Best Practice to Adding Dry Rocks to an Established Reef

[Duncan Tse]

Planning to add another 20lbs of dry marco rocks to an established 2 year 37 gallon mixed reef

What would be the best procedure to adding it without it leaching phosphates?

 

[R.Weller]

Soak it in circulating RODI freshwater until phosphates are 0. I have 30 lbs of Pukani rock that I started soaking on 12-Mar followed by a 100% water change on 30-Mar. It will go another week before I take another reading & another 100% water change. I expect 1 or 2 more full water changes then it will be ready. The number of water changes is dependent on the dried organic compounds inside the rock so it might take many 100% water changes to clean it out. On the plus side, freshwater is cheap.

 

[dwest]

Some people dose lanthanum chloride and some even use gfo to remove phosphates as it enters the soaking water (prior to putting tank)

 

[Duncan Tse]

Soak it in circulating RODI freshwater until phosphates are 0. I have 30 lbs of Pukani rock that I started soaking on 12-Mar followed by a 100% water change on 30-Mar. It will go another week before I take another reading & another 100% water change. I expect 1 or 2 more full water changes then it will be ready. The number of water changes is dependent on the dried organic compounds inside the rock so it might take many 100% water changes to clean it out. On the plus side, freshwater is cheap.

Wow that brings up a good point. I never thought about using RODI water instead of saltwater.

This whole time I was planning to use saltwater but I guess there is no need to as I'm not trying to build up the beneficial bacteria.

Would you recommend using a heater also or is cold water fine?

Some people dose lanthanum chloride and some even use gfo to remove phosphates as it enters the soaking water (prior to putting tank)

Yea I have heard of using that too. Will probably see how persistent the phosphates are first and then decide on what phosphate removal method to use

 

[Vamsi]

I think you keep dosing lanthanum chloride till the phosphates is zero, do a water change and keep doing it till you leech out all phosphate.

 

[Duncan Tse]

I think you keep dosing lanthanum chloride till the phosphates is zero, do a water change and keep doing it till you leech out all phosphate.

Unfortunately most shops are closed off cause of the coronavirus and I'm not sure where to get lanthanum chloride.

Tried looking on amazon but shipping seems like it'll be taking more than a month to come

 

[R.Weller]

Would you recommend using a heater also or is cold water fine?

Cold water is fine. Just make sure it's circulating. I'm using a single Hydor Koralia that was left over from my old system for 20 gallons of water.

 

[SuncrestReef]

If you’re doing routine water changes on your main tank, I’d also dump the old saltwater into the new rock container. Over time this will help build up bacteria on the new rocks prior to adding them to the tank.

 

[Osler]

Lanthanum chloride is usually obtained at the pool store. SeaClear if I recall correctly. I have used it before, actually battling a phosphate leaching problem in my display tank due the use of old dry rock (that was soaked and resoaked for a very long time). It works very well but you should read up on it prior to use. Not so dangerous when you're cooking rock, but it can be if you're dosing into the display.

 

[Duncan Tse]

Cold water is fine. Just make sure it's circulating. I'm using a single Hydor Koralia that was left over from my old system for 20 gallons of water.

Sounds good. Now I just need to get a big enough container to house it. Hoping everything will fit in a 5 gallon bucket

If you’re doing routine water changes on your main tank, I’d also dump the old saltwater into the new rock container. Over time this will help build up bacteria on the new rocks prior to adding them to the tank.

Sounds like a good plan

Lanthanum chloride is usually obtained at the pool store. SeaClear if I recall correctly. I have used it before, actually battling a phosphate leaching problem in my display tank due the use of old dry rock (that was soaked and resoaked for a very long time). It works very well but you should read up on it prior to use. Not so dangerous when you're cooking rock, but it can be if you're dosing into the display.

Might have to give the a local pool store a call to see if they're opened. Yea not planning to dose in a reef. Just wanting the rocks to leach PO4 out before putting it in my tank as I have had PO4 leach out into my tank before while adding new rocks. So I'm taking a more cautious route this time.

 

[Vamsi]

I think the pool store lanthanum chloride, could be super concentrated. I do not think it matters as you are going to cycle the rocks separately. Also, you would need to run some kind of a filter to catch the particulate from the LaCl reaction.

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here is the calculator,

http://larryl.emailplus.org/fish/dosing-instructions-phosphate-removers.html

 

[Duncan Tse]

I think the pool store lanthanum chloride, could be super concentrated. I do not think it matters as you are going to cycle the rocks separately. Also, you would need to run some kind of a filter to catch the particulate from the LaCl reaction.

Two Little Fishies Liquid Instant Phosphate Binder 500 ml | Premium Aquatics

Aquarium & Fish Supplies Superstore. Guaranteed Low Prices. Free Shipping for qualified orders. Aquarium supply for your aquarium fish, saltwater aquariums, freshwater aquariums and ponds. The best aquarium lighting, protein skimmers, aquarium chillers, calcium reactors, aquarium pumps for fish...

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here is the calculator,

http://larryl.emailplus.org/fish/dosing-instructions-phosphate-removers.html

Thanks for the links! Unfortunately I live in Canada and we dont get half the stuff that you guys get.. Only phosphate remover that I see is from brightwell phosphate e but they go for like $60 a bottle

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Unfortunately most shops are closed off cause of the coronavirus and I'm not sure where to get lanthanum chloride.

Tried looking on amazon but shipping seems like it'll be taking more than a month to come

Amazon is swamped right now and taking forever to ship. Ive gone back to using eBay, usually takes a week or less to receive items

 

[Duncan Tse]

Amazon is swamped right now and taking forever to ship. Ive gone back to using eBay, usually takes a week or less to receive items

Yea heard theyre shipping essential items first so everything else would take at least a month to come. I've never tried ebay tbh. Looks pretty sketchy

 

[xxkenny90xx]

With ebay instead of buying from one campany that's overloaded with orders you are choosing from thousands of (mostly) small businesses that can ship you items right away. It is safe as long as you look at the sellers rating before buying. There are tons of great sellers who have shipped 1000s of items and have 99.99% positive feedback.

Just watch out for the cheap stuff from China, that usually takes a month or two to arrive.

 

[Duncan Tse]

With ebay instead of buying from one campany that's overloaded with orders you are choosing from thousands of (mostly) small businesses that can ship you items right away. It is safe as long as you look at the sellers rating before buying. There are tons of great sellers who have shipped 1000s of items and have 99.99% positive feedback.

Just watch out for the cheap stuff from China, that usually takes a month or two to arrive.

Yea it seems like everytime I search up something its from China and it takes forever to ship. And sometimes when it says free shipping I would go checkout but shipping is not free. The website is for sure no as clean as amazon but I may have to give it another shot.

 

[esther]

I'm dealing with the same issues. Set up the tank in February (after bleaching/curing rock for 4 months in brutes) and PO4 was off the charts. We've gotten it consistently between .2 and .5 and the tank is actually really happy. All of our corals, fish and inverts are doing great (100% success rate). Don't have an algae issue anymore either. We've been maintaining it with ROWAphos and Triton AL99 and doing 20% water changes weekly. Just going to keep it up until we can finally get PO4 down to where it should be. Not really sure how long we should expect the dry rock to keep leaching though... Hopefully it's not long for either of us. I'm going to follow along to see how everything goes with you. Good luck!

 

[Jimmyneptune]

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It came from Canada. A little goes a long way.

 

[monti mike]

I feel like Marco rocks leaching phosphate may be a myth. I put dry Marco rock in a new tank with out any pre-rinse, cycle, beaching, etc. It went straight out of the box into the tank then added saltwater. I’ve consistently had 0 phosphate. I’m 3 months in and still reading 0.01 ppm phosphate on the Hannah ULR phosphate checker.