Bleaching live rock.
- Thread starter Menez
- Start date
fireman676
Premium Member
why would you want to remove the coraline algae?
Bleaching your live rock will kill off all the benificial bacteria. Not sure why you'd want to get rid of your coraline?
My tank has too much colourful coral, should I just dump some gasoline in there to kill it all LOL
I don't know why you would want to remove coraline. It looks a lot nicer then the white and it looks more natural. I didn't buy a background for my tank, I just waited until Coraline crusted the whole back panel and side panels of glass. Its a inwall so it looks great like that.
Ohhh and bleaching your live rock would be pretty much starting your tank all over again. You would kill all beneficial bacteria which would then end up killing your fish in about two weeks time when you have a cycle again.
Appreciate what you have, people on here spend money on chemicals to grow coraline algae
I don't know why you would want to remove coraline. It looks a lot nicer then the white and it looks more natural. I didn't buy a background for my tank, I just waited until Coraline crusted the whole back panel and side panels of glass. Its a inwall so it looks great like that.
Ohhh and bleaching your live rock would be pretty much starting your tank all over again. You would kill all beneficial bacteria which would then end up killing your fish in about two weeks time when you have a cycle again.
Appreciate what you have, people on here spend money on chemicals to grow coraline algae
Sisterlimonpot
Premium Member
It's true that coralline is going to cover your LR and make it less effective but the little critters that live in the rock isn't going to allow it to cover all of it.
hamiltonguy
New member
Lol yeah. Then you won't have to wait as long for another cycle (if at all). People pay good money for cured coralline encrusted liverock. Your rock should be fine, as you get corals in there you'll barely be able to see the rock after a year or two.
Alaskan Reefer
New member
You do make a good point about the porosity and thus effectiveness of live rock -- once it's got that fully encrusted pink toothpaste look it's definitely not as effective. However, in a healthy tank, even if you stripped all the coraline off one way or another, you'll have the same encrusted rocks again in a year or so.
Sisterlimonpot
Premium Member
Do you have pests in your rock that you don't want in your new tank? that's the only reason why you would bleach your rock.
Menez
New member
no dont have any pests at all, I was just wondering this as the rocks are covered in coraline. I do have some zoos growing some of the rocks, but as hamilton mentions once I start introducing LPS and SPS the rocks will be covered by them.
I have had the tank up and running for approximately 3 yrs without corals , now that im upgrading I want to start introducing corals.
Im currently using T5ho lamps but for my 125g I might go for MH.
I have had the tank up and running for approximately 3 yrs without corals , now that im upgrading I want to start introducing corals.
Im currently using T5ho lamps but for my 125g I might go for MH.
If you really want to kill off the coralline algae without killing the beneficial bacteria, there is a method called "cooking" the live rock. It's normally used as a last-ditch effort to get rid of pests like hair algae, but it will work for coralline algae, too.
What you do is remove the rocks you want to cook from the tank, and place them in a trash can or stock tank with a heater and powerhead(s). Put the lid on the trash can, or put a cover on the stock tank. It doesn't have to be pitch black inside, but you want it dark. Set the heater for whatever temperature you maintain in your display tank. You want to "cook" the rocks figuratively, not literally.
Wait a few weeks to a few months, performing periodic water changes. When the rock loses its coralline coverage, rotate it back into the tank and put some more coralline-covered rock in the cooker.
Please note that cooking a rock with zoanthids will likely kill the zoos. The same goes for any hitchhiking photosynthetic corals you may have. Most sponges, on the other hand, will survive. Other hitchhikers will have a mixture of survivors and casualties.
What you do is remove the rocks you want to cook from the tank, and place them in a trash can or stock tank with a heater and powerhead(s). Put the lid on the trash can, or put a cover on the stock tank. It doesn't have to be pitch black inside, but you want it dark. Set the heater for whatever temperature you maintain in your display tank. You want to "cook" the rocks figuratively, not literally.
Wait a few weeks to a few months, performing periodic water changes. When the rock loses its coralline coverage, rotate it back into the tank and put some more coralline-covered rock in the cooker.
Please note that cooking a rock with zoanthids will likely kill the zoos. The same goes for any hitchhiking photosynthetic corals you may have. Most sponges, on the other hand, will survive. Other hitchhikers will have a mixture of survivors and casualties.
gabbagabbawill
In Memoriam
Just curious Karlbob, but why would this kill the coralline algae? I thought that not all coralline algae requires light to grow?
