can i break up live rock with a hammer?

steve2121

steve2121

New Member
my tank has been setup for 2+ years. I have live rock and volcanic rock in there thats turned into live rock after this long. The pieces are really big though so they dont allow me to do much with them. Can i take them out of the tank and smash them up into smaller pieces with a hammer and stick them back in? I'm really bored with the way they look in there now and dont want to put anymore in.
 
culp

culp

Active Member
yea you can break it with a hammer. but the problem i always have is that i always tend to hit the rock one or two many times more than i should and don't like how it ends up
 
lkc

lkc

New Member
I drop my pieces on the cement patio in my back yard. That way you get no metal flakes from the hammer. Hold high over head.....SLAM!
You can't really direct the area of breakage tho.....but it sure helps take out frustrations....
 
salt life

salt life

Active Member
Originally Posted by lkc
http:///forum/post/3000892
I drop my pieces on the cement patio in my back yard. That way you get no metal flakes from the hammer. Hold high over head.....SLAM!
You can't really direct the area of breakage tho.....but it sure helps take out frustrations....

the LR rubble I have in my fuge I got it by putting a piece of LR in a zip lock bag, and hitting it with a hammer in the places I wanted it to break, worked pretty good but the bag didn't really make a difference.
 
dondemi

dondemi

Member
Use a screwdriver or chisel with the hammer & you can almost break them exactly where you want to. I've done it to a couple of my larger rocks & it works great.
 
locoyo386

locoyo386

Member
Hi there,
Originally Posted by Steve2121
http:///forum/post/2998751
my tank has been setup for 2+ years. I have live rock and volcanic rock in there thats turned into live rock after this long. The pieces are really big though so they dont allow me to do much with them. Can i take them out of the tank and smash them up into smaller pieces with a hammer and stick them back in? I'm really bored with the way they look in there now and dont want to put anymore in.
Yes, you can physically break the rock. Since you had the rock in the water for over 2 years, I am not sure it it is housing anaerobic organism. I would assume it is. If you are not relying on the the live rock for denitrification, than it should be fine to break it into smaller pieces. If there are anaerobic organism in the rock, they might die once exposed to oxygen. If you are relying on the rock for denitrification, than I would think that your nitrates will go up if you break the rock. Not sure, but you could possibly see ammonia aswell, since the anaerobic organism might die. Look more into it and make sure that is what you want to do. You might have to keep the broken rock seperate from the DT untill all (if any) anaerobic organism die off so you wont get ammonia in your tank.
 
salt life

salt life

Active Member
Originally Posted by dondemi
http:///forum/post/3000978
Use a screwdriver or chisel with the hammer & you can almost break them exactly where you want to. I've done it to a couple of my larger rocks & it works great.
That is a good suggestion, smashing them just seems to be the more fun alternative
 
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