tufa and lots of it

[rossb]

Well now that I am turfing my agrocrete in favor of tufa I have a question for someone with tufa. I just bought 182 pounds of it and I am going to add it to my tank. What did you do to get it ready for your tank?

Can I just sort of wash it off in fresh water and fire it in?

[tkhawaja]

Can I just sort of wash it off in fresh water and fire it in?
I have used Tufa in my old reef tank. That is basically what I did. I was surprised how fast it got covered by the corraline algae.

I think, this was asked in another thread as well. But, why are you getting rid of the Aragocrete rock? Wanna send it to me or is it already gone? :lol:

[rossb]

I have been having problems with my polyps, zoo's and invertbrates. They do not open up well.

In my area there are others that use the same water and have the same sand bed (peening beads and aragonite). They have no problem. Of all the people that I have talked to (with successful tanks) the only difference is the aragocrete. I am going to take it out, replace it with tufa and real live rock and see if that helps. If it is not the aragocrete...well it will be available.

[Canadian Man]

Hey Ross. I just put mine in but if your putting in that much I would give it a rinse.

cheers

[tkhawaja]

I have been having problems with my polyps, zoo's and invertbrates. They do not open up well.
You let it cure long enough? The recommendations go from weeks to months. GARF also recommends giving them a weak white vinegar solution bath. It would be sad to see your own effort go to waste.

[rossb]

Well I cured them 1 month in fresh running water, then 4 weeks in salt water, did a major water change and then added live sand and a few snails. at 6 weeks I added some fish...and it has now been 10 months...

I'm not saying the rocks are the cause of it but I'm going to change them to see what happends.

[tkhawaja]

Seems like you took more than enough precautions. Hope you find the cause.

[Bob I]

Actually this is one of life's great mysteries. Ross has done everything possible to try and make this work, but so far to no avail. Ross and I live about a kilometer apart as the crow flies. We have gone so far as to put all the zoos , and GSP's in my tank in which the water has not been changed for at least six months. They do fine here, but as soon as Ross takes them home they close up never to open again. I think Ross would be deleriously happy to find the answer. It is no fun to spend big bucks on livestock only to have to board the stuff out. I of course don't mind, as I get to look at the stuff for free. :biggrin: :eek:

[tkhawaja]

Well obviously a few parameters are different. Hopefully actual LR will fix the problem. If not he's going to have to start from the beginning as far as eliminating the cause is concerned. Water parameters, trace element levels, lighting, circulation. The only major effect that I have heard about the Aragocrete are ph related. Either the cement or crushed coral component cause variations in ph.

[Canadian Man]

I have a similar story with my tank in the early stages and I have no cause for it.

All my snails were lying on thier backs and wouldnt extend their foot. I have lots of snails and all of them were affected.
I did a series of waterchanges and that fixed the problem. I have no cause or explanation but something was affecting the tank and waterchanges fixed it.

[tkhawaja]

I have no cause or explanation but something was affecting the tank and waterchanges fixed it.
Just one more story to advocate regular small water changes. It's a good thing.

[Buccaneer]

Sorry to hear about this Ross ... I actually have a arogrocrete " wall " on both sides and the rear wall of my tank ... I cured it for 3 months in fresh water ( changing water every 2 weeks or so ) ... it took that long to get the PH down to a manageable level ... it has been in the big tank now for about 6 months ... just curious ...

did you test the PH after you cured it ?

what did you use in your formula for the arogrocrete ?

Cheers

[rossb]

did you test the PH after you cured it ?

what did you use in your formula for the arogrocrete ?

I have a Ph monitor and the Ph is stable around 8.0. I used ph down when I was curing the rock to speed the process. When i added the fish after 6 weeks (10 weeks total) the Ph had stablized.

I used 1 part concrete, 3 parts oyster shells, 1 part aragonite sand and 1 part crushed coral. I did use play sand as a mold but I washed all of the sand off.

I did leave the two overflow casings on for now, but I did replace a heap of aragocrete!

I'm with Bob...I did some major water changes and that helped a bit for a short while.

[Buccaneer]

hmmm ... similar to how I made mine except for the crushed coral ... was the tank used for anything else prior to making it a reeftank ? ... or maybe there is a contaminant in the sand ? ... process of elimination I guess so starting with the arogrocrete is as good a place to start as any ... good luck with it Ross

Cheers