Saltgator's 240 Build

[schooleyosis]

Might be the best idea!

 

[Saltgator]

I'm thinking it wouldn't hurt. Drop the rock (all I can manage) in a 55g drum, lanthanum Chloride soak, wash, bleach, dry, cure. Pull out the corals and livestock, put them into a 100g livestock vat. Scrub the dt down. Get some lr, re cure it for about a week, add livestock, corals, and lr to dt. Add old but clean rock back slowly to dt. Good plan or change?

 

[schooleyosis]

Sounds like a good plan to me. Happy rock cooking. Lol

 

[Saltgator]

It'll be fun.

 

[schooleyosis]

Make sure you do that in a well ventilated area. Have read too many stories of people getting sick due to the toxic fumes coming from the LR.

 

[Saltgator]

Heard that too. Plus the fear of palys being cooked and letting off their poison too.

 

[schooleyosis]

Exactly.

 

[Aquaph8]

I think you'll be happier in the end! Make sure to cure the new sand and rinse it pretty well, that's probably my biggest regret.

 

[Aquaph8]

I also think adding it back slowly to the LR is a great idea. Add it just like you would fish and allow everything a chance to stabilize.

 

[Saltgator]

Thanks Brett. How much live rock do you think, 50 or more pounds? I emailed a lfs here today, he has lr for $2.99 a pound!

 

[Aquaph8]

I think that would be good as long as you be pretty patient with adding the dry stuff to it. I've had pretty good luck adding dry stuff to mine but I only add like ten pounds at a time.

 

[fishroomlady]

in reading through the latter posts on this thread, it sounds like you have a good plan. You've tried most of the phosphate removing materials - I don't think the biopellets will accomplsih what you need - I consider that more for nitrate reduction than phosphate. Although drastic, your plan should have good results. The only other option I might consider is trying maybe to increase the size of your ATS and have you ever run phosguard? I've used it consistently over many years in this hobby and it really is quite effective.

 

[Saltgator]

Thanks Brett. I'll go slow. 1 piece at a time when it's ready.
Fishroomlady, I tried phosguard and never seemed to like it a while back. I might increase my ATS soon, just wanting to get this rock out and start the cleaning process.

Just started the rock process, took some nice pieces out (enough to fill a 5g bucket) and tossed them into a drum with some old sand and older rocks. Tap water is in the drum and tomorrow (or tonight) I'll be adding a nice dose of lanthanum Chloride to rip out po4. Then it's dry time in the FL sun!

 

[Saltgator]

Another round of rocks in fw. Half the display is almost bare. I wonder if I didn't have enough rock to sustain the good bacteria balance since I pulled the sand. Thoughts?

 

[Aquaph8]

How much live stock are we trying to keep happy at this point?

 

[Saltgator]

Some frags, 1 pocillopora colony,2 frogspawns, 1 hammer, 2 clowns, 1 tang, 1 ccb, 1 rabbit, 1 mag fox, and your favorite, my regal. My completed stock list would include inverts (clams, nem, etc)but also a chocolate tang and possibly a wrasse or 2. If I lied before, my bad, but I have only about 150 lbs of rock. Only 3 pieces of that were real live rock previously before the macro rocks.

 

[Aquaph8]

Maybe you should set something up on the side with the new LR and get everyone transferred before going any farther. Just to be safe, you gotta keep my Regal happy!

 

[Saltgator]

Lol. Copy that. Once I get everything up again running (like 8-10 weeks from now), do you think 150 lbs of rock is sufficient or is more need to produce the proper filtration our rocks provide? I know the rule use to be 1.5-2 lbs per gallon (which I'm clearly under by almost half with about 280 total gallons).

 

[Saltgator]

Drying beginning on half the dt rocks. Gonna dry them until they're whitish again prior to the cycle process. Gonna do the second half of dt after I get some lr in the dt. Found about 20 lbs of sand to clean too.

 

[schooleyosis]

Sweet. Good start