Rock reincarnation... beyond "cooking"

[puter]

Tell anyone outside of the hobby that you spent several hundred dollars to buy "live rocks," covered with dead and dying organisms, for your fish tank and they'll look at you like you're crazy... or stupid.

Tell them that you're going to pitch several hundred dollars worth of "live rocks," or worse, get out of the hobby, because your live rocks are covered with life... just the wrong kind --bryopsis, caulerpa, cyano algae, aiptasia and majano anemones-- and you'll remove all doubt.

Yet, it happens all the time. These aquarium pests are amazingly resiliant, and once they've gained a foothold, attempts to control or eradicate them can be exhausting and/or futile.

When the traditional methods of control have failed, or you're dealing with old rocks, rocks covered with pests, or rocks that may have been exposed to medicines/substances that may be harmful to reef tank inhabitants, it may be time to consider a more drastic approach: rock reincarnation.

Rock reincarnation differs significantly from "cooking" rocks. Cooking rocks typically refers to depriving the rocks of light for an extended period of time, in the hope that all the light dependant pest organisms will die off but the beneficial bacteria and coraline algae will survive. This can take a long time to be effective and carries the risk that pest organisms will not be wholly eradicated. Majano anemones, for example, can survive months without light. Just a few surviving organisms may result in reinfestation.

Rock reincarnation, on the other hand, refers to killing everything on the rock, disolving away the outer layers of the rock to remove impurities, and then reseeding the rock with bacteria and coraline algae to bring it "back to life." Thoroughly cleaning the rocks, thereby making them "dead", only takes a couple days. Making them "live" again, by reseeding and giving the bacterial populations and coraline algae time to regrow, takes many months.

If you've got the time and want to ensure your rock is pest free, here's how you can reincarnate your rock:

1) Bleach the rocks.

Bleaching the rocks will kill everything on them and help disolve organic material. Rinse the rocks off by repeatedly dunking them in a bucket of water. Then, put them in a container of water (tap water is fine) with a small powerhead to keep the solution circulating and add enough bleach so there's a 1:10 (or stronger) ratio of bleach to water.



Wait 24 hours or so, pull the rocks, and dunk/swish them around in a bucket of RO water, rinsing them well. Your rocks will be significantly whiter. Some will have rust and/or gray discoloration. You may find some collegen-like substances left over which typically are easily removed (see the picture of the pump).





After the bleaching step your container may look like this:



Be sure to thoroughly wash it before continuing since bleach and muriatic acid can react and produce a deadly gas.

2) Muriatic Acid Bath.

Muriatic acid is nasty stuff that can easily cause significant and permanent injuries. Use appropriate **SAFETY PRECAUTIONS including eye protection, adequate ventilation and acid-resistant gloves** when working with or near the acid. I strongly recommend that you don't use it indoors. Make sure kids and pets can't get anywhere near where you're using it.

• Use RO/DI water
• Fill clean container with rocks, RO water, small powerhead.

• Slowly add muriatic acid (careful, it will bubble vigorously. Keep your face away and don't breathe the fumes.) **Always add acid to water**

Acid added:

• When bubbling decreases, add more acid. (I typically end up using a 1:10 ratio of acid to water. The acid bath won't take more than a few hours)

20 minutes later:


More acid:


Acid bath at 3 hours:

• When finished, add plenty of baking soda to deactivate any remaining acid.

• Rinse rock well with RO/DI water

[puter]

You should have nice, clean, dead rock at this point. Optionally, let it dry out. Plan for three to six months or so to turn it back into live rock. I use a dechlorinator (Prime) when I first put it back into saltwater just to be extra safe.







Hope this helps. Please be careful...

Mark

[Conesus_Kid]

Great tutorial, Mark!

Cully, are you watching this?!?!

[puter]

To illustrate the effect of the acid bath:

Here's a rock after bleaching:


and here's the same rock after the acid bath:

[Capt_Cully]

Good stuff Mark! And timely as far as I'm concerned.

What is the best way to dispose of the acid neutralized waste water?

[Conesus_Kid]

Originally Posted by Capt_Cully

What is the best way to dispose of the acid neutralized waste water?

Acid + Base--> Salt + Water

[chrisqueenz]

This should be a "Sticky"... Great step by step guide!

[puter]

What Scott said. After the neutralized acid solution sits for awhile I add some more baking soda and see if it fizzes (though the proper way to do this would be to check the PH of the solution). If it doesn't fizz, I dilute the solution with water from a garden hose and let it run out into the lawn. Haven't seen any ill effects to date.

[Capt_Cully]

Not to beat a dead horse, but you're saying to not plan on using this rock for 3-6 months after this dip in the fountain of youth?

How about drying in a dehumidified room?

I need my rock basically as soon as I can get it.

[GMaquarium]

I have been doing this in small batches one or few rocks at a time in on going reef tanks. Only rocks I really like, sometimes need to be recycled after 10+ years of use. I would leave it out for a few days to a week after its been cleaned and washed.

[puter]

Originally Posted by Capt_Cully

...you're saying to not plan on using this rock for 3-6 months after this dip in the fountain of youth?

You can use it right away. But, it's not going to provide any significant biological filtration for a month or so and it'll be several additional months before the rocks develop a decent amount of purple coralline algae coverage.

Also, if you put these rocks in a new tank it's still going to go through all the "normal" new tank stages: diatoms, green film algae, etc. The nice thing is you don't have the die off associated with new live rock. So, with appropriate bioload management, you won't get the ammonia spike.

I prefer to re-seed the rock in a separate tank with good circulation and lighting so I can better control the bioload and do what I can to encourage coralline algae growth.

Also, you want to be really careful when you're adding things to the tank. One of the first things I put in are snails... it's very easy to reintroduce annoyance algae and pest organisms via their shells.

Mark

[Gary Majchrzak]

great thread.

I've always wondered about people that toss expensive pest infested liverock outside in the garden

[superkat]

this is one of the best threads i've seen on RC. Thank you. Excellent tutorial.

[Capt_Cully]

Ok Great! I plan on recycling the tank, if it occurs. I want to reseed from an established tank. I'm not as concerned about most algae. Halmeda on the other hand is a nightmare, as were the mojanos. Flat worms are the only other biggie I'm looking to avoid.

[Capt_Cully]

Away we go!!!!

[oneradtek202]

Originally Posted by Capt_Cully

Away we go!!!!

you have leaves in yours , it probably wont work mark

[Capt_Cully]

You're welcome to come over and go bobbing for leaves..... I'll even give you a snorkle

[oneradtek202]

i hope ur new neighbors dont mind you dumping toxic waste in their back yard

[Capt_Cully]

acid+base=water+salt

it puts the lotion in the basket.......

[oneradtek202]

Originally Posted by Capt_Cully

acid+base=water+salt

it puts the lotion in the basket.......

you COULD forget to put baking soda in there



i can picture it now, Mark out back in the woods with a big tub of acid, wearing camo, drinkin a 40 of O.E. , waitin for his rock to dissolve

[Baldwin]

This is good info, and will be useful to me because I have 500+ lbs. Of rock which has been exposed to cupramine. However I don't filly understand why you would do this to get rid of bryopsis ect. Because any time you add one new coral reintroduction is easily possible?

[Scott-CapeCoral]

Awesome tutorial! I just can't see myself doing this though. I had a frag come in that seeded my tank with some bryopsis, as soon as I noticed the issue I raised mag. levels, lowered the temp a degree or two, and cut the lighting down a couple hours. That took about 3 weeks, and no more bryopsis to be found.

[Capt_Cully]

i can deal with all kinds of problems, but mojano anemones had me beat. Nothing reasonably combats them IMO. All you can do is keep em at bay, barely.

This was a necessary step for me, as I wasn't about to start a new tank with those buggers in the equation.

FWIW you can't get Muriatic acid at HD anymore. You have to get it at a specialty paint or chemical store.

[Baldwin]

I feel that this may help my situation, but I seriously am worried because it seems like putting your rock in acid, well it just sounds dangerous? If you add baking soda their is no chance of acid introduction?

[doryarlin955]

I'm just curious, what is the purpose of the acid? The bleach would kill anything in there, won't the acid just eat away at your rocks?