65 Gallon with 130# Live rock DSB. I want to take all the live rock out of my system and some how get rid of all the bad things but keep the good! Is this possible? I don't mind if it takes months to do it! I have seen threads on cooking it for a couple of months in a dark tub with a power head. Has anyone done this? I was thinking of just soaking it all with vinegar solution and drying it out then reseeding and curing. Just looking for members that have done this that can tell me what their experience has been.
Help with Live Rock!
- Thread starter TCrab
- Start date
If you kill the stuff in the rock, it will take months or years for it to breakdown, decay and then for the beneficial life to return. During this time, the decaying matter will fill the calcium carbonate with phosphate and your tank will not do as well as it can and the rocks will get nasty again.
Cook them in a dark tub where you swish, siphon and change water every few weeks. It doesn't take a year IME, but after 4-6 months you will have clean rock without phosphates that are ready to live again. Even after this 4-6 month period, I have had pods and asternias come back along with worms and other beneficial micro organisms.
Cooking takes time and most people just kill the rock in the "I want it now" way that the hobby has gone. However, killing the rock will be worse in the long term.
Cook them in a dark tub where you swish, siphon and change water every few weeks. It doesn't take a year IME, but after 4-6 months you will have clean rock without phosphates that are ready to live again. Even after this 4-6 month period, I have had pods and asternias come back along with worms and other beneficial micro organisms.
Cooking takes time and most people just kill the rock in the "I want it now" way that the hobby has gone. However, killing the rock will be worse in the long term.
I personally would use hydrochloric acid, but vinegar was the closest choice. Both are very effective and there are lots of threads on it. It strips away the phosphate that jda is concerned about, as well as copper and most organic matter. 
For example:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1587539
For example:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1587539
muttley000
MTS Sufferer!
I went with dark cooking, I can't see killing everything I paid extra shipping to keep alive!
asylumdown
New member
I personally would use hydrochloric acid, but vinegar was the closest choice. Both are very effective and there are lots of threads on it. It strips away the phosphate that jda is concerned about, as well as copper and most organic matter.
For example:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1587539
+1. I voted this way as well.
This is very true if you did something like pay extra to get special rock, and you continue to observe life on your rocks that you couldn't otherwise get. If it's just rock from the bin a the LFS, or used rock from someone else's tank, there's probably nothing beneficial living on it that won't popular tank again in the normal course of stocking it. Most things like copepods, amphipods, bristle worms, etc. are so good at living in aquariums you couldn't keep them out if you tried. The analogies between commensal aquarium animals and garden weeds are apt and many.
The life on the outside of the rock (pods, stars, worms, coralline) is easy to get back. It is the stuff under the surface that takes a long time to come back. Dry rock needs to shed the dead organics inside (even dead bacteria an microfauna) and then repopulate before it can be as good as live rock... this can take a while. Rock from somebody else' tank could have all kinds of bound phosphate and other organics packed in the rock.
The stuff that is on the inside of the rock is what you really need to keep your N and P under control. If you have a ton of live rock and your N is out of control and you don't feed a ton and have good maintenance, then there is a good chance that it is not yet capable of doing it's job - you see this a lot with tank that start with dry rock where after a year if you break some apart it is not as full of life as live rock from the ocean.
I would kill live rock under any circumstance, but maybe that is just me.
The stuff that is on the inside of the rock is what you really need to keep your N and P under control. If you have a ton of live rock and your N is out of control and you don't feed a ton and have good maintenance, then there is a good chance that it is not yet capable of doing it's job - you see this a lot with tank that start with dry rock where after a year if you break some apart it is not as full of life as live rock from the ocean.
I would kill live rock under any circumstance, but maybe that is just me.
The stuff that is on the inside of the rock is what you really need to keep your N and P under control.
What is it that you think is inside the rock that keeps P under control?
What is it that you think is inside the rock that keeps P under control?
Two things. The growing and healthy micro fauna populations that uptake the P as they grow/multiply into the water column as bigger consumers smaller that are close to an aragonite source for where P is swapped by bacteria and should be more available. Secondly, not contributing to the issue with dead matter inside of the rock that needs to get out and might "fill up" the rock with bound P as it gets broken down.
I guess I just don't agree with those assertions.
he growing and healthy micro fauna populations that uptake the P as they grow/multiply into the water column as bigger consumers smaller that are close to an aragonite source for where P is swapped by bacteria and should be more available.
Well, I'm not sure what you are referring to, but I don't think there is microfauna inside the live rock that is having much impact on the phosphate levels in the aquarium.
The bacteira in live roxck, sand and otehr places certainly does drive the nitrogen cycle and concerts ammonia to nitrite to nitrate, and some conversion of all of these to N2, reducing the nitrogen in the tank.
There is not an equivalent reaction for phospahte, so any phospahte taken up comes only as these organisms increase their tissue mass which contains P,a nd I don't think that the microfauna "inside" of live rock is a very big contributor to overall tissue growth in a reef tank.
he growing and healthy micro fauna populations that uptake the P as they grow/multiply into the water column as bigger consumers smaller that are close to an aragonite source for where P is swapped by bacteria and should be more available.
Well, I'm not sure what you are referring to, but I don't think there is microfauna inside the live rock that is having much impact on the phosphate levels in the aquarium.
The bacteira in live roxck, sand and otehr places certainly does drive the nitrogen cycle and concerts ammonia to nitrite to nitrate, and some conversion of all of these to N2, reducing the nitrogen in the tank.
There is not an equivalent reaction for phospahte, so any phospahte taken up comes only as these organisms increase their tissue mass which contains P,a nd I don't think that the microfauna "inside" of live rock is a very big contributor to overall tissue growth in a reef tank.
Green Chromis
New member
:fish1: What are all the bad things on your rock, that you need to remove it? :fish1:
