Are Old Dried Up Live Rock Reusable?

[gea0119]

I JUST GOT SOME OLD DRIED UP LIVE ROCK AND WANT TO KNOW IS IT SAFE TO MIX WITH NEW LIVE ROCK.IT HAS BEEN SITTING OUT IN THE SUN.HOW DO I CLEAN OR CURE IT?

[marineaddict]

This is what I was told to do.

Put the rock in 5g buckets full of water and a bit of bleach. Let sit for 24 hours with a powerhead. Then remove that water and add clean water everyday until the bleach smell is gone. It should take about 4 to 7 days.... your rock will be clean and ready to use. At this point in time it is considered base rock. I would add slowly to make sure another cycle does not start...... This base rock will soon be live rock!!

[gea0119]

THANK YOU SO MUCH.THAT'S WHAT I WANTED TO HEAR.I DONT HAVE ANYTHING SET UP YET.I EMPTIED OUT MY WATER AND IM GONNA START OVER WITH PREMIXED SALT WATER.IM LOOKING TO BUY A WATER FILTRATION SYSTEM BEFORE I START MIXING MY SALT.

[marineaddict]

Good idea. Get a good RO/DI unit!! IMO it is a must in keeping a reef.

[gea0119]

Can I start cycling with live sand and no rocks?I have a fluval 204 canister filter and CPR protein skimmer.Do I need to run the skimmer even though I dont have rocks ready yet?

[marineaddict]

You can start with the live sand but you will certainly have another cycle or "strat over" when you add the rock. I would add both at the same time.

[gea0119]

I will wait for my rocks then.I'm in no rush.This will give me more time to get read and study more about reef aquariums and get more confused.LOL.I cant believe i dont have another question. Oh yes I do.My powerhead is broken.What brand do you recommend for a 29 gallon tank?

[marineaddict]

What are you using the powerhead for? Water movement or to run a skimmer or something else?

If it is for water movement I like Maxijet or Hydor Koralia. I lean towards the Hydor because of shape and the way it disperses water - but both are good.

If it is for something else let me know and I will try and help.

[gea0119]

Yeah just for the movement.I got a rio for the skimmer.I had a rio for the powerhead but the cord looks like it got cut.Kinda fishy.

[marineaddict]

If it is cut or you think it is cut - DO NOT USE - throw it away.

[migston]

Is bleach or vinegar better to use? Or maybe using each in different steps?

[gea0119]

you heard vinegar???I already started with the the bleach.what is vinegar good for??

[HornetMech242]

Vinegar is used to clean equipment because it will eat calcium deposits. I clean my skimmer monthly to keep it running like new. To be honest this is thefirst thread that i have seen that someone said to clean rock with bleech. i would of just used water and a brush.

Chris

[gea0119]

I just didnt want to through the rocks away.I did want to put them in my tank.They were put on the backporch and dried out.Its over 40lbs of nicely shaped rock with alot of pores.

[Gold Stripe]

Bleach kills all organic matter. You dont know what might be living in the rock since it has been out. I know it looks dry but live rock is pourous so it could have bacteria deep inside. Dont want to introduce anything to your tank unknowingly. By using bleach you truly have a clean start and you can seed it with good live rock or sand and know what you are getting. Just be careful to get it completely rinced so you dont wind up adding bleach to your system and killing the seed rock or sand.

[Squidhead9]

Just be sure its good and clean first

[gea0119]

ok.You guys are all so helpful.Thank You so very much.Im listening.

[migston]

The theory with vinegar is that rock absorbs phosphate and will slowly leach it out over time. Vinegar will very lightly dissolve the outer layer of rock and hopefully release the phosphates

[gea0119]

OK SO SHALL I USE VINEGAR AFTER THE BLEACH.IM ABOUT TO TAKE THE ROCKS OUT NOW AND PUT THEM IN A SALTWATER WITH A POWERHEAD.OR IS IT FRESHWATER FOR 7 DAYS.

[marineaddict]

I didn't know about the vinegar and rock thing... interesting. I have always cleaned my powerheads, etc with vinegar....

[migston]

Think of it as exfoliating the rock. Stripping out the outermost layer to reveal the clean, healthy stuff under.

Now, like I said, this is a theory. Hopefully someone who's actually done this will chime in. My old rock is currently soaking in bleach and I'm planning a vinegar bath after I rinse it out.

[jcm1229]

I'll ad that it won't hurt when changing to the freshwater rinse to add dechlorinator to the bucket of water.

[indydog1]

+1 on the dechlorinator. this is a safety step to insure there is no bleach left.

[marineaddict]

it is hard to know when the bleach is gone.... the rock smells so fresh right now it is amazing. I don't smell bleach at all so I put it in my tank today. I'm thinking I should have used a dechlorinator but since I didn't smell anything I just added the rock. Maybe I will buy some tonight and add it to the tank.... certainly can't hurt anything.

[migston]

Is this a new tank or are you adding this rock to an established tank?

Personally, I'm going to go through a few more steps before using this rock in a tank with living animals.

Right now it's soaking in bleach. Next I'll rinse one or two times and then soak in vinegar. Then rinse and buffer with baking soda. Then it goes into saltwater for lightless curing for a month or three. About a week into the saltwater cure I'll toss in a piece of live rock to seed it with pods and bacteria and what not.

[marineaddict]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12571090#post12571090 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by migston
Is this a new tank or are you adding this rock to an established tank?

Personally, I'm going to go through a few more steps before using this rock in a tank with living animals.

Right now it's soaking in bleach. Next I'll rinse one or two times and then soak in vinegar. Then rinse and buffer with baking soda. Then it goes into saltwater for lightless curing for a month or three. About a week into the saltwater cure I'll toss in a piece of live rock to seed it with pods and bacteria and what not.

brand new tank mixed with live rock from the store and the rock and "fixed" in the buckets....

[gea0119]

dude this is a lengthy process.The rocks are out of the bleach and in fresh water.Am I gonna add the vinegar cause i just planned to soak them for 7 days.These rocks wont be ready for the tank for 3 months???????How long in vinegar and how long with the baking soda?This is a new tankI got 5lbs of live rock cycling now.Im just waiting for my 40 to get ready.Its a 29 gallon tank.Break it down for me please in newbie language.

[marineaddict]

I didn't wait 3 months.... i had them in bleach on thursday of last week, freshwater until this afternoon and into the tank a couple of hours ago. I am going to add a decholrinator to the tank, just in case......

I did not do the vinegar or baking soda.

[migston]

That's just what I'm personally going to do. I'm sure it's safe to:

1) bleach
2) rinse
3) either dry or add dechlorinator. Personally I'd rather just dry because bleach dissolves in air and i don't know what's in dechlorinator. Plus sunlight is free.

I'm adding the vinegar step because I want to dissolve the outer layer of rock to theoretically release the phosphates (not a fact. I'm kind of experimenting)

The baking soda step is to neutralize the acidity of the vinegar (not necessary, but you might have low pH if you don't rinse out the vinegar well.

The lightless curing is to populate the rock with pods and bacteria. You can do this in your display tank but I'm really paranoid about algae that could come from the live rock that I use to seed the cleaned base rock. Doing this in the dark should kill any algae on the seed rock.

[marineaddict]

as you can see there are many ways to do things here... Take all the advice you can and then do what you believe is right. I like my plan but I also like migston's plan.

both good options!!!!

[migston]

Oh and my other reason for wanting to dissolve the outer layer of rock is that I had a ridiculous bubble algae problem with these rocks in my old tank. Like literally every inch of the rock was covered with the stuff.

The drying and belach killed the algae but there's dead bubble algae skin stuck on the rock still. It reminds me of the skin on corn if you squeeze out the kernel.

Anyways, I'm lazy and don't want to have to pick them out one at a time so i figure dissolving some of the rock will dislodge most of them.

[gea0119]

i just didnt want good rock going to waste or my LFS.The guy told me to throw it away.dont put it in the tank or give it to him and he could use it for his freshawater tank.DUHH.I might be a newbie but i'm not .......you get it.

[gea0119]

its been a week.i did soak them in vinegar.im going to rinse them and add a buffer and put them in a bucket with salt water, a powerhead and a heater.then im going to add them in the tank monday a lil bit at a time.i still have nothing in the tank but 5lbs of lr and 40lbs of ls.

[gea0119]

I added the rock and my aquascaping sucks.LOL.I'm waiting on my CUC now.