Best Way to CLEAN Live Rock???

yearofthenick

Active Member
I'm getting really sick of the crap on my live rock. Moreover, I am already very sick of the crap that comes on the live rock when I buy it.
So does anyone have a tried and true method of removing ALL the bad stuff without killing the good nitrifying bacteria in live rock? I'm talking sponges, aiptasia, hitchhikers like bristle and fire worms. Anyone?
I've heard about rinsing the live rock in RO water or even soaking it in RO water to get all the moveable hitchhikers off, but what about everything else? And will the freshwater dip kill the good bacteria?
I've also heard of leaving live rock out to dry in the sun, but doesn't that kill everything including the good bacteria?
 
Yeah you can dip it in ro/di water to remove unwanted pests, I did it to some of the rock in my tank and all is well.
 

spanko

Active Member
probably nothing you can do that will get it clean in a short amount of time and still leave the beneficial bacteria on it. You can cook the rock. This entails putting the rock in a tub with some type of cover, like a rubber maid tub. Add a heater, powerhead and let it go for 4 weeks or so. Each week do a 10% water change. You can also put a skimmer on the tub to aid in the "cooking".
 

dse

Member
honestly youll be making a big mistake on getting rid of your hitch hikers.
bristleworms are a big advantage and diping into RO/DI water is like a bomb you will be nuking the rock its self if your fed up of it all buy uncured LR or just pure dryed out dead not been used in a while rock.
if your going to leave out in the sun then there is no point buying cured youll be just wasting money,
diping into ro/di= killing all good bacteria and sumtimes don't kill the hitchhikers.
 

nwdyr

Active Member
I dip mine in fresh RO water for about 1 min and it gets rid of the abd guys , if you are having prob. with growth on the rock after its in the tank , just add some blue legg crabs
that works for me
 

aquaknight

Active Member
Originally Posted by dse
http:///forum/post/2750062
honestly youll be making a big mistake on getting rid of your hitch hikers.
bristleworms are a big advantage and diping into RO/DI water is like a bomb you will be nuking the rock its self if your fed up of it all buy uncured LR or just pure dryed out dead not been used in a while rock.
if your going to leave out in the sun then there is no point buying cured youll be just wasting money,
diping into ro/di= killing all good bacteria and sumtimes don't kill the hitchhikers.
x2, the only actual pest on your list was aiptasia and to which I had some live rock with aiptasia in hypo treatment, and they lasted for over 4 days before I kalk bombed 'em.
If you this worried about hitchhikers, the only way to guard your tank, is to QT everything, all corals, fish, and LR, then treat as necessary.
 

stanlalee

Active Member
the sponges should be scraped off before you ever put it in the tank. I've tackled the task of cleaning the actual exterior of the rock with great results. do it during a water change. Fill half a 5g bucket (or whatever you use) with old tank water you siphoned. I use a deticated butter knife with teeth but you can use a file or whatever. after looking at the parts I want to scrape clean in the tank I hold the rock over the bucket and scrape/file off any and every section I want free of whatever then I dunk the rock in the bucket to clear off what I scraped. then I put the rock back in the tank in water and under lights to see what I missed. then I repeat until I've cleared every section I want to clear. If there's no coral on a rock I'll also flip it if need be. once you have corals on the rock or coralline growing good you cant really do it this way but then you probably wont have to if you knock it out now. this is a good time to do that LARGE water change, add phospate sponge or whatever you need to do to keep it from getitng that way again.
you cant do a thing about bristle worms and things that live IN the rock except keep up water quality until they die out/starve. Is your live rock from a fellow hobbiest? shouldn't have much atapsia or bristle worms even if they had them by the time they make the journey from ocean to home. you can just kill atapsia with the regular methods (kalk, joe's juice). its another problem that will stay gone with good water quality.
that big rock didn't get virgin white on its own! ( I should update pics, I got some noteworthy coral additions since this pic). I actually scraped off ALL the rocks
 
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