Overhauling 125 FOWLR: question re LR in separate s/w bin

[ShirleyM]

Hello,
We are in the process the last two days of cleaning out the 125G tank...the LR has all been removed, blasted with water, scrubbed with a bristle brush, rinsed, and kept in new s/w tubs. We've cleaned the substrate fairly well, and upon checking nitrates, which were 75-100, are now still the same.

Here's my question: the water, which is new, that the cleaned LR has been stored in for about 24 hrs is now also 75 ppm or so on the nitrates. We are going to have to use that water as replacement water when we finish later today.

So our LR is full of nitrates...should we just re-aquascape as planned, or do something else with them before putting them back?

This tank has no algae problems, btw, and only fish, no corals to speak of - few button zooanthids.

Thanks in advance,
Shirley

[Minnreefer]

is there much good or bad life on the rock? IF there is very little good life ont he rock, I would keep it covered and let the bad stuff die, otherwise rinse them well in salt water and put them back in.

HTH

Jon

[ShirleyM]

Hi Jon,
There's nothing on the LR except coralline algae on most of the upper layer pieces. This is a LOT of LR.

I blasted all the detritus and gunk down the bathtub drain, scrubbed them like crazy all day yesterday, and then put them in trash barrels filled with newly made s/w.

I didn't realize there were so many nitrates IN the LR after all the cleaning.

???

I may just never get this nitrate thing right in that tank.

Shirley

[ShirleyM]

Update:

Our LR was put into two storage bins. We tested only one. The other tested less than 10 ppm nitrates. The temp in the better one was same as the tank as it had a heater. The Sg was also the same. The temp in the hi-nitrate tub was only 74, 6 degrees lower, and the Sg was 1.021, not 1.025 like the tank. We re-used the good water and tossed the bad, (both were made yesterday).

The tank looks much better and the rock work is much more useful for the fish, which had outgrown all the rock from before.
We didnt' put it all back in. Anyone in the Indiana area in the market for 1/2 of a 32-gal tub of LR??

Shirley

[Jimbo]

Hi shirley, I've had nutrient saturated live rock before have known several other people with the same problem.

Get this one guy put his LR in the dishwasher to clean them good LOL, hay it might have worked. I would use as much circulation as possible and change the water every couple of days, try to force the water through the rock, this way you might perserve some beneficial organisms, also just keeping the rock in the dark won't remove the nutrients, it may even add some. It would be interesting to see if this would work. Darn saturated rock has a habit of growin hair algea on a continious basis. Just thought of this, use a pressure washer on them, if you don't care about the life you can just use fresh water or salt if you might want to preserve some.

My first reef tank I believe fell victim to this and I could never get rid of the hair algea and I just didn't want to dump $400 worth of rock. But I have learned, on this second go round with a reef tank. Nice to start over and see better results.

-Jimbo

[ShirleyM]

Hey Jimbo,
How have you been? We've missed you!

I don't know what the deal is with my high nitrates, except there's nothing to export the waste...I have three surviving snails...the huge snails I forget their name...but I had 12 and the fish killed 9 last summer, so these three are definitely survivors. Maybe the high nitrates killed the others, don't know. The fish go after anything I put in there...

Anyhow, I got an awful lot of gunk out of the sand and rock and it "looks" real nice now, but the nitrates are still between 50-75, closer to 75. They used to be over 100.

The reef tank is much more reasonable at 25-30, but still too high.

I finally got a new computer this past Sunday ! I've been watching sales and such for several months...

The Gateway works, but is just getting slower and slower and started rebooting itself if I was printing and then went online at the same time. Couldn't find any conflicts, not the same problem as last time, and it just took forever to load PhotoShop, Illustrator, and then to work in both at once was taking a chance...

Thanks for all your help in the past...the Gateway is networked to the other two and will be a backup unit and also for additional Internet access as needed if we ever think we need to be 3 online at once.

Take care, and Happy New Year!
Shirley