Peppermint live rock!Cleaning

fox1135

fox1135

Member
I am looking to clean a large pourous piece of live rock and wanted to know the safest way to do so, the rock is about 10 pounds and i only have 30 lbs total of live rock. Im worried if cleaning it would cause a cycle because of how its 1/3 of my live rock. (30 gallon tank). the reason why i need to clean it is because i lost a peppermint shrimp a while ago. totally disapeared. but i had just purched a condi, i figured the condi ate the peppermint, because the shrimp was messing with the tips of his tenticals alot. well now i have very high phoshate problems and i really think that the shrimp died in the rock causing my high phosphates. also i cannot see through the rock, it is very pourouse and has alot of tight squeezes.(my shrimp would molt then go hide somewhere in the rock and then reapear.) and getting rid of it is the very last option to me, it is a very good rock and looks interesting, like a pyramid..
i really dont know anything about cleaning live rock or starting cycles so any help what so ever is much appreciated.
 
dmyers557

dmyers557

Member
I hear of people putting their saltwater into a container with the live rock and cover it so no light gets in for like 3 days. Scrub off the live rock in the water first. Then when they take the rock out, its clean.
 
luca brasi

luca brasi

Member
I don't think a missing peppermint shrimp in a 30g is the cause of your high phosphate reading. If you have any clean up crew, they probably took care of the pep. What's your water source? What do you feed?
 
mch2o

mch2o

Member
I agree with the 2 above me. Most of the time your hremits and other crabs will eat up things that die in the tank.
 
fox1135

fox1135

Member
well i only have one crab, an emarald, which is a algae eater. and i dont know if any crab would be able to get to the shrimp. (large in terms or emarals) my clean up crew is not very large at the moment, just a few turbos and astensias or w/e. i get my water from my lfs, have tested for phosphates and not found anything. i feed rods food, then i skip a day, and feed mysis or flake.
 
fox1135

fox1135

Member
hm, i didnt know that. also i cleaned the rock out in a bucket with a turkey baster. alot of detritus and white flakey things and algae came out. no sign of the shrimp,(in form at least) could this be the cause of my high phosphates? the rock acting like its own filter and catching alot of waste, building and building and all the while not letting that stuff be filtered out? cause im really at a loss here.
Im using phosban so i wont be able check phosphates for a few days, then ill have to see if that was the problem or not.
Also any information about your tank sizes and clean up crews is appreciated
 
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