mrshall1027 Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 A few weeks ago, I picked up a good amount of establish live rock and live sand. I'd like to use it in the 135 we are currently setting up, but in it's current condition, there is no way I would introduce this rock into a new system. We put all the rock and live sand into a holding tank for the time being to keep it alive, and after observing it the last couple of weeks, we've seen all kinds of things in there; some good, some bad. The good - sponges, brittle stars, bristle worms, amphipods, tons of coraline algae. The bad - aptasia, asterina stars, bubble algae, hair algae, and just tonight I spotted what I think are pyramid snails. What can I do to clean up this rock but still keep all the good stuff? Or should I just not even try and dry it all out? This new build isn't going to be up for at least a few more weeks, so not in any hurry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 Load some peps in, harlequin shrimp pair, emerald crabs, large hermits, large turbo, and some wrasse that will eat snails let them feast! or just bleach/sun bake it all and start fresh. But I'd worry about them leaching out po4 if they are able to keep that algae alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrshall1027 Posted February 28, 2013 Author Share Posted February 28, 2013 Well, the only issue with adding livestock is that this tank is in our garage and we aren't really doing anything to regulate the temp. We'd have to move it into the house and blah blah blah. How long would it need to dry out for if we went that route? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 Well, i wouldn't consider the asterina stars undesirable. Rehabilitaing live rock that has a lot of hair algae and bubble algae takes time and usually isn't worth it in my opinion but if you can get stripped legged hermits from the coast they are fair algae eaters and scrape algae off rocks and will tollerate the colder temperatures in the garage. In my experience the hair algae can dissapear over time if you just maintain good water parameters and do frequent water changes but maintaining an ugly tank for the months it may take isn't worth it in my book. You definitely want to scrub all the algae off any of the rocks you want to save to start with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrshall1027 Posted February 28, 2013 Author Share Posted February 28, 2013 I'm mostly worried about those pyramid snails. I would hate to miss killing some and introduce them to my dt. Is drying out the rock the only way to 100% guarantee killing off the bad stuff? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 I would have bigger concerns. Rock that has been in a poorly maintained or even simply in a FOWLR or reef tank for a long time is going to have absorbed a massive amount of phosphates. All of the pests you are talking about are really a secondary if you have rock that is going to leach nutrients forever.In my last tank I had that same problem where I couldn't get my PO4 down even with no fish in the tank. I still have the rock in my garage in a 5 gallon bucket, and after now 9 months, changing the water weekly, there is still algae growth with no light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrshall1027 Posted February 28, 2013 Author Share Posted February 28, 2013 So, I guess the best thing to do is dry everything out then. How long would it need to dry for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Monnat Jr Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 I'm suffering a "mini-cycle" now with a ton of bubble and hair algae, cyano and a little dino coming back, because I tried to rehabilitate some LR that I cleaned. I had it on the back porch for 4 months alternating scrubbing, soaking in vinegar and bleaching in the sun. I thought it was clean, but it's leaching like crazy. Now I just take a LR out, hold it over a bucket, pour H2O2 over it and scrub off the nasty surface stuff. I'm hoping that the internal bacteria stays alive and I get off everything I'm killing so it doesn't crap up the water. I'm having success with that so far. But that doesn't get rid of pesky hitchhikers that are hiding inside the LR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted February 28, 2013 Share Posted February 28, 2013 You could try putting some in a bucket of really good quality freshly mixed water with a powerhead and measure it after about a week or two. I would check for PO4 and NO3 with a really good test kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bpb Posted March 1, 2013 Share Posted March 1, 2013 Not trying to hijack here, but I'm kind of in the same neighborhood with what I'm doing. Someone locally was selling their whole tank setup. While I would have loved the whole tank, I am not in the market to upgrade and just picked up a few killer looking pieces of his liverock. It had been sitting in a bucket of saltwater outside for who knows how long. At about $0.50 a pound, and better looking than any rock I have, I couldn't pass it up. It's super porous and quite shapely. It had some visible cyano and hair algae on it. Since I've battled both those things, plus aiptasia, I am not interested in introducing ANYTHING to my mature tank. Just wanted to stack my rock higher. I soaked mine in a 20% bleach solution for a day and now have it drying in the sun. I was going to let it sit in freshwater for a week next. I was then kind of thinking, if I soak it next in a concentrated kalk solution, will the help precipitate out any phosphate that it may leach?? Or is that just silly talk? I was also going to completely cure I after I kill it. Not in a hurry here. Just wanted to add more rock when it's ready but don't want to screw up my parameters in the process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrshall1027 Posted March 6, 2013 Author Share Posted March 6, 2013 So we've decided to try and keep the rock alive and started the process of cleaning it up tonight. We removed all the rock, fresh water dipped it, removed all the sand, cleaned off all the hair algae from the tank glass that had grown over the last few weeks, mixed new saltwater and placed the rock back in the tank. Basically setting it up as a QT for the rock. We will monitor it over the next few weeks, probably doing more fresh water dips and changing out the water as needed to clean out any unwanted pests that will show up. After that process, we will leave it in the QT for another few weeks and test PO4 and NO3. I'm really hoping this works! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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