Pukani Rock

[Terry DeMott]

Just like to know if anyone has this pukani rock, if so is it leitching pho ? I have a 100 lbs in my take I do 50 gal water changes , Have algae scrubber running and still have 2.39 pho . This is a 180 w/50 clown fish and 13 anenomes . I feed twice a day I have it to were all the food is eaten . Any idea ? thx

 

[SPR1968]

You may need to look into other methods for phosphate removal if the algae scrubber isn’t effective and a good target is 0.03ppm so very low.

I can recommend rhowaphos (GFO) which is what I use

 

[Terry DeMott]

I was told that the rock is leitching ?

 

[SPR1968]

I was told that the rock is leitching ?

It could well be leaching phosphate into the water yes, so you will just need to address how you need to deal with it

 

[Terry DeMott]

What if I take out the rock and soak in Muriatic Acid ? Will that work ?

 

[Dripdroppin]

It can only leach out for so long I’d imagine so I’d just run GFO to keep it in check until it isn’t leaching anymore

 

[Terry DeMott]

yes it is 2.50 pho I am going to change the rock out

 

[lapin]

What if I take out the rock and soak in Muriatic Acid ? Will that work ?

It depends on how deep the Po4 has soaked in. Acid will remove the outer layer of rock. That may not be enough. You can soak the rock in LC (lanthanum chloride). This process is documented. It can take along to time .

 

[SuncrestReef]

How long have you had the rock in water? I started with 60 lbs of dry Pukani and soaked it in heated saltwater for 2 months before I started cycling my tank which took another month. I never did any acid treatment. Running a GFO reactor keeps my PO4 at 0.02 - 0.10 ppm, depending on how much I feed fish & corals. Reef Roids tends to drive my PO4 up the fastest. Once I see it getting up above 0.10 ppm I know it's time to replace the GFO media.

 

[User1]

As noted above the acid bath will only remove what is on the surface and as such you will also loose some rock anywhere from 12 to 25% or so the BRS video showed.

I have a 210 gallon tank with about 150 LBS of pukani. The tank has been running over a year now and my phosphate started high similar to yours. Over the year it has slowly gone down by water changes and dosing NoPox. I ran a test last month using Hanna's checker and at the same time sent off a ICP test (ATI's) to compare results. Both matched at .08 ppm. I tested earlier in the week and a month later it is .18 ppm. So .10 over the course of 30 days. Is that due to the rock leaching or food not sure. It is one of them in any case.

To keep it low I dose a LC based solution (phosphate rx) every other month which helps keep it controlled. I use a filter sock in the sump and add drops there. Also add filter floss in the sump. Between the two it helps keep the cloudy side effect of the product under control and it does work.

To your point though I've read Pukani rock leaches for some time unless you cure it ahead of time for months. The rock (Pukani) seems to be doing similar for me. I should have waited a bit longer and saved up and used TBS rock like I really wanted to. However, I have two in college so had to choose. The rock is great but I would never use it again.

 

[EW_Fish]

There are plenty of threads stating that it does. I have never had a algae problem before and I started my new 120g with pukani because I was looking for a certain style aqua scape... Well. Guess what. p04 problems along with algae. Did a 1 month black out with water changes didn't work. 2 days of lights being on algae started coming back. Now im running GFO

 

[TX_Punisher]

I cured mine with a constant dose of LC for 2 months and that helped immensely.

 

[Crashjack]

With Pukani, I would be more worried about 0 phosphates than phosphates too high as many a Dino fighter will tell you. I cured mine for a couple of months with Phosgard, and 6 months after I started the tank... dinos due to zero phosphate and zero nitrate. I had been out of the hobby for about 15 years and had never started a tank with all dry rock. I liked the Pukani due to its shape and porosity so decided to give it a try with no live rock. I still like Pukani but would never start a tank without some live rock again.

 

[philosophile]

Honestly though, if you have no export of phosphate except for the ats, you’ll probably slowly get P creeping up, since ATS takes up less phosphate, than say nitrate. So nitrate becomes the limiting factor of algae growth, and the phosphate just builds up over time.

With 50 clowns and 13 nems, you’re probably feeding a lot. I wouldn’t blame it on the rock. You need gfo or something similar to export your P.