Live Rock question

sweatervest13

sweatervest13

Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bang Guy http:///t/395488/live-rock-question#post_3521210
A bleach soak will dissolve organic material. Then a very, very good soaking in water and left to dry.
A natural alternative is called "cooking". That's where you set up a dark tank to hold the rock with good waterflow and heat and let bacteria consume the nutrients over time.
Either will work.
Is this what Acrylic did to his rock? Bleach bath to remove phosphates???
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Yep bleach bath dissolves a bit of rock but is used to prevent or deter unwanteds and phosphates. Phosphates are bound to the surface of the rock and no one can say how did it goes. Therefore using a bleach/acid bath strips away at the layers of rock eating away at it.
Not harmful at all an is an effective way to clean any rock be it dry, stored or algae infested rock!!!!!
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
Late to this but IMHO if you start the tank balanced out with macro algae you can use just about any rock for decorations including your old live rock. (But then I just used landscape from a local limestone quarry.)
my .02
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
I'll be disagreeing with Beaslbob this time. The macroalgae cannot sequester the galloping elephants if they never enter the water column.
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
Macroalgae can't solve the worlds problems.

If you have dead rock and things decayed on the rock and the rock is absolutely void of all life.... a bleach bath might be the best thing to do.
If I break down a tank that has mucho algae problems and dry the rock out, then sure - bleach is probably the best option. If I pulled the rock when it was covered in coralline and there was no sign of a phosphate problem and I even took the time to blow the rocks out with a powerhead before storage (like you should do) then I probably won't.
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by SnakeBlitz33 http:///t/395488/live-rock-question/20#post_3521284
Macroalgae can't solve the worlds problems.

If you have dead rock and things decayed on the rock and the rock is absolutely void of all life.... a bleach bath might be the best thing to do.
If I break down a tank that has mucho algae problems and dry the rock out, then sure - bleach is probably the best option. If I pulled the rock when it was covered in coralline and there was no sign of a phosphate problem and I even took the time to blow the rocks out with a powerhead before storage (like you should do) then I probably won't.
I never thought of blowing the rock out with a PH before storing it...you should do a Snakes method of storing rock.
 
tthemadd1

tthemadd1

Active Member
Well back to reason this thread exists I say soak it in the saltwater for a week and see if you have any leaching. Test the water and go from there. If your good your good if your not you may want to use the techniques mentioned above. Good luck with the rock just giving advice.
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Blowing the rock out might help but still doesn't remove the dying or soon to be dead organisms our naked eyes miss... so no blowing off before storage isn't the total answer I'm afraid.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Quote:
Originally Posted by tthemadd1 http:///t/395488/live-rock-question/20#post_3521290
Well back to reason this thread exists I say soak it in the saltwater for a week and see if you have any leaching. Test the water and go from there. If your good your good if your not you may want to use the techniques mentioned above. Good luck with the rock just giving advice.
Good idea. No reason to try to solve nonexistant problems. I think a week is a decent time frame.
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
I agree with Bang.
While I do like algaes I actually think the only real concern is whether or not some toxin like a pesticide got into the rock while they were in storage.
But aside from something like that, a week in salt water should be enough.
Even better if there was algae there. LOL
my .02
 
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