Boiling live rock

[h2offshore]

As in my recent post I stated that my tank is becoming over run with aptasia and cant get rid of them, tried joes juice, etc. I am going to be breaking down this tank (65 tall) and putting all live stock into my 180 which is free of aptasia and dont want to introduce it to it. Would it be possible to put each piece of rock as I pull it out into boiling r/o or saltwater? Will this kill my rock? Will it kill the coralline that has become encrusted over every square inch over the years and dont want it to die off. Any suggestions I could use to totally eliminate the aptasia while rock is out of the tank would be great.

 

[fishgeek01]

this method will kill everything that you have on your rocks, coralline, bacteria, sponge, etc. It should do the trick for the aptasias though. I dont recommend this method, unless you have some LR sitting around you arent using so that when you are done you can start the curing process over again and be able to re seed the rock.

 

[gexkko]

Boiling the rock will definitely kill everything. You'll end up with basically purple base rock. I know you say you've tried joes juice, but have you tried mixing your own kalk? I made a mixture of 15ml vinegar and 1tsp kalk and dropped about 1/2 ml on each aptasia polyp. I left them out of the water for about 2-3 minutes. I haven't seen the aptasia since.
Put each piece of rock in its own container so the aptasia doesn't move. Then drop kalk/joes juice on the aptasia out of water and leave them out for a bit. Put the rocks back in the water after a few minutes so you don't start to get other die-off. Monitor each rock for aptasia. In theory, if you get all the polyps they should all be dead before the rocks are even placed back in the water (chemical burn
Another method is to do a direct injection. If you have access to a syringe/needle, inject a small amount of concentrated kalk into each polyp. If that doesn't kill them, then you have some seriously tough aptasia and may just need to boil the rocks and re-cycle.

 

[fishgeek01]

i use and recommend the direct injection with a pasty kalkwasser mix. it has done the trick for me and the tanks i help to take fcare of. plus boiling all your rock will be a pain in the butt...;l

 

[gsd]

I have killed a ton of it with nothing more than lemon juice.....using direct injection..........

 

[h2offshore]

What about putting the rock into a strong kalk mix when I pull them out of the tank then rinse them in saltwater before putting in new tank. Im thinking this may boost the coralline with the extra calcium.

 

[fishgeek01]

kalkwasser has a highly caustic ph, which is why it kills the anemones so quickly, it actually chemically burns them to death, you will notice your coraline will die as well in the area you put the kalkwasser. when you nail an aptasia it will leave a white mark about the size of a nickel where it was because the kalkwasser has killed everything around it. your carolline will grow back but i would not recomend placing the whole rock in a kalkwasser mix.

 

[h2offshore]

Ok guys, made up some kalkwasser paste, barely went throught the sringe, and just put a dab on each one, barely got any on the rock and they seemed to have dispeered. :jumping:

!! This method was very easy and didnt leave a mess in the tank at all.