Live Rock

[pjwperth]

Why do people buy live rock only to dump it in acid or bleach and kill everything on and in it? Why waste the money just buy base rock and wait.

[Almondsaz]

When i buy live rock I only clean off the "undesirable" algae or growth...I never place it in acid. If you buy manmade rock you sometimes treat it because of the propensity to leach phosphate, or place LR in a solution because there are pests you can't get rid of another way.

[pjwperth]

I do the same I scrub off any algae and then give it a freshwater dip for 30sec to a minute the shake it like crazy in saltwater to remove any detritus then into a tank and listen for any pistol/mantis shrimp.

If I hear any then i take a each piece out until it stops clicking then locate and destroy offending shrimp

[reefgoddess808]

I think some people re-cure the rock in case there has been a lot of die off. My LFS is about five minutes from my house and I bought all of my rock from there and transported it home in five gallon buckets with water. So the minimal die off that may have happened wasn't going to be enough to trigger a cycle in my tank or anything like that. Only thing I can think of...

[RocketEngineer]

The acid bath isn't used on "live" rock it is used on dead rock, more commonly dried out (aka dead) rock consisting of old coral skeletons. Since folks don't want to risk a hitch hiker in their new setup, they use the dry rock which is less expensive because its easier to ship, do the acid bath to remove all the dead material and strip the surface, and then cycle the tank using alternate methods. It works but I feel this technique results in the tank lacking some of the more interesting tank life. I used dry rock on my newest tank and like the concept but added true LR from my previous systems to seed the dry. I didn't do the acid bath but did place the rock in a container of SW and did weekly water changes for three months before I used it.

HTH,

[Mark Bianco]

. but did place the rock in a container of SW and did weekly water changes for three months before I used it.

HTH,

My friend you have the patience of a saint! My hats off to you...

Mark

[RocketEngineer]

My friend you have the patience of a saint! My hats off to you...

Mark

Actually, it wasn't that hard for two reasons.

1) This rock was for an upgrade. I already had the 75g running and the 125g wasn't ready to be installed. No need to hurry when I already had a system going.

2) I bought the rock during the Black Friday sales but didn't have the money to buy everything I needed for the upgrade all in one shot. I bought what was on sale but there are some things that don't get included in the specials. Finances made me take my time and it was well worth the result.

Plus, by "cooking" the rock I was able to avoid the worst of the algae issues.

Patience is key in this hobby. I make the effort to enjoy all stages of this hobby (including my most recent disaster). It's a hobby, not a contest.

[cloak]

IMO, when you know what to look out for, it's real easy to avoid some of the nasties that tend to accompany live rock. I'll go to various LFS and cherry-pick the lot. So far so good. GL.

http://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhiker/hitchhiker.shtml

[btucker7587]

I am chasing down a pistol shrimp now in my tank...seemed to have missed one when i got my Live Rock.

[dppitone]

All kinds of people do all kinds of things in this hobby. I've never heard of anyone doing that but who knows - I would suggest you don't touch the rock except for placing it in your prepared saltwater, and then let it cycle. But that just IMO.