DIY Rock (oystercrete) curing??

[MicroTankin]

Ya I will test for phosphates, and I have tried breaking a rock and it did not change the ph so... I will give it one more week and then see how things go. It is going into its own tank and I am going to seed it...so I am not worried about it ruining a established system, thanks for the advice

[wolf_bluejay]

when I did a bunch ages ago, I found that after the PH stabilized out in fresh water it would spike again in salt.
I would add some salt to the water (if you want to be cheap, just use rock salt) and watch the PH again. Mine spike up to 11 after adding in the salt, and took about 2-3 weeks to come down again.

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

Come to think of it, years ago i had the same problem as Wolf_bluejay.

Originally Posted by wolf_bluejay

when I did a bunch ages ago, I found that after the PH stabilized out in fresh water it would spike again in salt.
I would add some salt to the water (if you want to be cheap, just use rock salt) and watch the PH again. Mine spike up to 11 after adding in the salt, and took about 2-3 weeks to come down again.

[MicroTankin]

I did have them in salt about two weeks ago for about a week and no spike so I went back to freshwater curing. I am pretty sure they are cured because I have 2 batches curing in two seperate tanks and they have both been holding at 8 for weeks now....I am going to soak for one more week and start the tank up I think...see how it goes?

[Wayne]

Sounds like you are ready to go. Seeding it in its own tank is going to be redundant but definatly a good idea!

[blacknife]

i tried putting some of my diy rock that i thought was stabilized in my nano. not much just a bigger piece or 2. I had a powerhead incident that blew half the water out of the tank and the heater really heated up the remaining water and the ph went through the roof. back in the bin went the rock.

I wonder if cooking up the heat on it would speed up the ph leaching

[MicroTankin]

It would be interesting to do an experiment and see if heat would affect the curing process. I am going to make some more rock this summer and I found a nice place in a creek where I can let it sit for a month or two and let nature do its worst to the rock then I plan on letting it dry cure in the sun for 2 weeks or so to let the sun bleach the rock even whiter and make it look more like dry reef rock.

However if you read this article (http://www.oystercrete.com/Journal/?p=74) they did not do any heat treatment ideas but the result of there study is that only water volume affects curing time....

Thanks again for all the imputs keep them comin....
I will keep this post updated as to the status of my rock and my findings as far as seeding.