Algae, algae, algae...oooo aptasia and manjano(crappy liverock)

mfp4073

New member
I recently got about 15 lbs of rock from a local hobbiest for fairly cheap. The shapes are not too bad...but once home and curing in a bucket I realized that its covered with at least 5 different kinds of algae, aptasia and a manjanos. Question is what is the best way to deal with it? Bleach in a bucket, boiling water, set out in the sun, gasoline (joking)?
 
I would just do boiling water, too bad all the other good stuff will be destroyed, but I wouldn't willingly put those plagues in my tank. Probably why you got such a good deal!
 
You should be able to rid all of the above by cooking as suggested. This basically involves putting the LR into a tub of some sort (like a clean plastic trash can or something) with mixed up saltwater & a powerhead for flow. Keep in the dark for a few weeks which will cycle the LR and also kill off the algae, etc.

I would definitely advise against bleach & gasoline ;)

hth,
rob
 
If this is going into a nano tank, it should be easy to take care of any pests as they appear. I can see not letting something like this into a 200 gal reef as you would likely never be able to get to them again without tearing a good portion of it down.

The algae is not a concern if you have your own system in check, it shouldn't get a foothold.
 
I'm pretty sure the cooking threads indicate that cooking won't get rid of the anemones. With only 15lbs, you might just want to save a SMALL porous piece that you're sure doesn't have any anemones, bleach and wash thoroughly the rest, then combine the saved and dead pieces in one vat and cook them all for a month or so.
 
I would have to agree, if its going in a large system then I wouldnt risk putting pest anenomes in my tank. I tried "cooking" about 100 pounds of liverock that was covered in aiptasia, and it got rid of MOST of them, but the little buggers are still popping up on those rocks 3 months later.

Not worth the risk IMO.
 
I have sand and a few other large pieces of rock that will go in....so this rock could just be dead base rock and do what I need it to do. I really am amazed at the diversity of algae on this stuff. Its like it was in some sort of algae species tank!
 
well if you have other stuff to seed your tank with just let it dry and sit in the sun for a while. if its only going to be base rock then it wont matter if everything dies right??
 
Yeah, at this point the "salvagable" life is very small to the pest life. I just wanted to make sure that if I try a method that it will actually kill the bad stuff! I live in FL so getting good hot sun is pretty easy.
 
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