125 - Took Forever But Here It is!

[billyocean]

Would you do it again or just buy dry rock? I get the diy feeling good about it part...but in the end...

 

[tbrown]

Would you do it again or just buy dry rock? I get the diy feeling good about it part...but in the end...

For me, it was easier to convince my wife to let me do this than buying dry rock. The dry rock around here is $2-6 a pound and most of it is not how heavy they say it is. I'd definitely do it again. It's not labor intensive, just takes a lot of soaking and changing water.

 

[tbrown]

If cost isn't an issue, I'd buy dry rock and do a saltwater soak for two weeks just to make sure no ammonia or pH spikes. The good thing about this is it's my rock. I know what went in it and I know it's been cycled before putting it in the tank. Guaranteed pest free, essentially no silicates (>1%).

 

[billyocean]

How much does the diy work out to per pound?

 

[tbrown]

How much does the diy work out to per pound?

I'm sitting at about $35 for potentially 40-60 pounds. You can use oyster shell to drop the cost significantly but there's phosphate concerns there. You can buy cheaper cement and cut costs a lot. With the mix I'm using I'm at about $0.75-$0.80 per pound. Increasing cement to 2 parts per 1 part sand decreases that to around $0.40 per pound. Adding oyster shell can get you around $0.25 per pound. Using silica sand (play sand) is a bad idea but people use it and they're around $0.15-$0.20 per pound.

 

[tbrown]

Regardless of where I get my rock from I'm soaking it first. Making your own adds anywhere from 6 days to 2 months to the soak time. Silica sand obviously increases that soak a lot, higher cement concentration increases that soak time to leach out the lime and not pH/alk spike your tank, oyster shell increases that time to decrease the chance of phosphate spikes....

 

[tbrown]

So I've had a JKR Golden Gate Galaxea for almost two years now. It was basically dead, I just never took it out of the tank. I moved it from the 75 to the 125 a couple of days ago....
Look!

 

[tbrown]

Ok, so Petco has a Blue Stripe Cleaner Goby (not wrasse) on sale for $14. Do I buy it?

 

[Projects with Sam]

yes! they're awesome fish! My tangs swim up to mine and hang out and the blue-line swims all over them and cleans them. its really neat to watch.

The goby is actually better because it doesn't 100% depend on cleaning other critters for its meals like the wrasse.

 

[tbrown]

yes! they're awesome fish! My tangs swim up to mine and hang out and the blue-line swims all over them and cleans them. its really neat to watch.

The goby is actually better because it doesn't 100% depend on cleaning other critters for its meals like the wrasse.

I also have $50 at Biota and that's one of the fish I was considering from them. Save $20 and no shipping fee if I buy it from Petco.

 

[Mschmidt]

Ok, so Petco has a Blue Stripe Cleaner Goby (not wrasse) on sale for $14. Do I buy it?

I mean, sure. fun fact, a cleaner goby was my first salt water loss.

 

[Stang67]

Ok, so Petco has a Blue Stripe Cleaner Goby (not wrasse) on sale for $14. Do I buy it?

 

[tbrown]

I ran out of time before I left yesterday. They're on sale until the 29th so I'm thinking I'm grabbing the next one I see.

I did have time to do another water change on the rocks. Still elevated pH and everything but it sure seems to be slowly coming down. I may be at the point where massive quantities have leeched out and now we're getting into the end parts. I think it's still going to take a few more changes. I'll check Sunday when I get home and swap the water and then see what we've got Wednesday when I get home. Hopefully not too much longer but they say it can take between 6 days and 2 months to finish the freshwater soak.

 

[Mschmidt]

I ran out of time before I left yesterday. They're in sale until the 29th so I'm thinking I'm grabbing the next one I see.

I did have time to do another water change on the rocks. Still elevated pH and everything but it sure seems to be slowly coming down. I may be at the point where massive quantities have leeched out and now we're getting into the end parts. I think it's still going to take a few more changes. I'll check Sunday when I get home and swap the water and then see what we've got Wednesday when I get home. Hopefully not too much longer but they say it can take between 6 days and 2 months to finish the freshwater soak.

 

[tbrown]

Well, I made it home from Vegas yesterday. I'm still alive! We stopped in Kingman and bought some turquoise, stopped at the Hoover Dam and didn't tour because it was ridiculously crowded...

Tested the water in my rocks today, pH hot!

Edit: Not sure what car socks meant but I tested the water for my rocks I'm making. The pH was quite elevated after soaking for 5 days.

 

[tbrown]

Also, I stopped at 3 Petcos today - no Blue Line Cleaner Gobies...

 

[tbrown]

Clear water, pH is still around 7 - double checked just to make sure. Looks like this freshwater soak is hopefully close to over and saltwater starts next week! I'm going to let it sit for the rest of the weekend with occasional pH checks just to verify but if it stays below an 8 by Monday I'll be dumping the water and mixing some saltwater for a 2 week or so soak.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Clear water, pH is still around 7 - double checked just to make sure. Looks like this freshwater soak is hopefully close to over and saltwater starts next week! I'm going to let it sit for the rest of the weekend with occasional pH checks just to verify but if it stays below an 8 by Monday I'll be dumping the water and mixing some saltwater for a 2 week or so soak.

You need to have a powerhead or pump in there. Precip can form when curing and that will block PH leeching from inside the rock. Goal is to do it outside, and have PH site at 8-8.2 for a week before you go to SW soak.

 

[tbrown]

You need to have a powerhead or pump in there. Precip can form when curing and that will block PH leeching from inside the rock. Goal is to do it outside, and have PH site at 8-8.2 for a week before you go to SW soak.

Sounds good! I've been running a power head and it's outside in the shade. I also heard that warm water works better than cold so now's the time for sure! I'll let it sit as long as needed. I definitely don't want to be killing my tank.

 

[tbrown]

Just curious if anyone knows: Acetal Copolymer should be fine for the tank, right? It's approved for drinking water so it "shouldn't" leach anything.

https://a.co/d/b5IgV0u