Contaminated live rock question

[scfatz]

Hi... new to these forums as well as saltwater.
Heres the story.....yesterday I bought a 90 gallon tank with the intention of it eventually being a reef tank.
The set up came with quite a bit of what used to be live rock.Some of the rock was stored in a bucket in an outdoor shed.Completely dried out for some time.
The other rock,believe it or not,was used to decorate an outdoor garden area after the tank was taken down.So as you can imagine it got dirt on/in it because it was sitting right on the ground.
Some of the pieces are quite large and it's really very porous.Excellent rock I think.
How would you guys go about cleaning it up so it will be safe for my tank?Be as detailed as possible please.
Also...in the drawer in the stand I found a half empty bottle "copper plus chelated copper remedy" so I suspect it was used in this same tank.Is that going to be a future problem with corals?
Thanks,
Fatz

 

[hot883]

You will have to fill tank with water and check for traces of copper through a test kit.
The rock can be reused probably if you cure it in fresh water for a week and then put it in salt water set up for several weeks monitoring the levels. Heated and circulated.

 

[sharkbait9]

Well I guess I’ll be the bearer of bad news. IMO don’t use the rock. Yes this hobby is very expensive to just throw rock away. Keeping that in mind why would want to use possibly contaminated rock.
In a nut shell You fill the tank up with saltwater, live sand and throw this rock in and a uncooked shrimp to cycle the tank. You get everything you want, need and then you start to load the tank up with coral and everything is starting to come together and looking really nice.
Slowly and unbeknownst to you that rock has been slowly leeching out contaminates without you or anything showing signs of ill effect. Then on day the fish start looking peeked and the coral are loosing color and are dying.
You get on the message board and place a post because your tank is crashing. Everyone starts asking question trying to help figure out the problem. Mean while your tank is crapping the bed and no one can figure it out, Water changes and filter add-ons and your just dumping money into a tank to fix it but to no avail the tank crashes, everything is dead and your tank is ruined and your now gun shy of saltwater. All because the rock has leached out lawn chemicals and what ever else that has soaked into the rock.
I can only see bad stuff happening with that rock. Keep that rock right where its at on the lawn.
Don’t use that half empty bottle throw that right in the garbage. Start the tank off right Give it a good soak with baking powder and rinse it out and then a vinegar soak and then another baking powder rinse. Scrub the side and let it soak for an hour or so to make sure everything has been clean. Then fill it up and cycle it for a week and test for cooper with a slaifert cooper test kit.

 

[stanlalee]

I'd use the rock in a fish only set up. I've used rock that's been dry for yrs without any problem. My concern would be if the tank was treated with copper likely the rock was too. Could be problematic in a reef system. Likely be okay in a fish only tank.

 

[vanquish]

This is all true. I was going to argue about copper but then sharkbait9 mentioned lawn chemicals... that would be a tragic way to crash a tank. So please, do not use the rock which was in the lawn.
But about the rock in the storage and the issue of the copper--there is a solution. You can buy a product made by Seachem called CupriSorb (picture attached). I swear by this stuff, it saved the current tank which I have successfully used to keep corals, fish and inverts.
What you do is this, buy the 100mL package (treats up to 60g) and place it in a high flow area (mine is inside my hanging filter). It rapidly removes all copper suspended in the water column. Now, at this point most people argue that "Well that’s great, but your substrate absorbed copper as well, and will slowly leach it back into the water." True. But, if you use the CupriSorb continuously, the copper will constantly be removed from the water as it is slowly leached, and will NEVER reach a level toxic to the inhabitants. Several months later (give or take) your rocks will have leached all the copper they stored and your tank "should" be copper free. You should take no chances though! When the CupriSorb packet you have is completely "used up" or saturated (turns dark colored, small beads become light blue) buy a second one and run it for a while longer. The best part is while you’re running the second packet you can "recharge" the first by soaking it in a mixture of water and muriatic acid (instructions are included with the product) and use it again! Since it also absorbs heavy metals, you can recharge and cycle through the packets and use them constantly to keep your tank heavy metal free!
Sorry, I really don’t like to sound like a commercial for Seachem haha. I just love this product.
Hope this helps!

 

[scfatz]

Thanks for the replies guys.
I quick phone call tells me it was outdoors for just a short while (about a week) and the lawn hasn't had any chemicals on it in many many years.
I didn't mean to make it sound too bad....there was some dirt on the bottom of a few pieces.It cleaned up great fwiw.
Now to announce my goob move of the day...since my first post I now have all of the rock in a container in the garage....recircing in an attempt to kick off the curing process....(still reading on that one)....so now I don't know which is which,but I appreciate the thought on the lawn chems.
Its going to be fish and rock only for a long while.What I didn't know is I could test for and remove copper....very cool.I'll do that before moving on to coral.
Thanks again guys.

 

[chipmaker]

I don't think that usjing it would be a problem at all. I wuld soaok it and wash it off really well, and put it in a container to "cook" for awhile. Scrub it good. If necessary yu could easily clean it all up with potassium permanganate or chlorox, since its already dry and exposed to weather etc, you will not be doing it any more harm, and the PP or chlorox would sterilize it. I seriously doubt though by now that there is going to be sufficient copper in it if it ever did have any to do any harm, and yu can always monitor it after its cycled, and there is stuff to absorb copper as well, so its not a waste. At the least it could be used for a base rock, or display rock and seed it with some fresh lr.....Only a fool would throw away the rock since there is quite a few ways to make it useable again......

 

[sharkbait9]

Originally Posted by chipmaker
I don't think that usjing it would be a problem at all. I wuld soaok it and wash it off really well, and put it in a container to "cook" for awhile. Scrub it good. If necessary yu could easily clean it all up with potassium permanganate or chlorox, since its already dry and exposed to weather etc, you will not be doing it any more harm, and the PP or chlorox would sterilize it. I seriously doubt though by now that there is going to be sufficient copper in it if it ever did have any to do any harm, and yu can always monitor it after its cycled, and there is stuff to absorb copper as well, so its not a waste. At the least it could be used for a base rock, or display rock and seed it with some fresh lr.....Only a fool would throw away the rock since there is quite a few ways to make it useable again......

Originally Posted by SCFatz
Thanks for the replies guys.
I quick phone call tells me it was outdoors for just a short while (about a week) and the lawn hasn't had any chemicals on it in many many years.
I didn't mean to make it sound too bad....there was some dirt on the bottom of a few pieces.It cleaned up great fwiw.
Now to announce my goob move of the day...since my first post I now have all of the rock in a container in the garage....recircing in an attempt to kick off the curing process....(still reading on that one)....so now I don't know which is which,but I appreciate the thought on the lawn chems.
Its going to be fish and rock only for a long while.What I didn't know is I could test for and remove copper....very cool.I'll do that before moving on to coral.
Thanks again guys.
Then my suggestion would be to boil each rock. Then go to a toys r us and buy a plastic kiddy pool or such and cycle the rock in that and test the waters. Rock can hold contaminants for a while. Lets just say the tank was treated with cooper, and it absorbed it then as that rock comes back to life and little worms and peanut worms start to burrow into it they disrupt an area that has cooper and that area becomes the seat of a cooper leech.
I don't know for sure, I’m just throwing my thoughts that came to my head when I read the post.
If the tank is glass, then silicon can and will hold cooper. As to the cupri, I guess, if you have use cooper or your tank has been exposed to heavy metals. Personally I would rather be a fool with a lighter wallet then frowning idiot with a tank that has crashed for being to lazy/cheap to just buy clean rock while I soaked and cycled the possibly contaminated rock and tested it to see what if anything comes about it.
What good is it to monitor a tank if your going to use the rock as a base? Once the tank is set up and cycled and then you start your load and in six months cooper levels start to show, what would the person do then? Take the contaminated rock out? It’s to late.
Like I said copper absorbs into silicon. So now your tanks been up and running your testing and one day your test show trace levels, Oh well? In a fish only tank I would not care but if your looking to make a move to corals the possibility’s of a crash are their, and when your thousands of dollars deep in a tank I would think twice, but that’s me.

 

[scfatz]

In a fish only tank I would not care but if your looking to make a move to corals the possibility’s of a crash are their, and when your thousands of dollars deep in a tank I would think twice, but that’s me.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply.It is going to be fish only for a long time...perhaps forever.
I'll get a copper test kit either way......sooner or later I'll know I can't add coral,or I'll know that I can....either is cool with me.
Thanks again.

 

[vanquish]

Originally Posted by SCFatz
Thanks for the thoughtful reply.It is going to be fish only for a long time...perhaps forever.
I'll get a copper test kit either way......sooner or later I'll know I can't add coral,or I'll know that I can....either is cool with me.
Thanks again.
Haha yea... my tank was only supposed to be fowlr+crabs/shrimp... but just you wait

 

[sharkbait9]

Originally Posted by Vanquish
Haha yea... my tank was only supposed to be fowlr+crabs/shrimp... but just you wait

aint that the truth

 

[oreo12]

I would not be afraid to use the rock I would wash it off then put it in a tote with a power head and salt water for a couple weeks then I would dump that water and do it again. You will need to buy a peace of live rock to put in the tank with it to help seed it. If some of the people on here knew what the rock they buy at the pet stores has been though they would be scard of it as well. It will take a lot longer to get a stable system starting out with that rock but if you go slow it will work.