Pukani owners >1 year...how is your filtration?

[XNavyDiver]

Thanks for this thread. I’ve been setting up for a bigger tank and have been buying pukani rock, this is issues I haven’t thought about.I had planned on curing the rock in a container in the garage a few months before I do the setup.but this is great info to think about. I’ll keep watching.

Very good plan.

 

[rushbattle]

This is literally the opposite of what I’ve seen. If the pukiani doesn’t get cleaned up before the cycle it has too much P left from the dead organisms on it. But if this phenomenon is really due to the rock, we need to find the mechanism. I think it’s just a lack of biodiversity in algae, and invertebrates like pods. But it could also be a lack of bacterial biodiversity and high surface area to host that bacteria.

 

[Seminoles76]

Yes. Primarily Pods. I also added in a couple of others like mini stars. But you could also be adding a bigger diversity of organisms like XNavy if you added a GARF Grunge. I just go with pods for the most part to avoid any possibility of adding critters I wouldn't want. I would add as soon as you are cycled and ready for fish. I also added them several other times after the first time a couple weeks apart.

Sorry, I meant dinoflagellates and not diatoms. Dino's have plagued me several times due to low nutrients. They were a PITA and I never encountered them with live rock. I also meant to say dose neophos and not test. I guess I should have listened to my teachers in school and proof read before submitting.

 

[Seminoles76]

I should have noted I gave my rocks a cleaning with water/bleach mixture for a couple of days. Guess that was enough to pull the PO4 out. I dose neophos daily to maintain .02. Without daily dosing I am back at zero within a day.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

Following along. I have about 100lbs of Pukani in a 155, just purchased another 50-70lbs. I haven't noticed the same experience as above. My ATS and chaeto does most of my nutrient export.

 

[rushbattle]

I should have noted I gave my rocks a cleaning with water/bleach mixture for a couple of days. Guess that was enough to pull the PO4 out. I dose neophos daily to maintain .02. Without daily dosing I am back at zero within a day.

I used all pukani rock, about a year ago, to start my current tank. I picked off the sponges, then soaked in oxiclean, then bleach, then muriatic acid, then oxiclean again. Pretty sure I got it clean. I’ve never had undetectable P after the first few weeks. I wish I had your problem! I’d buy more fish and feed more.

 

[JaimeAdams]

Wait, we are complaining about have too low of nutrients because of using Pukani? That really doesn't sound like a problem to me.

 

[Seminoles76]

Interesting that you have detectable P. Maybe the difference is that I run BB or skimming is more efficient.

It's not a problem but rather a challenge to keep dosing NO3/PO4 in order for tank to thrive.

 

[pdiehm]

Bleached and acid washed my Pukani.

Was in the tank previously with NO3 and PO4 in good range. Had a huge algae problem but wasn’t the rocks. Was my sand.

Anyhow started over and after re-setting up the tank in July my PO4 last week was 0.02 and NO3 at around 4ppm

 

[rushbattle]

Interesting that you have detectable P. Maybe the difference is that I run BB or skimming is more efficient.

It's not a problem but rather a challenge to keep dosing NO3/PO4 in order for tank to thrive.

Might be the bb, but I doubt it’s skimming. I’ve got a RO Elite 220-INT, plus a eheim 1262 driving a powerfilter ala dsr feeding a 57w uv. On a 66 gallon tank.

 

[Seminoles76]

Might be the bb, but I doubt it’s skimming. I’ve got a RO Elite 220-INT, plus a eheim 1262 driving a powerfilter ala dsr feeding a 57w uv. On a 66 gallon tank.

Agree, maybe the bb is the difference. Thought many a time about adding sand. Eventually the tank will stable out. Just seems to take a lonnnng time with clean pukani and bare bottom. Cheers!

 

[Firedawg1983]

Thank you all for your input. I just started my Red Sea Reefer 625XXL last month and I’m using all pukani. I have about 80 lbs in there now but I’ll be adding more over time. I’m looking at adding quite a large amount of pods in a couple of days when I get my order from AlgaeBarn. I’m hoping to have a somewhat decent fish load in there. I’ll just keep up my testing to see how my nutrients look. A question for those of you having little to no nutrients how often are you doing water changes then?

 

[XNavyDiver]

Thank you all for your input. I just started my Red Sea Reefer 625XXL last month and I’m using all pukani. I have about 80 lbs in there now but I’ll be adding more over time. I’m looking at adding quite a large amount of pods in a couple of days when I get my order from AlgaeBarn. I’m hoping to have a somewhat decent fish load in there. I’ll just keep up my testing to see how my nutrients look. A question for those of you having little to no nutrients how often are you doing water changes then?

I do a weekly 10 gallon wc on my 100 gallon system. I also have recently gone sockless. My no3 has been a rock solid 8ppm since October.

 

[Zagreus]

Tank size is 100 gal, with a 40 gal sump/refuge. I'm estimating a total water volume of about 125. Current list of critters: 1 firefish, 2 Citron Gobies, 1 diamond Goby, 1 pearl jawfish, 1 royal gramma, 6 green chromis, 3 peppermint shrimp, although I've only seen 1 since their introduction, and the usual CUC of small blue leg hermits, and various snails, 1 juvenile Kole tang. The Kole was just added last night and is about 2". Corals are all frags, and are a mix of some lps, sps and some small zoas. About 25 to 30 in all. No mature colonies. Acropora frags I've experimented with have not done well as of yet.
So, pretty much all small fishes and frags at the moment. The pukani is getting covered in coralline algae. If you look at the tank, it still looks barren because of the size of the tank and the amount of pukani rock.
From what I've experienced with this tank so far, it will take another 6 months of maturity (my best guess) and adding a lot more frags for it to finally take off. Corals at the moment are very slow growing or not growing at all. Many just seem to be in sort of a suspended animation, as they look exactly as they did when purchased from the lfs.
I'm not completely understanding the "maturity"/"biodiversity"/"stability" calculus. My brain says "the tank is stable, your hundreds water tests over the months prove so." But put an acro in this tank, and watch it slowly die away. Just about any successful keeper of Acropora will tell us they need stability, flow and light. I got those in spades. So there is another factor in the calculus that isn't there yet or isn't correct with my tank. It's something that I can't measure with a test kit. My best guess from reading about successful sps dominant tanks is, it's the "maturity" thing. I've yet to hear a completely satisfying explanation (at least satisfying to my understanding) of why this is. Especially when from the beginning we've been told "You need Stability, Flow and Light".
And, yes, I have noticed that others that started their tanks with dry rock have experienced very similar trends in their tanks as mine. I love the look of the rock, but if I were to start another tank, I would start it with mature, cured live rock.

Right there with you buddy. Good post!

 

[Firedawg1983]

I do a weekly 10 gallon wc on my 100 gallon system. I also have recently gone sockless. My no3 has been a rock solid 8ppm since October.

I’m really leaning towards the sockless as well. I figure the 26,000 plus pods I’m adding Tuesday will do better without the filters and will cleanup whatever detritus gets down there. I may experiment around on the nutrient levels with wc every week two weeks etc

 

[Zagreus]

During my cycle and Diatom and Brown Hair algae phase the highest my PO4 got was .12 Once my cycle was complete my levels have remained at Zero even with heavy feeding. Here is a Pic of my Pukani.

A few of my friends that have used cured Pukani without bleaching and acid had epic hair algae outbreaks, like 1-2 inches thick all over the rocks. I was always curious if the people who added bleach and acid to the curing phase had the same issue. How bad was your hair algae outbreak?

 

[Daniel Waters]

I’m wondering whether anyone else has experience that seasoned Pukani rock almost over-filters your tanks?

I've never used Pukani rock, but I think it looks fabulous. I do, however, use marine pure blocks, which probably has 10x or more surface area for bacteria than any live rock. My nitrates run fairly low, but surface area is only part of the equation when considering live rock ability to "filter". Bacteria will develop a balance with your tank due to nutrients and bio load (ammonia that the fish give off). I do not buy into the idea that your rock can be too efficient. Most likely the result of super low nutrients is the result of good husbandry practices, very efficient skimmers nowadays, and other export mechanisms such as algae scrubbers / refugiums growing macro algae. If you truly need more nutrients, you can simply feed more (either to your fish or corals or both!). Of course, you could also reduce skimming or reduce any other export methods to help with raising nutrients. Some people also dose. But the idea of using less porous rock just to get more nutrients seems to me to be short sighted.

Lastly, I will say this, rock that is very porous will have tons of life in it that you may never see....sponge growth, pods, and mini bristle stars are just some of the life in my live rock. I think these creatures all play a part in a tank's ecosystem, so I would always recommend a person use more porous rock over another less porous based on this alone.

 

[Firedawg1983]

A few of my friends that have used cured Pukani without bleaching and acid had epic hair algae outbreaks, like 1-2 inches thick all over the rocks. I was always curious if the people who added bleach and acid to the curing phase had the same issue. How bad was your hair algae outbreak?

I bleached and acid washed mine.nothing yet. I’m a few days shy of running for a month though. No lights on in the DT yet and I put chaeto w my rock rubble, a piece of pukani, and marine pure bioballs in the fuge w a zetlight macroalgae light and I am getting some diatoms in there but I figure once I get the pods they will take care of that.

 

[Kremis]

overstocked 180 gallon with skimmer, GFO, and chaeto. 1/3 of the rockwork is pukani. rocks are all covered in algae, higher nutrient system

 

[Scubabum]

A few of my friends that have used cured Pukani without bleaching and acid had epic hair algae outbreaks, like 1-2 inches thick all over the rocks. I was always curious if the people who added bleach and acid to the curing phase had the same issue. How bad was your hair algae outbreak?

It was pretty bad even after the Bleach and Acid wash. I don't know if you follow CJ's Aquarium on Youtube but I would say mine was just about as bad as his was. Only difference is mine only lasted about 3-4 weeks. The mistake I believe I made was running the lights during the cycle.