Cooking rock/issue

[m and m]

So I have a semi annoying problem, I'm setting up a tank, and I was just informed that the room being altered for the tank (Man cave) is going to take a little longer then anticipated. almost two months. Now I have tons of rock that I was just going to kill and then cycled in my "New" system. Now with this new delay it means after the room is in and I set everything up it would be almost December before I could put coral in the tank.

Here is my solution. I have a Bk mini 160 not being used and two tunze nano controllable streams not being used. Could I buy a plastic tub, and place it out back with SW and the rock and cut a small hole for the skimmer to do its thing and let it cycle out side? Its close to 80 out there every day so temp would be fine. the skimmer would do its thing, and I could do a water change roughly once a week maybe every two.

 

[dakotasreef]

I would be concerned about contaminating the rock. Do you not have anywhere indoors you could do this?

 

[m and m]

i could do indoors.

 

[johnanddawn]

what seems like a problem could be a good thing
patience is the toughest part of this hobby and you are now forced to be
when i did my dt change over it took months and what i did was

cemented some rocks together - i had a general idea of what i wanted and took advantage of the time to create my major reef structure of 4 large rocks (the rest i epoxied later)

cured everything in the dark. using a couple large garbage pails full of water with a pump in each, in the basement - ambient room temp, i changed some water

i was going to dose vodka during the cure but didn't cause i didn't have a skimmer to use. since you will be using a skimmer i would dose vodka and bacteria to lower the PO4 to near 0 in the curing phase and also have the rock ready to go - no cycle time should be required

sounds like you already dryed your rock out?? so the rest of this may not apply

algaes seem to die off relatively quick (about a month) but i did get some bubbles that survived even after 2 months - i recomend you scrub your rock about once a month during the process
if you have aptasias - they seem to live forever even through the curing - a buddy of mine threw a couple of peperments in his curing bin and said they cleaned them right up

sponges, worms and other good inverts should live (as well as bad like crabs so check for them as well)

when it is time to set up the tank it should be ready to go and you will have less future problems because of the care you take curing, you'll still get a diatom bloom when they first hit light but it will be mild and you should be able to start adding corals almost immediatly

 

[aka_lal]

I'm exactly in the same situation as you do. I killed my LR for 4 weeks in Fresh water and a week in the sun.

Then I used a 15 gallon aquarium with an MCE600 skimmer and I will leave the rock there as long as my aquarium take to be ready.
At the moment I'm adding bacteria to repopulate the rock.

Don't forget each week to change some water and scrub the rock with a brush to loose some dying off organisms. Would help to join some LR with dead one to seed.

 

[m and m]

I think ima buy two50g rubs put one in the other and fill it. Two for more support and less light threw. Tunze pump and skimmer in there and let is set till september. Throw some vodka and mb7 in there every now and then.

 

[Murfman]

Make sure you completely cover the top to keep any light out. This will kill off any unwanted algae. Won't do anything for aptasia or majanos though.

 

[m and m]

So I assume one of those fifty gallon tubes we stuff crap in and shove in our attic is actually safe to put 40 gallons of sw in?

 

[m and m]

Also after I do all this till October and then I add some sament to creat a rock structure I have in mind 5-10lbs of cement won't creat a hole big cycle will it only like two more weeks worth of waiting right?

 

[Murfman]

Portland cement has a very high pH so you would have to soak it to bring the pH down. You can use well lining cement and won't have pH swings.

quikrete hydraulic cement - Google Product Search

 

[J&O'sdad]

I would cement them together first and then re cure the rock, because of the ph swing from the cement.

 

[m and m]

What about that new reef mortar macro rock sells that's not sappost to do that. That's what I originally was gonna use.

 

[Murfman]

What about that new reef mortar macro rock sells that's not sappost to do that. That's what I originally was gonna use.

didn't know about it. If it comes from Marco then it has to be good.