GoToSleep's 700g Build Thread (& complete remodel)

We never rinsed our sand, but we did rinse our rock. Our rock was, well, rock. So the dust on it was just rock dust, and possibly shop dust from sitting in a box with other rocks for who knows how long :

 

Yes it was. Otherwise I wouldn't have rinsed it, as it looked very clean. The water was pretty dirty.

 

I suppose that not many people are willing to deal with the dust cloud that results in not rinsing it and maybe that's why it's recommended. I'm just guessing though.

 

Probably. However, it wasn't just a milky dust cloud, it was fairly nasty water. I'm glad I washed it Personally I'd also rinse dry rock, as you never know what other dust has settled during transit or storage.

 

I had plenty of "mud" in my kitchen sink from rinsing about 15 pounds of base. Even after rinsing it well with tap water and then in RO water, when I put it in tank, it sent the protein skimmer into overdrive and took 2 days for the tank to be clear again. Maybe our rock was especially nasty!

 

That's a good point. IMO, a decent visual inspection might clue you in with some degree of accuracy; whether the dust is from friction, and is just coral dust (beneficial), or airborne dust which has settled onto the rock (not good). A chalky residue would be the former, whereas plain 'ol everyday dust from the air has a somewhat discernable "speck-like_ visual difference. Probably splitting hairs, but a good "blow" on the rock should clue you into what you're dealing with.

But as ZachB alludes--there's a chance there's something bad on that rock that you'd never be able to visually detect.

 

I rinsed my sand as the caribsea bag said to do so. The water was very milky. Maybe we should rinse the sand, and bottle the milky water for aragamilk dosing

Interesting theory about the aragamilk and the "dust" from sand etc. I just don't know if i buy into that personally.


When I get my new sand for my big tank in a couple days, I am rinsing it again. I would definitely rinse any LR that I would put in the tank, even LR from an established display tank has crud on it if you shake it out.

 

As for rinsing LR--I'm pretty sure that GoToSleep is using dry base rock. If you're using LR, it would be good to cure it in saltwater in a separate vessel first. This would be like quarantining, it would allow ammonia-producing die off to occur outside of your reef tank, and would also allow hitchikers and nuisance algae to become obvious, so we could remove them.

 

Thanks for lookin' out for me. Please tell Rodger that I said hi.

As Sparky said, I'm going with all base rock. The cost to go 50/50 with live rock would add a few thousand to my set up cost and I'm on a budget

 

I picked up a scaffold today so that I can get my live rock into the tank. I just wasn't comfortable passing 20-30 lb pieces of coral 8 feet up and over the side of my tank to my 11 year old and relying on him to do all the placement. With the 6' scaffold I'll be able to load the rock on top then climb into the tank and have a hand in placing things myself.