dried rock put into tank issues?

[ReefMoto]

So ive been adding dried rock (been dry for years out of old old tank) to my tank over past few months and last few weeks have noticed corals looking irritated. .. stn on my slimer and my miami orchid colonies... also lost 2 fish in one day. Also frogspawn lost some heads ... all my parameters are normal 0ammonia ,5ppt nitrates , 10dkh, mg 1100, ca 445 dont have a phosphate test and I mix my own water using rodi from my tap.... any experiance would help. My rainbow millie colony rp colony ha wkins colony all look great all zoas except one colony look great . I found a weird FW the other day on the glass, it doesnt fit the aefw. Specs regardlees I. Che ked all coal and dipped . No fw came off coral help? O ya I dose red sea no3po4x on a dosing system as well as ca and alk its a 90gal tank with 30 gal sump with fuge

[pbaldwin]

Did you do anything to clean up the dried rock before you added it into your tank?

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[ReefMoto]

Washed it with rodi, then soaked in bucket of tank water for a day

[keithhays]

You probably should have soaked it longer with circulating water for more like a month with regular water changes. Btw, the issues you are having may have nothing to do with your rock. It maybe unrelated, but your mg should be more like 1250.

[ReefMoto]

I know my mg is little low... but not to the point stuff should be dying... ill get a phosfaate test kit today and see where its at just weird only thing that has changed is the new rock... has any one had problems likebthis with dried rock before I guess is my main question

[keithhays]

Well I think the difference going to be the origin of the dry rock. I use entirely dry pukani from BRS and have never had this happen. But, I don't know what cleaning procedures produce the nice clean stuff I received vs it coming from an old aquarium, sitting for long time with just a light soaking in water...big difference. I have used rock from my old aquariums before, but I didn't mix it with my recent aquarium that has all new rock. I do know that calcium carbonate is a phosphate sink, so what ever your phosphate level was in the old system will very likely be your new phosphate level..barring GFO use.

[sponger0]

You probably should have soaked it longer with circulating water for more like a month with regular water changes. Btw, the issues you are having may have nothing to do with your rock. It maybe unrelated, but your mg should be more like 1250.

Actually it should be closer to 1350

[ReefMoto]

Ok so im going to definatly do phosphate test today and see if that's an issue makes sence... but i do use a po4 reducer similar to gfo miggt just pull rock and soak it for a while to cycle it to new parameters

[keithhays]

Ok so im going to definatly do phosphate test today and see if that's an issue makes sence... but i do use a po4 reducer similar to gfo miggt just pull rock and soak it for a while to cycle it to new parameters

I would say yes to both if you have enough rock left to support the biofilter.

[ReefMoto]

Ya plenty of rock, just got home from work and things look good since ive been runing carbon... gonna pull and put in bucket... this sucks though im bummed im getting sick and have to rescape...

[philip mendes]

I did the same thing when i started my very first SW tank -- I got a bunch of old rock from a buddy who had given up on the hobby some time ago -- I soaked the rocks in some cycled in a huge bin with a couple pumps. Would change the rocks around every now and then, maybe add some new water, but let them alone for the most part. After a few months, put them into my new tank and haven't had ANY problems with them since. Good luck bud!

[ReefMoto]

Ya this tank is 4 years old just wanted to add more to the tank and figured it was cool since its been dry so long... guess not

[williewilliams]

I soaked mine for 6 weeks doing 100% water changes every week. The first week was 50% vinegar 50% rodi water. Tested every week and stopped when phosphates and nitratrates were all reading 0. BRS dry rock gives off alot in my experience.

[ReefMoto]

I dont have a po4 test kits but going to buy one tommorow ...hopefully a lfs has a digital one somewhere

[keithhays]

I never tested for Phosphate before I started adding other phosphate to the system and then turned on the GFO reactor. At one point it was .81 when I turned on the reactor, but now no longer registers on the Hanna. I have a tank full of BRS Pukani which may be different from the other types.