Dry Rock Cure and LC (Lanthanum)

[Jon-Paul]

So my rocks have been curing in a 5 gallon bucket for over two months now. I began with a week long bleach cure 10:1. Dried in sun, then soaked in 20x Primed tap water for two days and then placed in heated distilled saltwater with two powerheads. I have done two complete water changes since beginning the salt cure on August 15th and my phosphates are still registering at 0.5 on a salifert test kit. It appears the Pukani is going to be leeching pho's for the next while.

 

So today I decided I would sub out one powerhead for the small HOB filter that came with my picotope 3 gallon and add lanthanum. The product I am using is by Thrive and claims to lower phosphates by 1ppm/5gallons per 1ml. Considering my 5 gallon bucket is not completely full I decided to use about 3/4ml and I am currently in the wait and see phase.

 

Plan is to dose LC every other day for the next week and then do a 100% water change and wait another week and retest phosphates. If the reading is still in the 0.5 range then I will assume it did not work, but if it drops below that and holds for two weeks then I think my rocks are trending in the right direction.

 

Solid game plan?

[ReefGoat]

Are they registering 0.5 or 0.05? Those have been cooking for a while. That's crazy they're still registering that high

[Jon-Paul]

@ReefGoat 0,5

 

It has to be the rock too. I tested the distilled water I used before adding the salt and salifert reading came back at 0.0. After adding salt also came back at 0.0. Added rocks and one day later it came back at 0.25~ and about 4-7 days later it came back at 0.5. It has come down over the two months from about a 0.8 or so. I assumed this would be a long cure so I'm not surprised.

[ReefGoat]

Holy smokes! 

[Jon-Paul]

So I dosed the 0.75ml LC at 6:30PM and then redosed 1ml at 7:30PM. It is now 11:45PM and I've retested phospates and they are reading < 0.1. I've also noticed there is some dusting on the rocks of the white/greyish film. I am only running filter floss in the HOB filter and haven't checked it yet, but will change it tomorrow. The flow on it is pretty low (170LPH) 😛

 

I'm pretty surprised on how quickly it worked, but I'm now curious to see if the phosphates will return to the 0.5 level within a few days. I also have a theory that if I aim the overflow of the filter to drop directly on each rock after dosing the LC and aim the powerhead (300GPH) that will speed up the leeching process. by targeting the rocks. I only have 4 pieces I'm trying to cure.

[Jon-Paul]

Update!

 

I dosed the LC on several days sporadically throughout the past two weeks and the phosphates in the water have dropped to 0.1-.0.03 when I tested today on a Salifert test kit. So today I moved the rocks from the LC water to some fresh saltwater. I noticed that some dark brown growth has developed on the rocks, and I'm not sure if this from the Lanthanum. To me it seems to be more dead material that was on the rocks. In any case I scrubbed all the rocks with a toothbrush lightly and then placed them in their new bucket with two powerheads and a heater.

 

I checked the old water and measured NH3 0.5, NO2 0.25, and NO3 0? I say 0? because it seemed like it was a dark yellow and not a bright yellow. I would assume this is an indication that the organic material was beginning to decay on the rocks.

 

Anyways, I will retest phosphates in this batch of fresh saltwater a week from today and if it is in the 0-0.1 PO4 I guess I can start to think about setting up the tank. Or, at the very least change the water out again and wait another week or two.

 

So far, including the bleach cure it has been 72 days of curing!

[Lula_Mae]

45 minutes ago, Jon-Paul said:

Update!

 

I dosed the LC on several days sporadically throughout the past two weeks and the phosphates in the water have dropped to 0.1-.0.03 when I tested today on a Salifert test kit. So today I moved the rocks from the LC water to some fresh saltwater. I noticed that some dark brown growth has developed on the rocks, and I'm not sure if this from the Lanthanum. To me it seems to be more dead material that was on the rocks. In any case I scrubbed all the rocks with a toothbrush lightly and then placed them in their new bucket with two powerheads and a heater.

 

I checked the old water and measured NH3 0.5, NO2 0.25, and NO3 0? I say 0? because it seemed like it was a dark yellow and not a bright yellow. I would assume this is an indication that the organic material was beginning to decay on the rocks.

 

Anyways, I will retest phosphates in this batch of fresh saltwater a week from today and if it is in the 0-0.1 PO4 I guess I can start to think about setting up the tank. Or, at the very least change the water out again and wait another week or two.

 

So far, including the bleach cure it has been 72 days of curing!

That's cool that it's seemed to work so well.  I've heard Pukani has a lot of gunk inside and can take forever, but better to do it now outside the tank than in the tank and fighting phosphate issues forevermore!

[Jon-Paul]

@Lula_Mae Well I believe the phosphates have dropped because of the amount of LC I put in the water. I did dose LC the day before I tested the phosphates so it doesn't surprise me that they registered low yesterday when I tested. The real test will come when I test in one week. If the phosphates are below 0.25 even I would consider that a success, as I have waited week long periods and noticed that they go from 0 to 0.5 in a week on average over the last two months.

[Jon-Paul]

Update!

 

So I believe the phosphates are starting to level out and are hanging out around 0.25. In the new mixture of saltwater I removed the filter and used about 12L of water. I subbed back in a second powerhead for surface agitation and monitored phosphates.

 

Day 0 - PO4 = 0.0

Day 1 - PO4 = 0.1 - 0.03

Day 3 - PO4 = 0.25 - 0.1

Day 4 - PO4 = 0.25 Added 1ml Lanthanum

Day 5 - PO4 = 0.25 Added 2ml Lanthanum

Day 7 - PO4 = 0.25 - 0.1 Added 2ml Lanthanum

Day 8 - PO4 = 0.03

 

I think the phosphates have balanced out at 0.25 and I brought it back to 0.03 with the last dosing of LC. I will let the phosphates build back up for the next week and test, hoping to have a read of about 0.1. After the test I'm going to do a 100% water change and cook them for one more week in just saltwater and hope phosphates hold at 0.1 or below and begin the tank and start the cycle. I ordered some Dr. Tim's Bacteria and have the ammonia already. I will update in a week.