Eco Rox

[Anthonius]

so I came upon a build thread in the past couple days and the guy used BRS Eco Rox on the system. They looked very nice and from what I have seen they are amazing for aquascaping as they all connect together quite well, sort of like legos i guess. anyways i would like to get everyones thoughts on eco rox. Any good experiences? Any bad experiences? how long did it take to get adequate coralline coverage? i am excited to see everyones responses

thanks,

anthony

[ccombs70]

Originally Posted by Anthonius

so I came upon a build thread in the past couple days and the guy used BRS Eco Rox on the system. They looked very nice and from what I have seen they are amazing for aquascaping as they all connect together quite well, sort of like legos i guess. anyways i would like to get everyones thoughts on eco rox. Any good experiences? Any bad experiences? how long did it take to get adequate coralline coverage? i am excited to see everyones responses

thanks,

anthony

I started a bulk buy on our local forum for BRS rocks. I love the company. Not one bad word to say. We ended up going with Marco rocks key largo. Ordered over 2000lbs by the time we were done. Marc is a great guy to work with and the rocks are amazing. I was skeptical at first. Just wanted to share that with you.

[hottuna]

Had one bad experience with eco rox...lots of dead sponge material caused alot of silicates in the water = brown slime algae...my solution was to acid wash the rock...then everything was fine...HTH

[pugbreath13]

Purchased twice with great results. Nothing on the rocks in my case but a little dust.

[falhiem]

I have 150 lbs in my tank and highly reccomend it, it looks exactly as pictured on the website.

[Anthonius]

ok good im sold... plus you save a ton on the shipping. and dont have to worry about parasites. about how long to seed it with coralline and get some color?

[seanmc980]

I would recommend cooking any Eco or Marco rock you get. If you don't want to cook it then at the very least do a 10% muric acid bath. I found a dead crab,clam and fossilized sponges on just one piece of rock! This stuff is beautiful but consider what this rock can release after sitting for possibly millions of years.I've read on Marco's website that they sell "pre-cycled" rock.. I don't know exactly what this means.

I ordered 100lbs so far of BRS Eco-rox .. the customer service was top notch and they filled two custom orders without any issues.

I've been cooking my BRS rock for 3 months now and I cannot even begin to describe the look and smell of the waste water after I did my first dunking. The last two weeks have been a lot better and I feel like I'm very close to being done. If I could start over I would have done an acid bath.

[tibob32]

^ +1. I learned the hard way that you should always cook your rocks, even if they're dry!

[paraletho]

We used it. Good price ,good service, but there must be some phosphate locked up in it. There is no algae anywhere except on the surface of the Eco Rock.

[OldNemo]

BRS is local for me and you can't beat the rock or the customer service. A great group of folks running it.

I agree 10 to 1 (water to acid) for no more than 7 to 10 minutes to rid the rock of the phosphates. Then rinse and your ready to go.

[Anthonius]

so water and 10% muric acid? in a 10 minute bath. any recommendations to boost the coralline growth?

[OldNemo]

Originally Posted by Anthonius

so water and 10% muric acid? in a 10 minute bath. any recommendations to boost the coralline growth?

Use a large tub but I use 10 gallons of water to 1 gallon acid (come in 1 gallons jugs here). Put the water in first with the rock and then slowly add the acid so it does not splash everwhere. It will really start bubbling and make sure you are outside using gloves and glasses. It can be nasty. With the eco rock I would do it until the foam somewhat stops but closer to 7 to 8 minutes. Definitely no more than 10 min because it will start eating the rock and make it brittle. Since there is no algae on it a bleach bath after is not needed. Just soak it/rinse in RO and you should be good to go.

As far as coralline, you may need to seed with "live" rock but have heard just maintain good levels of CA, MG etc will lead to coralline growth.

GL

[deathmatch782]

I got a 100 lbs from them. I love that it fits nicley together, plus they're local.

I used a 10:1 ratio of water to vinager to clean them off. Looking back I should have tried the muriatic acid as I have developed a tiny layer on all the brs rock, but none of my other rock.

[Anthonius]

Originally Posted by deathmatch782

I got a 100 lbs from them. I love that it fits nicley together, plus they're local.

I used a 10:1 ratio of water to vinager to clean them off. Looking back I should have tried the muriatic acid as I have developed a tiny layer on all the brs rock, but none of my other rock.

if i may ask a tiny layer of what? i heard read that even though its more hazardous to use the acid it works out much better than the vinegar and it works faster. I am a big fan of vinegar to clean powerheads and pumps put them suckers in a large pot in the sink with a 50/50 vinegar/water mix and let them run for about 10 - 15 minutes while in the sink then let run another 10-15 minutes in plain water then hook it back into the system and it runs like brand new again. I do this about every 3 months or so.

[OldNemo]

Originally Posted by Anthonius

if i may ask a tiny layer of what?

I believe he was referring to the layer of dust and the trapped phosphates in the rock. Vinegar may take some of the dust off the rock but you would be better off removing the trapped phosphates etc from the rock in the long run IMO.

Vinegar is the way to go to remove the algae etc from powerheads and equipment though.