Pukani Rock leacing PO4 like mad

[welcome]
RO/DI is fine for getting the phosphate out of the rock, and it'll be a lot cheaper than saltwater. A small powerhead should be fine. The water just needs enough motion to get some aeration going. You might need to do some water changes at first if the smell gets to be a problem. There's no point in adding live sand until the rock is clean and you're setting up your tank.
 
Thanks for the advice. My pukani rock showed up today. It seemed a little dirty/brownish in some areas. I hosed it off with tap water from a nozzle and then let it soak in a bin of tap water. I was curious what amount of phosphate I had at this point and it was 0.07 ppm. Not too bad. My RODI unit is being shipped so I'll go to my lfs and get some for the rock tomorrow. I'll check phosphates again tomorrow before a water change with RODI. I'm considering a muriatic bath to clean the rock of it's dead/brown/spots. Has anyone had luck with this? What are the steps? Also What size gallon per hour pump will I need to circulate the rock after I get RODI h20. I'm not a cheapo but the pump probably will be a backup anyways. If someone has a link to a good cheap pump please post. Should I expect phosphates to spike soon?
 
I'd probably skip the muriatic acid bath for now, but you could try it. Muriatic acid is dangerous, so I'd work outside with gloves and goggles. Add one part muriatic acid to 10 parts water, and leave the rock in it for 20-30 minutes. I'd neutralize the remaining acid-water mixture with some baking soda. You'll have to check local regulations on dumping the leftover.

For curing 35 lbs of rock, a small powerhead like a Maxi-Jet should be fine. Anything above 200--300 gph will do the job.
 
More great advice. TY. Instead of muriatic acid should I try bleaching and power washing to get rid of brown organic areas? I guess I will try that first. Any tips on bleaching? Or other ideas to clean the rock?
 
I thought the "brown" added character to the rock myself but an acid dip would be the way to go to remove it.

As far as disposal just use the utility sink
 
The brown areas likely will be covered by coralline fairly quickly, if your tank is like mine, but a bit of power-washing should be fast and easy. The bleaching might help, too, but it's more work. I'd be a bit careful with the large amounts of bleach in question. Working outside with goggles and gloves should be okay. Regular dishwashing gloves should be fine. You could try 10 parts water to 1 part bleach, and let it sit for an hour or so.
 
So I decided to do the muriatic acid wash. I took a 10 gallon bin filled with 1:10 parts acid to water. I dropped first pukani rock in and it bubbled for 5 minutes. It seemed to clean 50% of the rock which I was happy with. However I wanted cleaner. I put the rest of my gallon of acid into the bin and re-dipped for 5 minutes with the rest of my rock. It was 80% cleaner of brown organics and dirty rock. I still wanted cleaner. I put 3 gallons of clorax bleach into 20 g bin and soaked for 24 hours. Now it finally looks clean. I'm happy with my rock now. I have it now soaking in RO with powerhead for flow. How long should it soak to be clean of the bleach? Will my rock have side-effects from the acid or bleach? If it leaches phosphates now I will treat with LC about a capful at a time till Hanna reads 0. What's my next step to preparing this rock for a new 40g DT? Can I cure this in the tank or should it sit in RO or SW for a while? Thanks for help.
 
I would cure it in a separate container. That'll reduce any worries about any remaining bleach. You could just add small amounts of fish food or a pure ammonia source, and let the rock go for a while.
 
I put the pukani rock in a new 20gallon brute with fresh RODI water and a maxi jet 1200. I will now test to see if there are any phosphates. Am I missing any steps? Sorry I am a beginner with dry rock.
 
DozerDozer said:
So I decided to do the muriatic acid wash. I took a 10 gallon bin filled with 1:10 parts acid to water. I dropped first pukani rock in and it bubbled for 5 minutes. It seemed to clean 50% of the rock which I was happy with. However I wanted cleaner. I put the rest of my gallon of acid into the bin and re-dipped for 5 minutes with the rest of my rock. It was 80% cleaner of brown organics and dirty rock. I still wanted cleaner. I put 3 gallons of clorax bleach into 20 g bin and soaked for 24 hours. Now it finally looks clean. I'm happy with my rock now. I have it now soaking in RO with powerhead for flow. How long should it soak to be clean of the bleach? Will my rock have side-effects from the acid or bleach? If it leaches phosphates now I will treat with LC about a capful at a time till Hanna reads 0. What's my next step to preparing this rock for a new 40g DT? Can I cure this in the tank or should it sit in RO or SW for a while? Thanks for help.
Click to expand...

Give it a few days soaking and test for phosphates, make a note of your results. Then do a 100% water change, wait a couple days and test again.

From there decide if you want to bother treating with LC.

As a side note: I would dump a generous amount of chlorine remover in that first batch of water to be sure the bleach is neutralized

Edit: And yes this thread got much longer than I expected. If I knew it would be stickied I'd be happy to put together a condensed post with everything I gleaned from it
 
The bleach might reduce the phosphate level in the tank by removing organic debris, but that's likely a small effect.

The acid can reduce phosphate by removing any phosphate-contaminated surface layer of the rock. The phosphate can fit into the calcium carbonate matrix, which can bind a lot of phosphate that can be released into the tank at a later time.
 
I wouldn't bleach...
I've acid bathed and lanthanum soaked pukani rock (and both). I've found that either works pretty well. I've also found cooking the rock is very good (swish the rock in a bucket of SW every other day). Especially in the early cycle, you get all the gunk that was stuck in the rock. I pulled out things like urchin needles, crab claws, etc doing that a couple of weeks into the process.

I'd also spend some time with a toothbrush. Even with all the swishing, mine had all these little dead sponges that needed some brushing to loosen.

If you're at all going to sculpt some caves and such into your rock, then do it earlier in the soak, because when you start cutting into the rock, it releases a whole lot of gunk. I sculpted almost 2 months after I had been cycling, and found amazing amounts of stuff pouring out. My total cycle time for the majority of my rock was 3 months. But I was being super cautious, and not doing it with lanthanum. My second batch of rocks I used lanthanum and aggressively swished, and cycled that batch in a few weeks.
 
My pukani rock has been soaking in RODI water w/ pump since Sunday(5 days) w/out any water changes or LC. My Hanna said .38 and I tested twice. My question is if I should start dosing LC now or wait for my RODI filter I should install this weekend? Can this dosing be done with rock in tap water? I'm also going to carve or shape rock this weekend. I expect more phosphates to leech with that. Any strategy for de-bleaching? I've power washed and soaked. I think I'm 2 weeks away from getting the tank. I want to be ready. Thanks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
Caluerpa forest
Replies
4
Views
126
Scotty333!!!
S
J
How much calcium is in my tap water?
Replies
2
Views
112
jlongeuay
J
S
Po4
Replies
3
Views
286
ct_vol
ct_vol
K
Rock to start up the p650
Replies
4
Views
381
griss
griss
V
Skunk clown eating live rock normal?
Replies
8
Views
129
griss
griss
Back
Top