OMG There is a Rock in My Garage...
- Thread starter 3dblake
- Start date
It was just over 4 weeks (30+ days) since I made it. I changed the water every day and it had stopped clouding the water completely. I'm keeping a close eye on it in the tank which is just cycling at this point. It flakes a little, but I think that's because I used too much salt in the second batch.
ade
New member
I have never had the guts to try anything like that, it would always worry me that there was something in the makeup of the rock that i couldn't take out. I hope everthing turns out ok for you, I guess my 2c would be test test test for everthing before you place any live stock in the tank.
tecsavi
New member
Well as promised I'm checking in for an update on the progress of the oystercrete.
During the last two weeks of curing I cured in saltwater, added a powerhead for circulation plus I used a HOB filter with carbon with a phospate sponge. Airation with the powerhead seemed to have an effect of lowering the ph faster but it might have been a coincidence. Once the ph was stable I moved it to my display tank.
Once in my display tank I realized that I had made the structure a little too big as I couldn't get my cleaning magnet between the glass and the rock. I broke one part of the rock to allow lots of room around the structure. Then I superglued the frags I had acclimating to the rock structure. The rock structure dramatically effected the flow in the tank so I moved a Koralia nano to blow behind the structure and added a Koralia 2 for general tank flow. There are three holes in the rock structure and the way I placed the powerheads it actually bounces off the glass and pushes through the holes. It is actually very turbulent in the center cave where I was worried about low flow accumulating detritus.
Ater placing the rock in the tank I started to see a mild coating of diatoms on the rock surface and some hair algae after a week. I added a HOB filter with carbon and a phospate sponge to remove as much as possible. This did the trick as I started to see a rapid decline of hair algae within a week. I am thinking that because I used tap water to cure the rock it was coated with a film of phospate that needed to be exhausted by the algae. It is at a very manageable level now and the clean up crew is rapidly getting things in shape.
I have a noticable increase in coraline algae on the glass and a slight rise in ph but nothing off the scale. I am waiting another week or so and then I am going to be taking scrapings off an existing piece of live rock to seed the new rock with coraline. Basically everything is looking good and going as expected.
Here is a full tank shot
Here is a one that is a little closer
During the last two weeks of curing I cured in saltwater, added a powerhead for circulation plus I used a HOB filter with carbon with a phospate sponge. Airation with the powerhead seemed to have an effect of lowering the ph faster but it might have been a coincidence. Once the ph was stable I moved it to my display tank.
Once in my display tank I realized that I had made the structure a little too big as I couldn't get my cleaning magnet between the glass and the rock. I broke one part of the rock to allow lots of room around the structure. Then I superglued the frags I had acclimating to the rock structure. The rock structure dramatically effected the flow in the tank so I moved a Koralia nano to blow behind the structure and added a Koralia 2 for general tank flow. There are three holes in the rock structure and the way I placed the powerheads it actually bounces off the glass and pushes through the holes. It is actually very turbulent in the center cave where I was worried about low flow accumulating detritus.
Ater placing the rock in the tank I started to see a mild coating of diatoms on the rock surface and some hair algae after a week. I added a HOB filter with carbon and a phospate sponge to remove as much as possible. This did the trick as I started to see a rapid decline of hair algae within a week. I am thinking that because I used tap water to cure the rock it was coated with a film of phospate that needed to be exhausted by the algae. It is at a very manageable level now and the clean up crew is rapidly getting things in shape.
I have a noticable increase in coraline algae on the glass and a slight rise in ph but nothing off the scale. I am waiting another week or so and then I am going to be taking scrapings off an existing piece of live rock to seed the new rock with coraline. Basically everything is looking good and going as expected.
Here is a full tank shot
Here is a one that is a little closer
tecsavi
New member
I created an album to kinda show the progress of the rock and I am adding more pictures. There is a sketch that better show the basic design of the rock structure there.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/album.php?albumid=1992
3dblake- How is your rock doing?
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/album.php?albumid=1992
3dblake- How is your rock doing?
My rock is doing well. I actually like the look of the darker pieces in the tank now that I have so much additional "real" rock with it. The lighter pieces are turning a little brown from a diatom bloom...shows really bad on those. The fish really seem to like them. Check out my 90 thread if you want to see some shots of it in the tank.
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