Cooking Rocks.

[reef keeper]

I picked up some used rocks about a month ago from a couple of sources. These aren't the rocks from Jeff lol. I don't even test that water yet !!

I have about 300 lbs in a 100 gallon stock tank. There is some base rock in there, so I'll be taking that out since I don't need it for my upgrade.

After 2 weeks sitting in the water, the phosphate was .36. Ouch.

I'm draining the tub and doing the rinse on the rocks and will be doing weekly water changes.

I'll keep you updated.

.36. That's a HA nightmare

 

[heath]

wow...give them some vodka..lol..just skip the orange juice..

 

[reef keeper]

I'll be doing that with gfo in the tank. 4 water changes till the tank comes lol

 

[heath]

you sound like a kid counting " how many sleeps "

 

[jeffopentax]

Test the rock from me just for fun!


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[reef keeper]

It's 31 days. Woooooo

I will Jeff. I'm filling those bins with Rodi to suck the PO4 faster and kill everything. I want a 100 % clean start.

I drained your rocks first. I'm fairly confident it would be high because of the sediment lol

 

[asit88]

I had this problem with used rocks. I circulated my reactor in the tote woth rocks with hi cap GFO took out all phospates in a couple days.

 

[BIGSHOW]

You should just dose some Lanthium Chloride to strip the rock of the phosphate. IMO you are wasting time and money doing water changes to strip the rock of the PO4.

 

[reef keeper]

I don't really have anywhere to do the LC. I hate chemicals like that. I know it works but I have time.

 

[heath]

my only concern would be making sure the rock was clean enough after the chemical treatment..

 

[BIGSHOW]

my only concern would be making sure the rock was clean enough after the chemical treatment..

LC is reef safe so not quite sure what your concern is. It can drop ALK (does take a lot of phos to do this) but for cooking rock who cares.

I don't really have anywhere to do the LC. I hate chemicals like that. I know it works but I have time.

Just dump it in the tank with your rocks.

You can pick it up at BigAls - AGENT GREEN

 

[reef keeper]

I ordered a bottle. They didn't have any locally.

 

[BIGSHOW]

I ordered a bottle. They didn't have any locally.

It will be the fastest route for you and by far the cheapest. You will likely be able to remove all the P04 with one bottle.

I don't even use GFO anymore. Just dose LC every few days.

 

[jeffopentax]

Is green agent new? Sounds like it could be the answer to my high phosphates.


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[BIGSHOW]

Is green agent new? Sounds like it could be the answer to my high phosphates.


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LC has been around for quite some time. AGENT GREEN is just a brand name. If you got super high phos then I would follow the instructions and dose at levels to incrementally lower it in stages as to not shock your system (then use GFO to maintain low levels). I am not sure I would dose LC consistently for smaller systems for constant PHOS removal, but for 300+ systems its definitely more cost effective and less of a pain in the ass then GFO (IME).

LC almost immediately reduces your numbers as it binds with ALK/PHOS and is precipitated. So if you do use on a reef, be cautious that it can lower your ALK.

 

[jeffopentax]

I found this that might be helpful to others. It's got me thinking!

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[heath]

Jeff, thanks good to know.. I might use it when I add the rock to the 75 and let it cycle..

 

[reef keeper]

I ordered some today. I'm going to 2 part my RODI water the rocks are sitting in right now to get the calcium and alk up. I'll take a reading and then take one an hour later and then the next day. Interested to see what happens.

Jeff how the hell do you have hi phosphates again? My tank was .03. Tell me you aren't back on the tap

 

[jeffopentax]

I ordered some today. I'm going to 2 part my RODI water the rocks are sitting in right now to get the calcium and alk up. I'll take a reading and then take one an hour later and then the next day. Interested to see what happens.

Jeff how the hell do you have hi phosphates again? My tank was .03. Tell me you aren't back on the tap

You bet your ass I'm back on tap! Everything is doing great and algae free. To be honest, i forget what my last phosphate reading was a couple weeks ago, but it wasn't as low as I'd like.


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[reef keeper]

Jeff the TDS in Branford is over 700. 700!!!!! What's going to happen is that your rocks and substrate will soak in phosphates ( those rocks has almost non because I ran GFO for a year), and then once they are saturated, the HAir algae and nightmare that you had before will come back again.