwater??

 

[scubasteve]

you can use salt but i find using freshwater first removes the algae alot faster and because it doesnt already have salt dissolved it can remove more.... curing has to be done in salt water

 

[reeferkeeper420]

Ok next change ill start using freshwatwater.

This may be a stupid question but would it be a bad idea to add any fish during this time?? I just find that it would be easiest now since i can use the whole tank a qt tank, and if i need to get it out to treat separately itll be easier with no rock in the tank. So far ive tested 0 ammonia in my tank.

 

[scubasteve]

sounds like it would be a great idea but once you start adding stuff back you will always get some levels that swing and the lighter the bio load the easier to control. a few fish could turn a mild swing thats easily controlled into a full blown cycle.

 

[scubasteve]

dosing ammonia to get your cycled rock buffered to the tanks params is very difficult to get right. even with lots of practice its a pita. as much as it sucks its always better to have a barebottom tank in the basement for qt purposes. once you have it you will never not have one. not only can you get them trained on foods easy but they dont get harrassed either.

 

[reef keeper]

Fresh water will also murder all the pests and APTASIA.

 

[reeferkeeper420]

Yeah the dry out process should have aswell if there were any. My peppermints went to town on them when i put them.in.