how to revive Live rock

C

coralcruze

New member
does anyone know how to make live rock live again... due to unforseen circumstance I had to tear down a 10 year old system and sell it off. I sold everything except my Live rock as I am starting a new tank. However, due to circumstance I have killed off all off most of my living animals inside my rock as I smelled the die off, it was horrible that I had to put it outside, lol. Is there any live frock boost that people can reccomend in order to bring back the life in the rock?
 
Just get a few pieces of cured live rock and use that as the "seed". Your live rock that is not currently being used will become live again. In 6 months you'll have critters and coraline algae all over it.

My first tank I used 100lbs of dry base rock and 20 lbs of live rock and after 6 months you wouldnt know the difference!
 
Recently I bleach and acid washed (in 2 steps, see the chemistry forum) live rock that was infested with aiptasia. I then used it plus a little bit of live rock to seed it and a critter/sand seed kit (inland aquatics and ipsf have some good options). A few months of good parameters and it is live as can be.

I have also cooked rock in the past instead of the bleach/acid wash. Still seeded with a bit of liverock and a detrivore kit. Great success there too, but it takes longer.
 
Just keep it in a tank with some live rock to seed it put in a power head for flow and a heater and it will be live in no time.
 
Gary Majchrzak said:
you should clean up the dead stuff inside that rock before proceeding to reseed it with new life ;)
Click to expand...

+1. There is likely plenty of organic material and other harmful stuff on it from the die off. I'd definitely go with the bleach bath and acid bath and then mix it in with some freshly cured live rock. Adding a commercial bacterial supplement might speed things up but a month or more for cycling the tank would also be a prudent step, in my opinion.
 
not if the aquarium is stable, aka can hold fish or corals. if the waters cold, stagnant and there is no light, no it wont live...
 
Depends on the aquarium. In my case I have rock in service for over 8 years and it still looks good and seems to perform denitrification as well as ever. If it clogs with detritus and/ or is exposed to high PO4 levels for example it might need recuring after a period of time.
 
Not sure why you guys are preaching all this chemical warfare when just putting the rock in fresh water will accomplish the same thing with a lot less toxicity.

Also, since the bacteria the take care of the nitrogen cycle are the same in fresh and salt, a fresh water soak will at least stabilize it in terms of biological capacity. The only thing that will be left are good bacteria. Plus, if the water is circulating, the die off will be faster than drying it out.

Surprised nobody has told him to use gasoline and a match yet.
 
What toxicity?
Bleach and acid? Both are easily neutralized via a rinse,dechlorinator and drying. Freshwater will not remove the organics and any toxins they they may have released.nor any PPO4 or other stuff sticking to the surface like copper or other metals.
Your certainly entitled to your opinion but there really is no need to be insulting especially when your opinion is overly simplistic.
 
remember though that acid will eat away at the rock also , so dont soak it too long, mentioned above he says the acid is toxic, just the acid coming into contact with the calcium will nuetralize it...... the rock will not leach acid after an acid bath......
 
Bleach is simply chlorine disolved in water AFAIK, go put it all in a tank of RO water and drop in a pool puck, it will shock it and kill everything. Otherwise simply put it in fresh water that's been dechlorinated to keep bacteria.

also

TMZ I don't understand how something can be overly simplistic, simple = better IMHO. I'd rather pick a ball up with my hand than have a dog fetch it run it to a robot, then have it flung at a net beside me and roll into my palm... that'd be cool though.
 
K.I.S.S.
I'm all for the simplicity of a f/w soak. Not sure about the fresh/salt tolerance of the nitrosomona/nitrobacter/other nitrifying bacteria, but even if you do kill the bacteria, it will come back quickly. The most important ones are deeper in the rock - the bacteria that break down nitrates in to nitrogen gas - and take much longer to repopulate but will probably not be affected by the f/w since it takes a while to leach all the way in. The surface dwellers which convert ammonia to nitrate repopulate very quickly.
 
nitrosoma and nitrobacter live in salt and freshwater, its proven, fw will not kill either, its used in both salt and freshwater bacteria products and is breed in freshwater een if bottled as marine. The fw soak is an easy thing to do, but, will a fw soak kill off everything thats unwanted? Also a fw soak will not remove massive amounts of dead material, so when you try to cycle the tank you will have massive amounts of bacteria blooms trying to come with the decaying material, i would go the acid batch method if i were to start with dead live rock. A freshwater soak will only kill pests and not get rid of decaying matter like acid will. Also with the fw soak from it not removing the decaying matter you will have a massive spike of ammonia/nitrites/nitrates and it will soak into the rock, and then it will leach for a long time and extend your initial cycle greatly. People that cycle live rock know what im talking about, the more the dead matter the longer the cycle. If you have time then by all means to the fw bath, but if you dont ant to wait 2,3 months or more do the acid bath.
 
TampaSnooker said:
K.I.S.S.
I'm all for the simplicity of a f/w soak. Not sure about the fresh/salt tolerance of the nitrosomona/nitrobacter/other nitrifying bacteria, but even if you do kill the bacteria, it will come back quickly. The most important ones are deeper in the rock - the bacteria that break down nitrates in to nitrogen gas - and take much longer to repopulate but will probably not be affected by the f/w since it takes a while to leach all the way in. The surface dwellers which convert ammonia to nitrate repopulate very quickly.
Click to expand...

the bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate DO NOT populate quickly, these are the bacteria that take many weeks to populate a tank to the point of converting it to 0ppm, ammonia to nitrite happens rather quickly, nitrates to nitrogen gas wont happen for many months after the rock is established

steps to make live again without using stuff from dirty tanks
1-muratic bath

2-fresh saltwater batch and rinse

3-place in tank with new sand

4-dose ammonia in the tank and hold at 5ppm

5-dose a bacteria prduct like bio spira, mb7 etc....

this is the basic fishless cycle and will make your rock live again, the last few steps can be found on any fishless cycle post
 
If the rock live it can be cured in saltwater. There is no point to using freshwater. While some bacteria may adjust to varying specific gravity over time invertebrates which may be present in/on the rock can't since they are isontonic.They will die and decay in freshwater.
To cleanse spoiled or dead rock the bleach breakdowns organics via oxidation. The acid removes some surface area and anything stuck to it like phosphate and metals but will not breakdown organic material.

For clarification simple and simplistic have distinctly different meanings; look em up. But rude and derisive is just rude and derisive.
 
tmz said:
If the rock live it can be cured in saltwater. There is no point to using freshwater. While some bacteria may adjust to varying specific gravity over time invertebrates which may be present in/on the rock can't since they are isontonic.They will die and decay in freshwater.
To cleanse spoiled or dead rock the bleach breakdowns organics via oxidation. The acid removes some surface area and anything stuck to it like phosphate and metals but will not breakdown organic material.

For clarification simple and simplistic have distinctly different meanings; look em up. But rude and derisive is just rude and derisive.
Click to expand...

i hope i wasnt being rude i was just trying to help, sorry if i was
 
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