Curing rock in a swimming pool?

EdSnyder

EdSnyder

New member
Would this work? I have been fighting a battle with my pukani rock for some time now. I was thinking about pulling it from my tank and curing it again with lanthanum chloride.
What if I just throw it in the pool for a month or so.
It would be a lot of water for it to leach into, with lots of flow.
 
Can't say I'm familiar with lanthanum chloride, but my initial reaction was that this may not work or may have unintended consequences.

I would be concerned with the pool water chemistry. Iwouldn't think the salinity of the pool would match that of seawather and therefore there may be no benefit from a bacterial growth standpoint. (and actually I would think the chemicals in pool water would be intended to inhibit bacterial growth) More importantly, I would be worried about what might get into the water and therefore into the rock. Sunscreen, runoff water from rain and the possible introduction of copper since the water used to fill the pool is probably not RO/DI.

My gut is that you would be better served to cure the rock in a dedicated container of salt water or RO/DI water with a powerhead where you have more control over the curing environment.
 
Sorry, maybe I shouldn't have used the word cure. What I am trying to do is remove Po4 from my rock. It has been in my display tank for eight months now, and it is obviously full of phosphate. lanthanum chloride is used in pools, to remove phosphate.
 
Thats a first. May clean the rock wont solve the problem. If you solve the problem then theres no need to remove the rock.
I guess your problem is algea? Well if so its not the rock.
But with such little tank info then its impossible.
Things like age , equipment , stock and amount of LR and Substrate? And water readings and not that its all good. What are you testing for.
 
If it is pukani then the rock is definitely the problem. That stuff is loaded with phosphate that leaches I to the water.

I wouldn't put it in the pool though. I wouldn't trust that water not to put something even worse I to my rock.
 
hollister said:
Thats a first. May clean the rock wont solve the problem. If you solve the problem then theres no need to remove the rock.
I guess your problem is algea? Well if so its not the rock.
But with such little tank info then its impossible.
Things like age , equipment , stock and amount of LR and Substrate? And water readings and not that its all good. What are you testing for.
Click to expand...

The problem is the rock. My tank has been set up for 5 to 6 years. I have the same three fish iVe had for 5 to 6 years, I have the same types of corals. Really nothing new except for the 3 pieces pukani rock I added a few months back. The algae is mostly growing just on those three pieces of rock. I was about to start treating the rocks with LC, when I had the pool idea. There is LC in the pool. There is LOTS of water and flow too. People clean rock with bleach, it's in there too. Just wondering if anyone has tried this.
 
Why waste the life on and in the rock? Use the LC in a Brute container and remove the po4, there is no need in killing the rock completely.
 
sirreal63 said:
Why waste the life on and in the rock? Use the LC in a Brute container and remove the po4, there is no need in killing the rock completely.
Click to expand...

I just thought it might work quicker in a pool, with all that water. It's only 3 pieces of rock, maybe 10% of my rock. The only things attached to it are soft corals I could frag off and some fans, corraline, etc. Not at all worried about that stuff.
I already did the brute can with water changes and gfo for a month before I put it in my tank.
Im kinda over this rock.
Just thought the pool would be an easy and interesting method for the problem.
 
The pool can have nutrients in it as well, much better to use clean saltwater and LC. GFO gets exhausted too quickly to be effective with high po4 laden rock. Porous materials tend to reach a stasis with the water they are in, so while you may remove the po4, you are potentially adding things to the rock that you don't want. The LC bath targets the po4 while not adding anything else to the rock. It's a better solution.
 
sirreal63 said:
The pool can have nutrients in it as well, much better to use clean saltwater and LC. GFO gets exhausted too quickly to be effective with high po4 laden rock. Porous materials tend to reach a stasis with the water they are in, so while you may remove the po4, you are potentially adding things to the rock that you don't want. The LC bath targets the po4 while not adding anything else to the rock. It's a better solution.
Click to expand...

I understand GFO gets exhausted too quickly when po4 is bad. I did multiple waterchanges and had a mag 5 pump in the can for a couple of weeks. Po4 leaching slowed. Then I used GFO for a couple of weeks. It seemed to work. I let it sit for a couple of days with no GFO and got almost 0 on the po4 test. I figured it was time to put it in the tank. It looked great for a couple of weeks, then it started growing algae. It just grew on the rock at first, then it started showing up on my existing rock. The Pukani rock is obviosly where it is coming from. The thing I am afraid of, the LC will only take up the po4 the rock has released in the water in the brute can. Then it will start leaching again, and again, and again. How many times am I gonna have to mess with it?
The amount of water in the pool would eleminate the constant LC treatments and or water changes.
Unless there is something bad in pool water.....
 
sirreal63 said:
It takes a little time, read this thread it will show you how to do it the right way.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2145395

This method does work and is more wallet friendly than GFO and probably more effective.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your advice. I know LC is the way to go. I am just lazy and would have really liked everyone to chime in and say throw it in the pool for a month. I will read your link, thanks again
Ed
 
sirreal63 said:
Ed, it's a spam bot, it posts part of a previous response, in this case one of mine. When you find them, report them, it isn't a real person, just a way to spam.
Click to expand...

Yep, they're just spam. If you see them report them. Tell tale signs its one of these spammers is that their posts are just copy and pastes from previous posts in a thread, they registered in the past day and have 5-10 posts, and all of their posts contain what look like broken images at the end. :)
 
I'll chime in as Ive had experience with nutrient loaded rock. Got it from a store and grew hair algae like crazy.

1. Place rock in buckets and fill with tap water and bleach. 1:10 ratio is strong. Aerate with air stone. The aeration GREATLY speeds up the process. This kills everything.

2. Rinse the rock off and scrub bleached dead algae off, should slough off.

3. Get a trashcan from walmart and fill with RODI water. Soak rock in the RODI water for a few days. Be sure to aerate/aggrivate the water.

4. Change the RODI water and let it soak for another week and put some GFO in there. Aerate the water.

5. Should be good to go.

Just a note: The aeration of the bleach water does most of the work. The soaking is just to leach everything out of the rock.
 
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