Badfish_Reefer
01/13/2014, 10:37 AM
My 75 gallon mixed reef has been up and running going on 7 months now. I am now dealing with the consequences of many novice mistakes that I made while setting up (this is my first reef tank).
My main mistake was that I used dry rock which was formerly live rock in another tank, but had been left to dry out when the tank was taken down. However, I just added it right to my system without taking any time to let it cook, or taking steps (bleach, acid bath, etc) to strip it of phosphates.
For months now the dead material from the rock has been seeping out into my tank (I think) and I've been battling cyano for months on end. I've had enough. I took my water to get tested and Phosphates were off the charts- literally. I use RO with a relatively new unit so I'm pretty sure the rock is the issue.
Yesterday I took the tank down and successfully transferred all my live stock to a 40 breeder. I mixed 20 gallons of fresh made saltwater with 20 gallons of water from my old tank to avoid cycling again. I bought a phosban reactor and hooked it upto the new tank to get rid of any left over phosphates from the old tank water.
There's about 30 pounds of liverock I bought from the LFS that has been in my old tank and has been put in the 40 breeder.
The other 70 pounds of rock I have is the rock that came from someone's tank and was left to die out, and which I stupidly added to my tank without doing anything to it.
SO, my question is. What do I do with this 70 pounds of rock? Do you guys think this is definitely the source of my phosphate problems? Should I give it a bleach bath followed by treatment in muriatic acid? Or, is that too extreme?
What would you all do in my situation?
My main mistake was that I used dry rock which was formerly live rock in another tank, but had been left to dry out when the tank was taken down. However, I just added it right to my system without taking any time to let it cook, or taking steps (bleach, acid bath, etc) to strip it of phosphates.
For months now the dead material from the rock has been seeping out into my tank (I think) and I've been battling cyano for months on end. I've had enough. I took my water to get tested and Phosphates were off the charts- literally. I use RO with a relatively new unit so I'm pretty sure the rock is the issue.
Yesterday I took the tank down and successfully transferred all my live stock to a 40 breeder. I mixed 20 gallons of fresh made saltwater with 20 gallons of water from my old tank to avoid cycling again. I bought a phosban reactor and hooked it upto the new tank to get rid of any left over phosphates from the old tank water.
There's about 30 pounds of liverock I bought from the LFS that has been in my old tank and has been put in the 40 breeder.
The other 70 pounds of rock I have is the rock that came from someone's tank and was left to die out, and which I stupidly added to my tank without doing anything to it.
SO, my question is. What do I do with this 70 pounds of rock? Do you guys think this is definitely the source of my phosphate problems? Should I give it a bleach bath followed by treatment in muriatic acid? Or, is that too extreme?
What would you all do in my situation?