How to know when ur live rock is expired (for lack of a Better word)????

[becon776]

Ok ... so I have been in this hobby for your quite some time. Maybe 2000-2001??? My live rock has never really changed. The tank has been thru five major moves. Its been thru at least 4 major meltdowns (mostly due to heat). And mmmm in addition to those I have done a "soft reset" a few times.
Now I am think I am staying put for while. House flipping is done. I want to start to set up a system that can be there for years. To get my husbandry on point.
How do you know when your live rock is toast? Does it really expire?

My fish complement is cbb., fox face, 2 perc, watchman, mandarin. Everyone is awesome and get along Better than any other group I've ever had.
My problems... valonia 7 out of 10, vermetid snail 10 out of 10 as in literally every single square inch has at least three of them shotgun feeding thru pump intake def played a part in this, algae got some furry green algae on rock I'm blaming nysed and common core for that ;-)
Observations--- some of my rocks never get terrible with algae some are constantly covered.
As expected most all of my rocks have polyps and shrooms and random critters and sponges all over them. Never makes sense that some are more susceptible.
I'm just on the fence... I read that big thread with captcully with great interest. Gahhhh help

 

[becon776]

The capt Cully thread I was referring to was his muriatic acid adventure

 

[gary greguire]

what size tank do you have now? I still have the old 125 it's full of jack dempeys right now.
have you tested phosphates? I am going to try an ATS on the 180. I have hair algae on quite a few of my rocks did a couple very large water changes but still reading .19 with a hanna tester.

 

[Ellery]

Yeah Cully basically went through Puter's Rock Cooking process. If you want to keep whatever is on your rock you can at minimum place it in an empty contain/tank with saltwater and skimmer and slowly dose Lanthanum Chloride into it with a pump running water into a 10 micron filter sock. Just keep running this cylce till you get 0 or lower phoshate readings than what you started with.

 

[becon776]

Gary,
Good to see your still around !!I
Ive got a 75 gallon that iI've had for years now, it's followed me through all my travels of refound bachelorhood ;-). Funny you should post BC I was just having the convo with my girl about possibly getting a 125.... lol Good to hear the old tank is still being put to use. I do get the urge every once in a while to set up a plant tank
How are things with you ?? Still up in the northcountry?

 

[becon776]

But how do you know if the rock is done for? Barring no terrible infestation. And actually the PITA chunks have brown zZOA's and purple discosomas not a huge loss

 

[Gravesj1s]

Done for as in its causing algae ? Or done for ,for some other reason?

 

[Ellery]

If you truly want to start fresh then I would say the Rock cooking would be your best bet since it would remove anything living and dissolve anything on the outer layer to make the rocks porous again. It's a nasty process but has been successful with those who tried it.

I guess it really comes down to what are you trying to achieve? All in all it's maintaining good water parameters in the long run.

 

[Gravesj1s]

Yept, what Ellery said.

water changes ,gfo,skimmer ect,can take a very long time to clean up liverock.Might be less costly and quicker to go with the cully thread.Ime.Or the lanthanum Cl.

Some seem to be divided or think bleaching the rock kills off "special bacteria" . That maybe true but most of the stuff Ive read says otherwise. bacteria are in the survival of the fittest game too.Same ones decoposing that road kill we all passed are very likely same that get into your tank.

 

[becon776]

now i see rock cooking.. are we talking about the dark gfo Rubbermaid OR the bleach wash acid soak rinse baking soda soak rinse reenter methodd let's just call that acid method.

 

[Gravesj1s]

I don't know about the black gfo method. Ive done a bleach acid bathas you put it.
with one exception.I used vinegar instead of muratic acid because I had to doit inside at the time.Takes a few days,works very well.

 

[becon776]

OK cool did you dilute the vinegar or just go with pure vinegar?

 

[Hiltonc57]

I have always had rock in a rotation. every 6 to a year i would take out a little bit of rock, place it in ro/di fresh water for two weeks in a sealed rubbermaid to kill everything. I would than do a ratio of water and vinegar. I normally did a 1:10 ratio for another week and than i would rise/soak the rocks in ro/di again with a powerhead for a day or two and than let it sit in a bucket in the basement until I switched the rocks around again. I found this works great and the rocks always supported a good amount of bacteria/copepod population.

 

[Gravesj1s]

I used regular strength white vinegar that you'd find in any grocery store. Its diluted down to 5% acidicity already with water.

Its not surprising with what Hilton said said either,doesn't take much to dissolve off a layer from the rock. It's more about how long it will take to do it.Just think about ca/rx ,they dissolve carbonate at higher ph.

Straight white vinegar has an ph of about 4
Muratic acid is ,I believe 1 or or so. Depending on how much rock you got to strip it might be cheaper to go muratic -able to dilute it don further with water

 

[Paul B]

Much of my rock is over 30 years old and some of it is 40 years old. I never did anything to it and never will.