My 280g Custom upgrade.....

Pukani, whether new or otherwise, has PO4 sequestered within it's structure ...

It's a beautiful, porous, easily customizable rock, from an excellent company in Marco Rocks, but if you, or anyone else who stumbles upon this information, will be aquascaping with this particular rock, then Id strongly advise a thorough curing/leaching process be implemented beforehand !

A spacious container, to enable/ensure strong circulation, filled with RO-DI as well as media reactors, containing both GFO and Carbon, attached/circulating within ...

This is how I personally cure all of my live rock, but with NaClH2O versus RO-DI. Unless its dry rock, then it's strictly pure RO-DI until a multi-strain bacterial culture/assimilation/dosage, in the final stage of the process, before aquascaping commences
 
SPotter said:
Thanks for everyones input and I think what I am going to do is order 100lbs of marco to start off with. I will continue to work on the smaller pieces of pukani I have and see if I can remove the po4 from them. There's a couple of ambitious guys in my local club that might be interested in tackling the bigger pieces that I have. Its such a hard decision to make. Right now my corals are doing great in my frag tank so I am in no rush to get them back into the DT until I am 100% sure its ready.
Click to expand...

Might check into the cut pieces. I've heard nothing but positives on the Marco rock and the pieces they cut can make really nice pillars.
 
Steve good luck with the new rock. Hopefully you will not have any issues this time around. How is the lighting issue coming along?
 
Steve ... What a beautiful setup you have. Reading through the build and getting closer to 10/29 date I was getting concerned for how you made out. I was so glad to see Sandy didn't take you down (sorry for your sons Goldfish). I mean here I am reading through and I see you debating about the generator months prior to that storm and I'm thinking I hope he bought one "¦ BUY ONE, JUST BUY ONE. After Hurricane Floyd years ago I was sold on them. I don't think the generator has run but a few hours in those 14 years since then and until that B*%$^ Sandy showed up. To say I was happy to have it when "œshe" showed up would be a gross understatement.
All that said I was so disappointed to see your post on 1/20/13. I look forward to seeing this system come back to life and see it flourish. I certainly will keep eyes on your forward progress.

My first venture into saltwater was many years ago while I was in high school....Manasquan HS. I miss it down there.
Best of luck with cleaning up the PO4 and re breaking in the system !!
Scott
 
Finesse said:
Steve ... What a beautiful setup you have. Reading through the build and getting closer to 10/29 date I was getting concerned for how you made out. I was so glad to see Sandy didn't take you down (sorry for your sons Goldfish). I mean here I am reading through and I see you debating about the generator months prior to that storm and I'm thinking I hope he bought one "¦ BUY ONE, JUST BUY ONE. After Hurricane Floyd years ago I was sold on them. I don't think the generator has run but a few hours in those 14 years since then and until that B*%$^ Sandy showed up. To say I was happy to have it when "œshe" showed up would be a gross understatement.
All that said I was so disappointed to see your post on 1/20/13. I look forward to seeing this system come back to life and see it flourish. I certainly will keep eyes on your forward progress.

My first venture into saltwater was many years ago while I was in high school....Manasquan HS. I miss it down there.
Best of luck with cleaning up the PO4 and re breaking in the system !!
Scott
Click to expand...

Scott....thank you so much for taking the time to read thru my thread and post. Its always nice to hear from someone local...especially from someone that grew up in my town. I dont know if you've been back since Sandy but the beach front is pretty bad but the town is working hard to bring it back. My wife, kids and I try to go out to the beach on the weekends to fill up a garbage bag or two to help with the clean up. Gee Gee's is a mess but they will be back...what would Manasquan Beach be without Gee Gee's right?
 
Ok I know I said I was going to order new rock just yesterday but I just cant pull the trigger yet. As I said earlier I have time before I need to start putting rocks back in as my corals are doing great in my 80g tank. I talked to a couple of local guys in my club and they suggested giving it one more try by soaking them in a rodi/vinegar bath for 48hrs with powerheads and then cure for 4 wks. So what do I have to lose, its not like marco could ship rocks out tomorrow anyway. Off to costco I went to buy 10g of vinegar and then came back home to get the soak ready. I had an extra brute and rubbermaid container so here is my rock soaking setup......

2013-01-25200725.jpg


It didn't take long for "stuff" to start floating to the surface.

2013-01-25203851.jpg


I have 1 powerhead in each bin and I am using a mag7 pump to circulate the water from bin to bin.
 
I too am thinking of acid bathing my rocks, and while doing so upgrading to a better footprint tank. I have always heard of pukani leaching as well. I don't think I have any in my tank and when I add more rock it'll likely be lace rock. What's the verdict on that rock?
Corey
 
Thats right ... Show that pukani who's the boss !!


SPotter said:
Scott....thank you so much for taking the time to read thru my thread and post. Its always nice to hear from someone local...especially from someone that grew up in my town. I dont know if you've been back since Sandy but the beach front is pretty bad but the town is working hard to bring it back. My wife, kids and I try to go out to the beach on the weekends to fill up a garbage bag or two to help with the clean up. Gee Gee's is a mess but they will be back...what would Manasquan Beach be without Gee Gee's right?
Click to expand...

No, I've not yet been into Manasquan. I have seen some of the pictures of the beach and the sand on First Ave.
I take it you can get up to the Inlet now?
Back in early November we went through Ortley and Lavallette to get up to Ocean Beach and we were amazed at the levels of total devastation and destruction. My wife grew up in Lavallette so she was shocked by what we saw. Pictures do little to show the levels of devastation.
By the way "¦ Way to go on you and the family helping with the unimaginable cleanup effort. And yes Gee Gee's has to return.
Funny seeing your screen name as I drove down S Potter ave every morning as I worked on a sport fish boat on Perrine Blvd while in HS and college.
 
Dustin1300 said:
I don't blame you Steve, just thought you were already convinced you were going to ditch the rock. Hurry up and wait!
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I was all set to do it, had my order loaded up and was about to hit submit and something stopped me. So for now, I am sticking with the rock I have. As you can see in the pics from last night I started the soak in the rodi/vinegar bath. I pulled a few pieces out today and did some additional scrubbing and blasting with a baster. I will let them soak for another day or two and then start to replace the water with plain rodi. I dont think I am going to start curing them with sw until I feel confident I can remove the po4 from them. If and when I get the po4 levels to an acceptable level, then I will start curing them with sw. I am also planning on adding LaCl3.
 
SPotter said:
I was all set to do it, had my order loaded up and was about to hit submit and something stopped me. So for now, I am sticking with the rock I have. As you can see in the pics from last night I started the soak in the rodi/vinegar bath. I pulled a few pieces out today and did some additional scrubbing and blasting with a baster. I will let them soak for another day or two and then start to replace the water with plain rodi. I dont think I am going to start curing them with sw until I feel confident I can remove the po4 from them. If and when I get the po4 levels to an acceptable level, then I will start curing them with sw. I am also planning on adding LaCl3.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good plan. 2013 is going to be the year for your tank. Hang in there and it'll be TOTM material one day.
 
Rock Update

Rock Update

After soaking in vinegar/water for 48hrs I test the po4 level and it came in at nice shade of blue = .57 ppm. I did a 50% water change and loaded up my gfo reactor with some leftover BRS GFO I had in my basement. Easily put in 4-5 cups and 12 hrs later the level fell to .07ppm and 24hrs later the level was at zero. I knew this was just because of the GFO doing its job. So I did another 50% water change in the rock bin, turned off the gfo reactor for the night and tested this morning.... po4 now .16ppm. I will do another wc tonight and begin dosing Lanthanum Chloride once the GFO in the reactor is exhausted. My wife still thinks I should buy Marco and move on. Im still not ready to admit defeat and at this point its not about the rock....its about not letting my wife be right!!!!
 
SPotter said:
After soaking in vinegar/water for 48hrs I test the po4 level and it came in at nice shade of blue = .57 ppm. I did a 50% water change and loaded up my gfo reactor with some leftover BRS GFO I had in my basement. Easily put in 4-5 cups and 12 hrs later the level fell to .07ppm and 24hrs later the level was at zero. I knew this was just because of the GFO doing its job. So I did another 50% water change in the rock bin, turned off the gfo reactor for the night and tested this morning.... po4 now .16ppm. I will do another wc tonight and begin dosing Lanthanum Chloride once the GFO in the reactor is exhausted. My wife still thinks I should buy Marco and move on. Im still not ready to admit defeat and at this point its not about the rock....its about not letting my wife be right!!!!
Click to expand...

Steve, isn't your wife ALWAYS right?
 
Rock update

Rock update

Over the last two weeks I have done the following to my rock.....

*Dipped in muriatic acid
*Scrubbed, rinse and soak in RODI for 5 days
*Changed the water and soaked agin for 48hrs in a 50/50 vinegar/rodi bath
*Changed the water and started treating with Lanthanum Chloride on a daily basis.

Results....for the last 3 days I have been testing po4 @ .01 ppm on the milwaukee martini phosphate tester.

Today I gave the rocks a really good rinse to remove and precipitate from the LC, drained/cleaned the bins and filled them back up with fresh salt water. The bins have a few power heads, a heater and mag pump for circulation. I will keep my fingers crossed and see how this works out.

I am thinking about adding live rock to the system as well. I am converting the tank that was plumbed into my system as a water change tank into a rock sump so I will be needing additional rock and thought it would be good to use live rock for this in addition to what ever other rock I have that doesnt make its way back into the dt.
 
Slow and steady. Great job Steve. And you just reminded me about the LC treatment. What is the ratio of LC to RO/DI water again?
 
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