Perseverance Reef

[tbrown]

Whelp Kathy just scored me some free live rock, ~50 lbs worth. It’s full of phosphates but I’ll get that taken care of.

My wife needs a friend like your wife's.

 

[Fishy888]

Kathy is my wife. I’m very blessed and I know it.

 

[Fishy888]

As I look closer to the picture of the rock from when it was still wet I’m thinking there may well be 75 lbs worth. The tank in the picture was a 75 gallon tank.

Here’s the plan. Once I get the rock home I’ll make new sw. I’ll use the tote they’re in to start the curing process. The rock will be left in the dark long enough to allow the water and rock to equalize in regards to phosphates. I’ll measure the phosphates and I’ll drop the phosphates to zero.

There’s probably die off in the rock since the system they came from had “old tank syndrome”, If so I’ll have to drop the phosphates down to zero, allow more of the die off to decompose, then test for phosphates again, and keep repeating those steps until the phosphates drop to and stay at zero.

I’m going to use phosphat-e to deal with the phosphate issue. I’m not worried about nitrates as much since they are readily consumed in my system. Some will also leach out during the curing process.

 

[Fishy888]

I just got the rock home. There’s AT LEAST 75 pounds worth here. This is the largest piece. It weighs a good 20 lbs by itself. The bucket it’s sitting on has several more pieces which I’ll snap a picture of but for now I need to take a break.

This is the side view of the same rock to give an idea of how massive it

Here’s more of it. There’s a bunch of sediment. That’s the water they were in. I only took part of it. I’ll make all new. The person who gave me the rock kept the water at 1.020. I might raise it a little just in case there’s still some life left in the rock. I’m going to heat it for that reason. Heat is also a bit of a catalyst. After all I want the phosphates, detritus, etc out of it asap. In this case, considering how much sediment was in the water I’d say “asap” will be a couple of weeks minimum. But for all this precious rock that won’t ever be collected again the effort will be more than worth it.

We’re not done yet!

And……

Once I catch my breath I’ll take pictures of the rock in the bucket and start making new water.

As if this wasn’t enough I also got….

There’s probably 5 to 10 lbs of rubble in that sand. As for being able to reuse it I’ll have to wait and see. if I can get the phosphates out of it then it’s a go. If not I’ll still be able to use the rubble and shells in it. My hermits could use them.

I’ll probably merge the sand so I can run two totes for the rock. She had it in one tote. I’m thinking about a vinegar bath to help dissolve the top layer where crud is most likely to be but since the rock has been wet since she got it I suspect there may be some life left in it. Otherwise I’d go with muriatic acid. I’ll soak the rock in a 50/50 vinegar/water mixture if phosphates are off the chart still.

 

[Fishy888]

I forgot to snap the picture of the rocks in the bucket before I put them in the tote. Since they were on top I took a picture and filled it to the brim. I decided to go to 1.026 for now especially since I only needed 5 gallons. I put a lid on it for now so I can rest a bit. There should be enough O2 in the water that I can get a small nap in. Once I get up I’ll set up tot number two and put heaters in both bins. Anyhoo here’s the last few pieces.

Here’s some Tonga rock. Some of the purple is from the lights in my sump. That said the rock definitely has coralline on it. This piece has the most however.

I want to say thank you Kathy for finding this for me. My wife is and has always been an amazing wife. She really is my better half!

I’m happy that I get to recycle this rock. It’s rock that came straight from the reef. Recycling this rock saves part of a reef from being collected. Some of these pieces will never appear again except from tank tear downs. It’s becoming harder to find the truly good stuff anymore and when you do find it you pay upwards of $10 a pound. That rock was at least 75 pounds. I’m going to get a liter of phosphat-e to help the curing process along. I should still have a ton of it left over when the rock is cured but I want to be on the safe side here.

 

[Fishy888]

Well she wasn’t kidding about the phosphates….

The meter was blinking “200”! That translates to 0.613 ppm phosphates. The test couvette was bluer than I’ve ever seen on this colorimeter. I’m glad I have a hanna checker. That’s going to get some use in the coming days.

I knew this would be the case but since there’s so much die off on the rock I’m going to try and reset it. I’m going to bathe this rock in RO/DI. I’ll make a bunch of it tomorrow and let it pull more crud out of the rock. I’ll replace it at least once a day. I’ll also scrub the rock each day. I would think a week of that would start putting a dent in this. Some vinegar is going to enter the equation too. I’m leery of using muriatic acid in this apartment. If the weather was like a week ago I would absolutely use it… outdoors.

As for the sand I’ll wash it in small batches and let it soak in RO/DI water. When that’s all done I’ll fill it with saltwater and test for phosphates.

When I opened the tote with the rock I could smell a faint odor of ammonia. That’s gotta come out too. I see no point in using LaCl until I get the phosphates down enough with just RO/DI water and a vinegar bath. Since this rock is dead except for some coralline I’m not going to heat the rock or sand.

The original tote still has saltwater in it. I’m going to leave it until later today but the second tote will get RO/DI water shortly.

 

[tbrown]

Well she wasn’t kidding about the phosphates….

The meter was blinking “200”! That translates to 0.613 ppm phosphates. The test couvette was bluer than I’ve ever seen on this colorimeter. I’m glad I have a hanna checker. That’s going to get some use in the coming days.

I knew this would be the case but since there’s so much die off on the rock I’m going to try and reset it. I’m going to bathe this rock in RO/DI. I’ll make a bunch of it tomorrow and let it pull more crud out of the rock. I’ll replace it at least once a day. I’ll also scrub the rock each day. I would think a week of that would start putting a dent in this. Some vinegar is going to enter the equation too. I’m leery of using muriatic acid in this apartment. If the weather was like a week ago I would absolutely use it… outdoors.

As for the sand I’ll wash it in small batches and let it soak in RO/DI water. When that’s all done I’ll fill it with saltwater and test for phosphates.

When I opened the tote with the rock I could smell a faint odor of ammonia. That’s gotta come out too. I see no point in using LaCl until I get the phosphates down enough with just RO/DI water and a vinegar bath. Since this rock is dead except for some coralline I’m not going to heat the rock or sand.

The original tote still has saltwater in it. I’m going to leave it until later today but the second tote will get RO/DI water shortly.

Keep in mind that blinking means "Out of Range". 200 is that max it can read so the phosphorus was actually over 200.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Well she wasn’t kidding about the phosphates….

The meter was blinking “200”! That translates to 0.613 ppm phosphates. The test couvette was bluer than I’ve ever seen on this colorimeter. I’m glad I have a hanna checker. That’s going to get some use in the coming days.

I knew this would be the case but since there’s so much die off on the rock I’m going to try and reset it. I’m going to bathe this rock in RO/DI. I’ll make a bunch of it tomorrow and let it pull more crud out of the rock. I’ll replace it at least once a day. I’ll also scrub the rock each day. I would think a week of that would start putting a dent in this. Some vinegar is going to enter the equation too. I’m leery of using muriatic acid in this apartment. If the weather was like a week ago I would absolutely use it… outdoors.

As for the sand I’ll wash it in small batches and let it soak in RO/DI water. When that’s all done I’ll fill it with saltwater and test for phosphates.

When I opened the tote with the rock I could smell a faint odor of ammonia. That’s gotta come out too. I see no point in using LaCl until I get the phosphates down enough with just RO/DI water and a vinegar bath. Since this rock is dead except for some coralline I’m not going to heat the rock or sand.

The original tote still has saltwater in it. I’m going to leave it until later today but the second tote will get RO/DI water shortly.

200 is really just saying over the ULR parameters. The normal LR would probably read it.

 

[Fishy888]

Keep in mind that blinking means "Out of Range". 200 is that max it can read so the phosphorus was actually over 200.

I know it. That’s why I’m going to use RO/DI water to try and leech out the phosphates. The RO/DI water should dissolve a lot of the crud, being that it’s almost pure H2O. I’m about to start making the water so I can change out the water in both bins.

 

[Fishy888]

200 is really just saying over the ULR parameters. The normal LR would probably read it.

True but I’m using the phosphorous ULR checker. Either way it’s over the limits of the tester. I knew it would be but wowsa.

 

[Fishy888]

@Lost in the Sauce, @tbrown3589, @fishguy242 do you know the minimum salinity a marine Hanna checker needs to test accurately? When it’s time to test I want to use as little salt as I can and still get an accurate reading, at least until the phosphates drop low enough that my checker can read my phosphates. In between readings though it’ll be RO/DI straight from the unit. And Lost thank you again for the unit. It’s helped me more than you know.

 

[Fishy888]

@Lost in the Sauce, @tbrown3589, @fishguy242 do you know the minimum salinity a marine Hanna checker needs to test accurately? When it’s time to test I want to use as little salt as I can and still get an accurate reading, at least until the phosphates drop low enough that my checker can read my phosphates. In between readings though it’ll be RO/DI straight from the unit. And Lost thank you again for the unit. It’s helped me more than you know.

I also posted this question in the reef chemistry forum. If no one here knows I’ll shoot an email to Hanna since this might help anyone who might be in the same boat (rock).

 

[tbrown]

I'm not sure. That's actually a pretty good question.

 

[tbrown]

That's probably something you'll want to email Hanna about. Just a preliminary search and checking the specifications, it shows temperature range but not salinity. It may not matter or it may be "understood" that the acceptable range is "normal operating levels" but I wouldn't assume.

 

[Fishy888]

That's probably something you'll want to email Hanna about. Just a preliminary search and checking the specifications, it shows temperature range but not salinity. It may not matter or it may be "understood" that the acceptable range is "normal operating levels" but I wouldn't assume.

Me either. I’ll email them find out.

 

[Fishy888]

Me either. I’ll email them find out.

Email sent. We’ll see what they say. I called them first and the tech (and they actually speak ENGLISH lol) told me this was the first time they got this question. He probably meant it was his first time. I can’t be the only one who has asked that question. Many people cure dead rock if only because of the expense of buying new. If they have REAL reef rock and they know Fiji and Tonga have closed down their collection of rock I would think they’d definitely cure that rock. This is $750 worth of rock, and that price is at the low end of the scale.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

@Lost in the Sauce, @tbrown3589, @fishguy242 do you know the minimum salinity a marine Hanna checker needs to test accurately? When it’s time to test I want to use as little salt as I can and still get an accurate reading, at least until the phosphates drop low enough that my checker can read my phosphates. In between readings though it’ll be RO/DI straight from the unit. And Lost thank you again for the unit. It’s helped me more than you know.

Bro it sat in my shop for months . I'm happy you're using it

No idea on the minimum salinity, but I know if you cut your tank water with RODI water 50/50 it should half the reading thus being able to read it on your meter.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Email sent. We’ll see what they say. I called them first and the tech (and they actually speak ENGLISH lol) told me this was the first time they got this question. He probably meant it was his first time. I can’t be the only one who has asked that question. Many people cure dead rock if only because of the expense of buying new. If they have REAL reef rock and they know Fiji and Tonga have closed down their collection of rock I would think they’d definitely cure that rock. This is $750 worth of rock, and that price is at the low end of the scale.

I hate to be a Debbie Downer but at least in my neck of the woods, Dead Rock even from Fiji or Tonga or the Marshall Islands is not $10 a pound.

I was selling it live at 4 to $5 a pound and the listings stayed up much longer than I would have thought.

 

[crusso1993]

but I wouldn't assume.

Well, that takes all the fun out of it!

 

[crusso1993]

I hate to be a Debbie Downer but at least in my neck of the woods, Dead Rock even from Fiji or Tonga or the Marshall Islands is not $10 a pound.

I was selling it live at 4 to $5 a pound and the listings stayed up much longer than I would have thought.

I “wowed” this because that’s certainly not the case here. General and random rock sells for $5 - $6 a pound.