did I kill my live rock?

ebob954

Member
I was wondering if i could of killed my live rock. I had a bad hair algea problem so I took all my LR out and had a bucket of RO and scrubbed them in there. They were maybe out of the water for 10 mins. Do you think i could of killed it? Evereything looks great in my tank and i have no more algea. Please let me know what you think
 

shyfish

Member
Hi,
Fresh RO water did kill everything living on the rock. The good news is that if you purchase more rock, even just a little, it will reseed the rocks you already have.
Those little critters that live in the rocks all get eaten by the fish eventually anyhow. If you don't have a way to replenish them then the rock just sits dormant. The only thing "alive" about your rock were the critters and algae living on them.
This is how I got rid of my hair algea too.
 

ebob954

Member
ok good, Yea i just bought about 35 lbs of marshall island LR. So I didnt do anything to hurt my rock?
 

stanlalee

Active Member
you probably shocked most of the micro creatures to death. you didn't hurt the bacterial filtration of it. like stated you should have done it in saltwater but nothing harmful is going to come from it.
 

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Ironically, no. I've done this, and the $%^#ing aptasia perks right back up after a few days.
Also, I really don't think you killed the "live" rock....if by live you're referring to the bacterial population. Certainly many (not even all!!!) of the larger critters passed on to that great aquarium in the sky, but much of the bacteria is *in* the rock, not just on the surface. Fresh water would cause many single-cell and simple multi-cell organisms to lyse (burst) but the bacteria we're interested would still be present in enough numbers to remultiply pretty darn quickly. And the bacteria we're most interested in, the critter that breaks down nitrate, is anaerobic in nature, buried deep in the rock, and wouldn't have been harmed by this at all.
In short, I don't think you killed your live rock.
Now, here's a similar question for everyone: I have a piece of live rock that's been sitting in saltwater for a couple months now without any sort of filtration, water movement, or light. It's very stale, dead water, probably hypersaline at this point. It's covered with cyano. Think the rock is still 'live?' More importantly: is it worth saving???
 

elijaher

New Member
Bacteria is still deep inside of the rocks, anyway you have two hours to play with, even if you kill all of them. It will come back. it just take longer
 
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