Rock Cooking to Rock Pillar

[jhale]

I'm in the process of rehabilitating some old live rock.

I have in a 33 Gallon plastic garbage can a mix of 130 pounds
of rock. There's rock from my old reef tank, a mix of old florida rock and some figi, and some large pieces of tonga branch. All the rock went into the container as dead base rock.

To make sure everything was dead on the old reef rock it laid out on the balcony for about three months. It was then placed in the garbage can with tap water and 6 gallons of vinegar to remove the top layers of crud that had built up on the rock. After a lot of scrubbing it then spent another two months in fresh tap water baths being scrubbed each time the water was changed.

Now it's curing in salt water, sg 1.028 with a heater to prevent the water
from getting too cold. There is also a remora skimmer running and two pumps, one on the bottom and one on the top to provide circulation. After one week the Ammonia reading is off the chart and the No2 and No3 are barely detectable.

On thing that bothers me is a high Po4 reading. I'm hoping that this is coming from the rock being soaked in tap water for 2 months. To help with this I'm going to add a phosban reactor. I'd rather do this than massive water changes.

I'm hoping to have the rock ready in a month to be used again in my tank
and some other tanks that will be set up soon.

 

[drunktank]

be careful w/ the po4 or else you might have a nice seaweed garden in ur tank!

 

[jhale]

I definitely do not want to add any Po4 to my tank, as of now the level is extremely low. I'll be monitoring the Po4, I'm hoping the cooking process will get rid of it all. If the phosban does not work I'll have to do more water changes to export it. John your rock will be going into the vat tomorrow. It's now soaking in a nice vinegar bath with a power head.

 

[meschaefer]

Is this (hopefully) the last battle in your war against the AEFW?

 

[scarf_ace1981]

i saw the rock coocker personally and jon did a great job. the phosban reactor should do the trick.

jon, so you're putting all that LR back in your tank? i thought you were going for less rock?

 

[aaron23]

fantastic! gl J. dont let the apartment stink too much

 

[jhale]

I can say I'm 99.5% sure the AEFW's are gone. And the extreme measures I took in killing the rock were to make sure any worm eggs were dead with no doubt.

I will be using some of the rock in my tank. What I don't use will go to Phil's 92. I do want an open look, but I'll be replacing the lace rock I bought. That rock just sucks, it's lava based and has not let any coraline grow on it.

Tho rock is cooking on the balcony, and does not smell at all. The skimmer is a bit stinky, but the container smells like the ocean

 

[jhale]

Saturday Update

things are looking good in the Can O'Rocks

I tested the No2, No3, and Po4 with great results.

The No2 and No3 were both around 5, so the cycle is underway

The best news is the Po4 is down. Before I left for a few days I
placed a bag of phosban in the path of the skimmer return.
The Po4 went from an off the chart reading to somewhere between
1-2 on a seachem test kit. This is great because it means I will not have
to do massive water changes to try and lower the Po4.
I used the whole 150g container. each 50g is supposed to handle
50 gallons of water, so the 150g for 25 gallons of water did work

 

[jhale]

today

No2- 1.5
No3- 1.0
Po4- .2

tomorrow the water gets changed, and the rocks will be drilled for my new aquascaping project. I'll post some pics afterwards. yay rocks

 

[Pedro]

I have some 1/2 inch acrylic rods if you like. It's like 4 feet long.

 

[jhale]

thanks Pedro!

I was going to use some 1/2" pvc, if I can get the rod from you in the next couple of weeks that would be great.
I'm hoping to come up with a unique looking rock arangement.

 

[Pedro]

J, the 1/2" pvc is too big man. You would need to drill a 7/8 hole. The rods are better. You can also glue them together with weldon i think. Are you looking to do something like i did with my rocks, but drilling them? That's why i had originally bought it. Then i decided against it.

So just pick up when you're in the area if you decide to use it. Good luck with that rock cooking.

Can you believe that after i had the rocks in vinegar and all that, i found some small bubble algea on some rocks. I guess the spores must have been deep inside. I am pissed. At least you had a long time to cook them.

 

[jhale]

wow, bubble algae is some tough stuff, geez.

I'm going to making some rocks towers, I saw them on a totm on RC.

the rocks were drilled straight through and them stacked on top of each other using the pvc as a guide. I'm going to make several and connect them with some ledges, I think that's the plan.

then on one side of the tank will be the tonga branch jungle

 

[DonCisco]

J, I have a Hilti hammer drill if you want to borrow it to drill the rock thru. With the hammer drill you will do it pretty fast. Let me know

 

[Pedro]

That would end up shattering it unless it's the hard slab type rock. With water and a masonry bit it should be easy.

 

[TimberTDI]

Jon,

Let me know what TOTM it was.

Pedro,
You can use a Hilti drill. As long as its one of the smaller ones like a T5 or a T25 and not one of the bigger ones like a T76. The smaller ones have variable geardrive; so you can drill slowly. Also where did you buy the acrylic rods from?

Steven

 

[jhale]

J, I have a Hilti hammer drill if you want to borrow it to drill the rock thru. With the hammer drill you will do it pretty fast. Let me know

cool DC, I'll see if I need it, that would be great.

I'm going to try with what I have on hand, I keep a 18v dewalt with a three speed clutch in the apt.

I have a few kinds of rocks to get through. The Figi will be easy, it's the old florida rock I'm worried about. I tried drilling it once with a cement bit and it did not dent it. I was going to get a few new bits and experiment with them.

I know I can always go to Grainger and pick up some new toys on monday

 

[herman]

The rock pillar J is trying to make is the following. To create them you take various sized flat rockslabs and drill them. The drill used has to be small in order not to crack them. Start with a smaller hole and slowly increase in size
The first picture is of the structure viewed from the bck and the second is from the front with all the coral mounted.

 

[Pedro]

That's one awesome tank i tell you. The Rock structure looks fabulous.

It's nice to see some of us reefers getting away from the rock piles. can't wait to see the final product!

 

[jhale]

I'm going to have to change the name of the thread now

yeah Pedro, your rods could help me achieve that.

I did not take pics, drilling through wet rock gets pretty messy.

But I did manage to do a good job starting with a 1/4 masonry bit,
then rounding up the holes to 1/2" with a combo metal and wood bit.

The smaller rocks I drilled straight through, trying to keep as close to the edges as close as possible. The larger rocks I drilled in a couple of spots, not all the way. They will form the bases and I might want multiple rocks stacking off them. I can't wait to see what the tank will look like either.