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  #1  
Old 01/06/2008, 06:06 PM
The Saltman The Saltman is offline
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Whats the best plan for my marco rocks??

Hi guys,

I am going to be getting a shipment of about 250#'s of marco rock and plan on cooking it all for 2 months. However, during this time I will be running my main display tank with water only in it. The sump has a refugium section in it. I have 2 questions regarding this setup. If I bought 1 small piece of live rock rubble and placed it in the refugium, it would obviously seed the refugium, but once the refugium was established, would it also seed the main display as I added the rest of the rock? My other question is should this 1 piece of rubble be cooked?
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  #2  
Old 01/06/2008, 06:34 PM
stevedola stevedola is offline
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why r u cooking it? you could simply cure it to cycle the rock.
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  #3  
Old 01/06/2008, 06:36 PM
The Saltman The Saltman is offline
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I am still cooking it on the advice of some others who have gotten marco rocks. They say in the first few months there are a lot of phosphates that leach off the rock.
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  #4  
Old 01/06/2008, 07:18 PM
younglcy younglcy is offline
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I just started a tank with about 150# of marcorocks and there's no need to cook it. Soak it in buckets for about 5 days and change the water every day to get the sand and any particulates out. On day 6-7, build your aquascape and add saltwater and circulate it good for another couple of days. On day 8-9, do a partial water change and start some carbon. Once the ammonia level has dropped, seed the rock with some live sand or rubble (I used 20 lbs. of GARF grunge to seed mine) and start a lighting schedule. Within 10 days, you'll start seeing the first algae/diatoms and by the time the tank cycles, the rock will look great! It'll probably take another 3-6 months to get good coraline growth, but the rock doesn't seem to leach much. My alk was a little high at first (13-14 dkh), but came down once the tank cycled and my phospates never exceeded 1.0 ppm. Rock comes pretty clean and is very pourous. 250 lbs. is going to go a long way.
  #5  
Old 01/06/2008, 07:22 PM
bgcook bgcook is offline
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i am tagging along with this. i have some marco rocks (dried rock) coming in for my nano this thursday. the nano is up and running and doing well with rock from my refugium from the main tank. i want to add the marco rock as soon as i am able. i had read on a thread here somewhere, where people were soaking the rock is some sort of acid?? to clean the organics of the rock. if anyone has this thread or has heard of this let me know. if not i am just going to set up an extra tank that i have to cycle.

thanks
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  #6  
Old 01/06/2008, 07:29 PM
Twz Twz is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by younglcy
I just started a tank with about 150# of marcorocks and there's no need to cook it. Soak it in buckets for about 5 days and change the water every day to get the sand and any particulates out. On day 6-7, build your aquascape and add saltwater and circulate it good for another couple of days. On day 8-9, do a partial water change and start some carbon. Once the ammonia level has dropped, seed the rock with some live sand or rubble (I used 20 lbs. of GARF grunge to seed mine) and start a lighting schedule. Within 10 days, you'll start seeing the first algae/diatoms and by the time the tank cycles, the rock will look great! It'll probably take another 3-6 months to get good coraline growth, but the rock doesn't seem to leach much. My alk was a little high at first (13-14 dkh), but came down once the tank cycled and my phospates never exceeded 1.0 ppm. Rock comes pretty clean and is very pourous. 250 lbs. is going to go a long way.
Did you use fresh water? to soak it?
  #7  
Old 01/06/2008, 07:53 PM
The Saltman The Saltman is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by younglcy
I just started a tank with about 150# of marcorocks and there's no need to cook it. Soak it in buckets for about 5 days and change the water every day to get the sand and any particulates out. On day 6-7, build your aquascape and add saltwater and circulate it good for another couple of days. On day 8-9, do a partial water change and start some carbon. Once the ammonia level has dropped, seed the rock with some live sand or rubble (I used 20 lbs. of GARF grunge to seed mine) and start a lighting schedule. Within 10 days, you'll start seeing the first algae/diatoms and by the time the tank cycles, the rock will look great! It'll probably take another 3-6 months to get good coraline growth, but the rock doesn't seem to leach much. My alk was a little high at first (13-14 dkh), but came down once the tank cycled and my phospates never exceeded 1.0 ppm. Rock comes pretty clean and is very pourous. 250 lbs. is going to go a long way.
Where can I get some garf grunge? Because I prefer to not use any live rock rubble at all for the fear of pests. Its why I am going with all marco in the first place
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  #8  
Old 01/06/2008, 09:56 PM
Twz Twz is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by The Saltman
Where can I get some garf grunge? Because I prefer to not use any live rock rubble at all for the fear of pests. Its why I am going with all marco in the first place
GARF.org

Last edited by Twz; 01/06/2008 at 10:06 PM.
  #9  
Old 01/07/2008, 08:58 AM
stevedola stevedola is offline
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i think cooking marco dry rocks is a bit overkill but if you want to wait 2mths then by all means but I still think curing would be effective too.
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  #10  
Old 01/07/2008, 09:26 AM
RyanBrucks RyanBrucks is offline
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my marco rock has been sitting on my garage floor, covered by a tarp most of the time.

but a few times I bumped the tarp off, and some sawdust got into the rock. I'll be starting a new tank soon, does anybody think I should just rinse the rock thoroughly and use it for aquascaping right away in the new tank?
  #11  
Old 01/07/2008, 09:33 AM
trndyAlex trndyAlex is offline
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Rinse it... but like what some have said, curing would be the recommended way to go
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  #12  
Old 01/07/2008, 10:06 AM
RyanBrucks RyanBrucks is offline
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whats the point of curing separately if its going to go in a new tank with uncured LR? won't they both cure at the same time without really affecting eachother?
  #13  
Old 01/07/2008, 10:21 AM
stevedola stevedola is offline
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you can cure in your NEW tank. just remember you going to have to do alot of WCs and its usually easier in a smaller rubbermaid bin than in a 225g tank.

curing is used when going into an est. tank or if you want the rock to be ready for when your tank is going up to help with the cycle.

I didnt cure my rock prior to setting up my 90g--it just took longer and had alot of WCs. However Im going to add a few pieces (20lbs) of dry rock to my 75 and first it will be cured.
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  #14  
Old 01/07/2008, 12:08 PM
RicGio RicGio is offline
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I rinsed mine and then let it sit overnight in a brute trashcan full of RO. When I drained it the next day the water stunk to high heaven, so I think there was definately some organics still in the rock. I'd recommend at least rinsing it before placing it in the main display.
  #15  
Old 01/07/2008, 12:09 PM
Deuce67 Deuce67 is offline
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Just cure it in your main display. Its a lot easier to aquascape when its dry(lighter) in an empty tank than it is when its wet(much heavier) in a tank that has water in it. Thats what I did. The water was nasty for a while but did clear up after a couple of weeks. I even placed livestock after 3 weeks.
  #16  
Old 01/07/2008, 12:14 PM
Craig Lambert Craig Lambert is offline
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It's "dead rock" There's nothing to cook...........
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  #17  
Old 01/07/2008, 12:33 PM
spike78 spike78 is offline
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Here is some advice based on my experience with 200# of Marco Rock for my 200 Bow:

1. Drill and pin your aquascape while the rock is still dry. I put a tape outline of my tank on the floor to get my spacing right.

2. Cook the rocks in rubbermaid containers, NOT the tank. You would not believe the amount of gunk that comes out of these rocks the first couple weeks. I didn't want that stuff in my tank, especially with any sand in it. I cooked the rocks for 2 months, but if you don't want to wait that long, I would say at least a couple weeks. I did 50% water changes (salt water) every other day. Each of my rubbermaid bins had about 10% uncured live rock placed in it in week 2 to start seeding the dead rock. Each one of my containers had a heater and a powerhead to keep good circulation and flush the rocks better. By the time I was ready to put the rocks in the tank, I had a good starting population of amphipods in the rock.

3. When you do put the rocks in the tank, run RowaPhos or another appropriate phosphate remover. It doesn't take a lot of phosphate to make the algae go crazy and the rocks will leech phosphates for a while.

Overall I'm extremely happy with my Marco rocks. They are beautiful, much cheaper than imported live rock, and are teeming with life now 6 months later.

Good Luck,

Steve
  #18  
Old 01/07/2008, 12:39 PM
RyanBrucks RyanBrucks is offline
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thanks for the suggestions.

my system is a 220G display, and I have a 50G refugium. do you still think it will be necessary to use a phosban reactor with that large of a refugium (Gracilaria lit with a 65W PC LOA fixture)? or will the macroalgae help with the excess phosphates.
  #19  
Old 01/07/2008, 01:12 PM
spike78 spike78 is offline
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I have a smaller 'fuge, about 5 gallons with Chaeto, and I still ran into phosphate issues. After about month 4 I didn't need the RowaPhos anymore.

I didn't actually use a reactor. I just put a filter bag of RowaPhos below my bag of carbon in a filter canister I have running.
  #20  
Old 01/07/2008, 04:47 PM
RyanBrucks RyanBrucks is offline
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before putting it in a tank to cure, is it ok to rinse the marco with freshwater?

I'm actually going to be doing the tiggsy method of foam+eggcrate+crushedcoral method of aquascaping with the marco rock. the eggcrate will form a shape exactly to fit my corner overflows, and the marco rock will be bound to the eggcrate, and ~50% of the gaps filled with foam. then epoxy resin will be used to adhere crushed coral over the foam. so I'm thinking I'd want to rinse the rock first, otherwise some of the waste will get trapped by the foam. of course its probably not as harmful if its trapped.
 

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