BRS Pukani Rocks Phosphate

[Terrance]

I have been reading old posts regarding these rocks leaching lots of phosphates over many months and need to resort to SeaKlear.

On the BRS website, they say just cure it for approximately 1 month and might be longer. Anyone have any BRS pakuni experience within the past 1 year?

The RC thread regarding this is almost 2 years old.

[Whiterabbitrage]

I bought Pukani and Reef Saver rocks both. The Reef Saver was good to go after a rinse. The Pukani needed scrubbing and soaking for days and then still leached Po4 for a month or two.
This was last March.

[64Ivy]

I am in the process of bathing some Pukani in Seaklear right now. If the question is, have there been any problems with Pukani after a year, I'd say no, not if it was conditioned and cured correctly before introduction to the tank. But if you try to hurry things along, you are GOING to spike your PO4, no doubt about it. Whether the condition will still be ongoing after a year contains so many variables it's almost impossible to answer.

[Terrance]

To try to get all the phosphate out of pukani, I'd like to start the curing process by soaking it in freshwater with heater and powerhead for 1-2 days in a bin, then change 100% water with more freshwater and gently brushing off the rock with a toothbrush trying to get all the dead stuff off the surface. Then do 100% water change everyday with freshwater and weekly gentle toothbrush scrubs to take off dead stuff on the surface. Keep doing this for the 1-2 months, then start curing in saltwater the standard way.

I thought this was a good idea to change out the water daily since I read phosphate was more likely to leach in water with little or no phosphate. Also doing this in freshwater saves salt money.

Does this idea seem ok? Any better advice to starting the curing process?

edit: luckily my new tank is only 30g and I only need 20lbs or less of pukani.

[bla403]

I just went through the process with 50 lbs of Pukani.

I let it sit in a bathtub with RO/DI for 2 days, drained it, filled again with RO/DI for another 3 days.

After that I put it in my new tank with fresh saltwater for about a week running GFO before moving all of my existing rock, water and livestock from my previous tank. (55 -> 90)

Ive been changing the GFO about every 2 weeks for the past 2 months and it seems like the phosphate leaching is slowly stopping.

I change the GFO when I can see the front glass is getting any algae buildup.

Its great rock once you get past the break-in period.

[forextrader]

This is what I did for my 120 lbs of Pukani rock from BRS: place the rock in a large container filled with 50% RODI and 50% vinegar, leave it there for no more than six hours, transfer the rock to pure RODI water for a month, change the water every week, transfer the rock to saltwater from a mature aquarium for as long as it takes to cure, change the water every month. The overall length of time will vary with the thickness of the rock.

[snorvich]

So, is this effort worth the difference in getting good live rock to begin with?

[bla403]

I like the rock so I think it was worth it. Costs me a little extra in gfo for a 2-3 months but thats not a big deal.

Clearly the more effort you put in early with it makes it cost less in the long run or you can just rinse the stuff, use it and then stay on top of your GFO. I only had 10 days since I was moving into a new place so I couldnt do the extended processes but I am very happy.

[forextrader]

Live rock is VERY expensive and their is a chance of getting pests which make the hobby unbearable. Yep, the Pukani dry rock was worth it!

[bla403]

I forgot to even mention that. I've been in the hobby for 5+ years and have experienced many of the pests that come along with things.
My goal with my 90 gallon build was to reuse what rock I could while also getting rid of any that may have any remaining issues.

My first tank suffered from blue clove polyps which initially looked nice until they went sexual and infested the tank. A lot of elimination and 1 tank upgrade later and that was over with. My previous tank did have some byropsis which I kept in check and eliminated with this upgrade.

Having a good starting platform was crucial for my latest build and thats why I went with dry rock. Its been 3 months or so and I am clean of all unwanted pests!

[NTP66]

I only have about 40 lbs. of Pukani in my tank, but wish I had more as it looks incredible. I cured mine in 6 weeks and have zero phosphate issues. Here's a quick rundown on what I did:

1. Wash the Pukani real well with a garden hose outside
2. Soak the rock in a 32g Brute with freshwater, a heater, a powerhead, and SeaKlear
3. After a few days, I took the rock back outside and hosed it down again, using a toothbrush (or bristle brush - whatever you have) to scrape off anything I can
4. Put the rock back into the Brute and continue soaking with SeaKlear, replacing the water (100%) every few days

It may seem like a lot of work, but really, it wasn't too bad at all. And if you're not interested in putting a little elbow grease into your system, this hobby probably isn't for you.

[Terrance]

I want to put in the elbow grease!!

I really want to avoid pests from live rocks. The pests and algae (from phosphates) are the two things that drive away hobbyists from reefing. I want to reduce phosphates as much as possible. So cure rocks for as long as possible and then use GFO when my tank is up and running along with weekly 5-10% water changes. Also get live rock for seeding from a pest-free tank (another hobbyists' tank).

Great advice everyone!

[avandss]

What about Marco rock? It seems to be the best alternative to brs pukani

And apparently it is less likely to have phosphates

[igot2gats]

Originally Posted by Terrance

I have been reading old posts regarding these rocks leaching lots of phosphates over many months and need to resort to SeaKlear.

Give them an acid bath, and you'll be good to go. Acid baths should really be used with all dead rock.

It's a fail safe, just like using a QT.

[Reefahholic]

Originally Posted by Terrance

I have been reading old posts regarding these rocks leaching lots of phosphates over many months and need to resort to SeaKlear.

On the BRS website, they say just cure it for approximately 1 month and might be longer. Anyone have any BRS pakuni experience within the past 1 year?

The RC thread regarding this is almost 2 years old.

check out this thread..this was in the past year.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...anna+ultra+low

[crn005]

So after reading the comments above, I think there are a few things to clear up. Just to qualify myself, I've done the exact thing you're thinking about doing before and it's not a difficult process if you do it correctly. First off, you don't ever need to change out the water that it's soaking in. The Seaklear precipitates out the phosphates from the water column (via lanthanum chloride) and then the rocks will leach out more to reach equilibrium. The result is that the rocks are continually leaching out their phosphates and you're precipitating them out onto all the surfaces in the bucket/ice chest/tank that you're soaking them in. Once you can get a zero reading of phosphates from the water column after 3 days of not testing, then you're ready to go. All you have to do is scrub/power wash the rocks once the process is done to physically remove the precipitation. Second, the process should take about 3 weeks, give or take. It just depends on the shape of the rock you're starting with. Finally, don't throw that rock in your tank until you get a zero reading. If you do, then you're going to have a pristine tank, minus your rocks. They will be covered with algae because they will go directly to the source and consume it before it ever gets in your water column.

I hope that helps! Seriously though, that's the exact process you should follow. The process is pretty straight-forward. It's what works.

[screamingibis]

Originally Posted by NTP66

I only have about 40 lbs. of Pukani in my tank, but wish I had more as it looks incredible. I cured mine in 6 weeks and have zero phosphate issues. Here's a quick rundown on what I did:

1. Wash the Pukani real well with a garden hose outside
2. Soak the rock in a 32g Brute with freshwater, a heater, a powerhead, and SeaKlear
3. After a few days, I took the rock back outside and hosed it down again, using a toothbrush (or bristle brush - whatever you have) to scrape off anything I can
4. Put the rock back into the Brute and continue soaking with SeaKlear, replacing the water (100%) every few days

It may seem like a lot of work, but really, it wasn't too bad at all. And if you're not interested in putting a little elbow grease into your system, this hobby probably isn't for you.

I have about 50 pounds of pukani and did the exact same thing. Took about a month, maybe a little more. worked out fine. I also added some branch rock from BRS without as much curing and actually seemed to have a little algae outbreak on some of that.

[Green Chromis]

Still think the best way to go is high quality live rock. Dead rock is just that dead, no life no anything. You will never have the bio diversity on the dead rock that you have with high quality live rock. Even if you add some live rock to seed it, it will never be the same and you might add some unwanted hitchhikers to your dead rock. Coral frags can also add unwanted hitchhikers to your tank. Dead rock is cheaper than live rock but in the end you will be paying more. Having and properly maintaining a reef tank is not cheap and one thing you should not go cheap on is your rock.

[igot2gats]

Originally Posted by Green Chromis

Dead rock is cheaper than live rock but in the end you will be paying more.

How is this possible?