Is fresh water dipping your live rock a bad idea?

[setec69]

I know it kind of sounds like a stupid question, but hear me out.

I have irregular starfish in my tank and they like to spread like crazy. I am planning on taking all of my rock out this weekend or next anyway to do a re-scape and insert 2 Tunze pump hiding rocks, so I will have the rock out of the tank anyway.

Here is what I was thinking. Have a bucket of RO/DI fresh water and dip the rocks for 2-5 mins in that bucket then have a bucket of water from the tank that is going down the drain anyway from the water change and rinse the rocks off in that before putting them back in the tank.

Now I am sure the fresh water will rid me of the starfish and unfortunately reduce my brissle worm population, but is there anything else that makes this a bad idea?

I will of coarse only be doing this to rocks that do not have coral on them, so I will not be able to get all of the starfish, but those rocks I will look over and see if I can pick off any that are left.

 

[bmk]

Hi
Putting live rock in fresh water will kill all the bacteria on it, so no, it isn't a good idea. If you want something out of the rock try using a syringe with ro/di water in it, whatever is in the hole will soon come out because of the salinity drop. If I am wrong I am sure someone will put me right.

Barry

 

[sir_dudeguy]

I agree w/the above...dont FW dip your rock...that will just kill everything.

 

[setec69]

Ok, so no freshwater. What about an iodine dip in old water from my tank?

My only other option is a clown shrimp and I want that to be my last resort plan.

 

[Sk8r]

You can get some little bumblebee shrimp that are very cute, fairly tough, and that specialize in eating the feet off starfish and urchins. They may not kill them all, but they'll discourage them. They're about the size and appearance of a horsefly, and will drive urchins nuts [they're too small to kill an urchin, and if you run out of starfish, you might put an urchin in: doesn't hurt the urchin, really, and will sustain your little shrimp.]

 

[drummereef]

A freshwater dip will kill everything on the rock. Bad idea. Sounds like the starfish are either Asterina or Brittlestarts. Can you get a pic of them?

 

[setec69]

I know they are Asterina, there is no doubt about that and while I have not actually seen them on any of my corals, they are often near them and that bothers me also they spread like wild fire. I picked over 200 of them off my rocks last night and I am sure they are like roaches, for every 1 you see, you missed 100+ more.

I will check out the bubble bee shrimp as well, but are they big enough to eat and kill the starfish? Also, would they be a target for the 6 line wrasse that I am fixing to add?

No thoughts on the iodine dip of the rock? I would imagine that just rinsing the rock off in old tank water to remove detritus is not a bad idea since I have it out of the tank anyway right?

Thanks for the info

 

[Nanz]

*raises hand* I freshwater dipped my rocks..

I read where it was benificial to dip them to rid the rock of hitchhikers like mantis shrimp. *shrugs* I did not want to get speared by one.

See.. I told you my rock was dead

 

[Sk8r]

Wrasse will kill the shrimp. He'll do in some small gobies, small shrimp, most anything smaller than he is. Even the fairy wrasses are prone to it, and they're docile by comparison to the 6 line.

 

[papagimp]

I have used a hypersalintiy dip before to rid rocks of hitchhikers but not sure how this would work on starfish. I simply made up a bucket to about 1.030 SG and dipped the rocks for about a minute or two, most the bristle worms, pods, and all sorts of other things I didn't reconize would jump off the rocks and left me at my leisure to dig through em and pick out what I wanted to keep in my tank. this is less likely to harm the bacteria but again, not sure if a starfish would react to the hypersaline water like these other critters did.

 

[kevin2000]

Some asternia starfish will harm corals ... however I suspect most don't. If your asternia aren't harming your corals then I suggest you view them similar to bristle worms .. just part of your clean up crew. The population is dependent on the available food source.

 

[rcypert]

I designed my rock in columns that fit in a 5 gallon bucket. You can guess why. The bacteria population is not a concern in most tanks. The sand bed and every other surface has bacteria as well that will support a modest amount of fish. I would not dip it all at once though. I have a three foot tank and the rockwork is in three 5 gallon size structures. I dip 1/3 of my rock at a time whenever I have algae issues. I also drilled my rocks so my corals are mounted on obscure plugs and can be removed from any spot.