can live rock be restored

[burkey]

Hey, I have a 55 gal. with approx.40lbs.LR. and 40lbs.LS
Had to medicate tank cause of severe ick outbreak.
Lost 1 koran angel but rest survived.(1sailfin tang, 1pseudochromis, 1maroon clown)
Now I'm wondering about my rock?
Is it toasted or is it possible to run so much carbon through the system to get rid of the med. affects ?
I would like to add a clean up crew and maybe some starfish or anenomea, or corals.
If you have to remove the carbon when you medicate doesn't that mean that carbon affects the med.
I'm willin to put in the time if I can save the rock if there are any solutions.
Thanks
Steve

 

[beth]

No, it can't in the true sense of "Live Rock". I would never put that rock in a tank with inverts.
The cheaper route would have been to set up a quarantine tank.

 

[moraym]

There is something you can put into the tank to remove copper, if that is the issue. I had to medicate once using a copper-based medicine, this was before I was smart enough to use a QT. I found a jar of stuff in the LFS that i put into a mesh filter bag, and hung in the tank for a few months. Put two PHs behind the bag to blow water and current through it.
I had this set up for about four months. Finally reloaded the tank, had plenty of inverts, didnt notice any harmful residual effects from LR/LS contamination.
But maybe i was just lucky.

 

[beth]

Did you use copper on LR or LS?

 

[moraym]

Friend used an ich treatment while I was gone that had copper as one of its ingredients. It was used in a tank with LR and LS.
This was years ago.

 

[burkey]

the med. I used was quick cure it has Formalin, and malachite green. What was the stuff you got from LFS to run through your filters.

 

[moraym]

Let's wait for Beth to post to see if it's okay. I don't know if what I did is good or not.:notsure:
As far as the item from the LFS, it only removed copper. So check the meds you used to see if copper is the active ingredient, then just ask at the LFS, they should know the name of the product. If not, i'll try to look through my stuff tonight to find it.

 

[beth]

Rock and sand are very porous and tent to "retain" the medications, then at some point "leach" out the medications slowly making it near impossible to ever get meds out completely. Some hardy inverts such a hermits may do ok, but other animals such as corals and anemones will likely not survive in such a tank. Formalin is actually formaldehyde.
All I can say is that if anyone finds themselves in a bad situation, go to Walmart/Kmart, get a large regtangular rubbermaid container, and use it to house your LR while you use the display do do hyposalinity to treat ich. If you have to medicate, then use the rubbermaid to treat the fish and leave the LR alone in the display. While setting up an aquarium QT may not be affordable, certainly most can buy a large rubbermaid and use some spare PHs, or heaters that they might have around the house. We pay way too much money for LR and sand to contaminate it with medications.
What were you treating that you had to use formalin?

 

[moraym]

Ah, that's why I thought my method had succeeded. After "cleaning" the tank for months on end, it became FOWLR. So no sensitive corals/inverts/anemones.
Thanks Beth for pointing out the err of my ways.

 

[burkey]

hi beth,
I was treating for ick that a koran angel had. I got the fish out into a Q.T. as soon as I spotted it but that was appearently too late.After 3 days I discovered my sailfin had it and my damsel also.
That's when I decided to treat the tank cause I lost the Koran in the Q.T.
Didn't want to loose any more so I treated the tank and they all recovered very well.I didn't know how the rock would be affected but the fish were most important.

 

[beth]

If you want to use that rock in a FOWLR tank, with no plans to include inverts, corals, then it should be ok. It is however, now just rock. Worms and other LR fauna should be pretty much wiped out.