Did it get Rio'cized!

[King Jason]

I have 100 pounds of Marshall Island rock from my reef in my backyard in a trash can. I just broke down my 60g last weekend and it's sitting there waiting to be put into my new 190g tank. It's headed with a 200w heater and circulated by a Maxijet 1200 and little Rio 60 (had it sitting around).

I just went out to check my on my rock. I opened up the lid and the smell is very foul (like feces). There is a oil slick film on the surface, the water is a black tint, and my rocks have black algae stuff on them. The Rio is still running. It doesn't look melted, the Maxijet is still running and looks fine, and the heater looks fine.

I'm hopping my 100 pounds of Marshall Island rock isn't trash...I think I'm about to cry

 

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure the lid is a good idea. Hopefully someone else will jump in. Did you have the lid on to retain heat in a cold area?

You can always do a water change. Washing the rock with a powerhead will help removed the junk.

Yeah, I know, your RO/DI is working hard to just fill the tank right now. Might have to delay things to get fresh mixed saltwater.

Look good at your powerheads.

 

[Anonymous]

Take the pump out and run it in a pail of clean freswater and see if the water changes color!

Only idea I could come up with. :?

I don't think your rock will be trashed either way.

Louey

 

[King Jason]

Yes the lid has been on to retain heat. It has been dipping into the 40's at night and I didn't want the water to get too cold.

OK, I'm going to make a batch of fresh salt water in a 5g bucket. Then siphon out some of the water and put in fresh water.

I am also going to test the Rio in fresh water to see if it is leaking something.

 

[King Jason]

And luckly my RO/DI is almost done filling my tank. I have about 20 more gallons of my sump to fill and then it's full! Whoohoo!

 

[King Jason]

OK Rio was fine...I thought ahead when I started this project and made about 10 gallons of fresh water for top off for a little tank I have setup to house my misc corals I wanted to keep. So I'm I took 5g of that water and am mixing some salt in as I type this.

 

[Anonymous]

Your rock is probably fine...it's just curing, that's all. And the rio is probably alright, too. The smaller sized rios are supposedly much better than the larger. Personally, I no longer let a rio of any size anywhere near my tanks--I lost over a thousand dollars worth of fish to a fried rio 2100. :x :evil:

Since the rock is curing, it would be great if you could put a very large, very powerful skimmer in that rock vat. That god-awful stench is decaying organic matter (all the sponges, corals, algaes, etc. that are dying off), and a skimmer will zip it right off and help with the curing process.

 

[King Jason]

Unfortunitly I don't have a skimmer that I can use...the only option is to put it in the sump of my tank (piece by piece) and let it sit in there for a while my Euroreef CS8-3 skims the crap out of it. Why would it be curing if it was already in my tank for 3 years!? It's only been outside for a week?

 

[Anonymous]

There may have been a large fluctuation in temp over night causing die off. 40* is a tough temp to fight off, even with a large heater and a lid. It could also be that the air went stagnant with that tight lid. If it smells like feces I would say that you aerobic bacteria has died off.

 

[edying]

Hey Jason -

I have a small cooler I use for keeping some spare LR for frags and such. If I put the lid on it for even a day or two, it smells like cr*p when I open it up.

I'm thinking that you have something similar going on there...

You might have also had some die off when you took the LR out of the tank... stuff that was under the sand would have become exposed and also cause a mini cycle...

-Ed

 

[King Jason]

Hey Jason -

I have a small cooler I use for keeping some spare LR for frags and such. If I put the lid on it for even a day or two, it smells like cr*p when I open it up.

I'm thinking that you have something similar going on there...

You might have also had some die off when you took the LR out of the tank... stuff that was under the sand would have become exposed and also cause a mini cycle...

-Ed

So should I leave the lid off? I planned on putting a lot of this rock into my sump and buying mostly new rock for my display tank. Do you guys think it would be ok to start moving this rock into my sump? The tank is cycling anyways, so I don't think it could really hurt anything. It would also then get skimmed and won't be exposed to the cold nights anymore. The only thing I worry about is smelling up the entire house (some unhappy people will come at me with pitch forks and knives!)...I know it’s going to stink for a bit, maybe a day at the most?

 

[Anonymous]

Without the lid off the air will quickly go bad and starve your LR of oxygen, killing the bacteria. Hence, the awful smell.

 

[King Jason]

Without the lid off the air will quickly go bad and starve your LR of oxygen, killing the bacteria. Hence, the awful smell.

Is it too late to open the lid and think the rock may still be ok? Or do you think most/all of the bacteria is dead?

 

[Enzo]

What kind of heater do you have in the trash cans? Heater's don't react to temperture change very well. That's why I am going with stainless steel heaters that come with a temperature probe. They keep the tank at the exact temperature even through flucuation. I usually set my heaters higher than they should be so thjat they can more easily react to temperature changes.

 

[King Jason]

The only heater I will buy is Ebojagger. I have a 250 watt heater in each trashcan.