Reef Saver Rock Turning To Dust?

[Natereef]

Bought some reef saver rock from my lfs, this thing is turning to dust. Heres a photo of what im talking about. Each week I would find like a teaspoon of clumbed / sand on my BB 10 gal.WHen I do a water change I would siphon the crumbled bits, after one week another teaspoon of the thing is back in that spot.

Also when im blowing my rock with a baster before doing a water change, I can see particles of sand and crumbled rock breaking off of the thing. I was worried maybe my water is too acidic. I tested it with API master kit, its at 8.0.

Im worried after a year or so I would have no rock left becuase the entire thing turned into sand. :headwally:

IS this normal or did I get a bad batch or something?

 

[Martini5788]

Have you tested your other parameters? Alk, calcium? I agree, that's weird though. I had that happen a little bit to some
Dry rock I had, but it was mainly in the places where there was debris left that wasn't fully cleaned out when they dug it up. It was orangish in those areas

 

[Natereef]

Have you tested your other parameters? Alk, calcium? I agree, that's weird though. I had that happen a little bit to some
Dry rock I had, but it was mainly in the places where there was debris left that wasn't fully cleaned out when they dug it up. It was orangish in those areas

I dont have test kits for those yet so I havent tested em. Calc and alk shouldnt really affect rocks right?

I was rearranging my powerhead and accidentally pointed it straight to my rockwork. I dont have a Bb tank anymore after that lol.

 

[ClownsRCoo]

I wouldn't think that's the rock crumbling. I bet it's dust and stuff that was trapped in and on the rock that hadn't been washed off.

 

[Natereef]

I wouldn't think that's the rock crumbling. I bet it's dust and stuff that was trapped in and on the rock that hadn't been washed off.

Hopefully. Its been setup for a little over a month now. Im 80% sure its the rock clumbling though :hmm5:

 

[kozmic]

I would suggest making sure your params are good for Alk, Calcium, dkH (& obviously all of the standard Amm, NO2, NO3, PO4, etc.) and put small piece of live rock (or a turbo snail) with coralline growing on it... once it starts seeding your reef saver, it will prevent any crumbling (if that is what is happening).

 

[Martini5788]

I wouldn't think that's the rock crumbling. I bet it's dust and stuff that was trapped in and on the rock that hadn't been washed off.

This. But yes alk and calcium and ph can affect rock

 

[d2mini]

Looks like detritus to me.
I could blow tons of the stuff off my rocks right now.
Flow inside the tank could cause it to accumulate in the same spot.

 

[rffanat1c]

Mine did the same. Totally normal imo

 

[Natereef]

Thanks everyone. Ill buy some test kits this friday payday and twst my alk and cal. And as kozmic said ill seed it with coraline to coat my rocks.

 

[blrrobinson21]

I have had the same experience.