home-made liverock PH question

[ShagManOrg]

Hi,

I've been curing a chunk of homemade LR (mix of concrete, sand and crushed coral)... I checked the PH for the first time after curing in freshwater almost a month. The PH read somewhere between 8.4 and 8.8 on my high range freshwater PH test. The rock's still got a while to cure it seems.... but here's my question: Should cured liverock (or anything that goes into a saltwater aquarium) end up being a PH of 7.0 in freshwater, or just anything between 7 and 8.2, to be safely added?

 

[Anonymous]

are you saying that you're curing it in freshwater? and if so, why?

i'll tell you my gut on it. i live in an area where the freshwater is high pH (easily above 8 ), so, to get anything down to a 7 is exceedingly difficult, not to mention hard on the fish. so, i think you ought to be curing the liverock in salt, and a pH of 8 - 8.4 ought to be fine, but i wouldn't use a fresh pH test (unless you're using an electronic meter which merely needs calibration, yeah?).

 

[ShagManOrg]

Welp, I'll be honest, I was just following one of many sets of instructionsj (one set is on garf.org)... all of them call for the curing to happen in freshwater. I did check my local tap water, and it's reading a PH of 7.0.

 

[Anonymous]

ok then, after settin' in the fresh, are you gonna give it time in salt? see, if you're water "likes" (that alkalinity/buffering bit) to be at 7, then it might be difficult to help it remain at the 8 levels needed for salt. that's my only other worry, and since i've never had neutral freshwater (that i didn't pay an arm and a leg for) i've never had to worry about getting the water buffered up, 's all.

in any event, if you're really worried about what it might do in a salt sys, then just set up a basic sys with some acclimated mollies and let them be your canaries.

 

[Anonymous]

Curing "man made" rock in freshwater is what every one who makes it recommends. Its not worth throwing away tons of salt on curing "man made" when alls your really trying to do is leach out the lime. I've put smaller rocks inside my toilet holding tank, it gets changed VERY frequently. I do still cure @ the end in saltwater just to make sure all is good, but only for a couple weeks and with very minor water changes.

 

[beefller]

I made up some rock a year or so ago and it took forever before the ph started comming down. I think it took about four months. I used freshwater to cure it. I changed it probably every four or five days. I have also read that you can use vinegar to speed this process up, but I havent tried it.

 

[Anonymous]

I tried using vinegar, it didn't seem to speed things up. Maybe I didn't use enough, but I did go thru 2 gallons in 2 weeks on 30g of water.

 

[Anonymous]

I cured my rock in a 300 gallon tub which I used straight tap. I changed the water every other day if not every day. Took two months to cure.

 

[LFS42]

freshwater curing is fine from everything I read.
It takes about 6 months for it to fully cure.
try this link for more ideas
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/liverocksanddyi/