Is there a way to thoroughly clean live rock?

[six.line]

Is there a way to thoroughly clean live rock without killing it?

For example, some guy wants to sell me some live rock but it is COVERED by some nasty aiptasia.

I don't want to have to invest a lot of time in quarantining the rock and then trying to attack it with joe's juice... I'd rather take the durn thing to the car wash and just spray blast it-- but then I'm worried that some soap will be on the nozzle.

Any info?

 

[Vincerama2]

You mean killing the "other stuff" that lives on/in it other than aiptasia? Well...that's a hard one.

You could put the rock in a tank and let creatures leave the rock and enter the tank, then take the aiptasia infested rock out of the water and either 1) dry it out in the sun so it's completely dead 2) dip it in freshwater for a long time so that most everything dies on it 3) Put it in water with lots of kalkwasser on it and have all that stuff die off.

Then you can use the water from the first tank (with the "good critters" on it in the main tank, and then rinse of your nuked rocks and put them in the tank.

Let me say this though. No matter what "good creatures" you get form the rock, you might curse the rock later if you get an uncontrolled aiptasia explosion! I have a lot of aiptasia, and I nuke it as I see it, but I'd rather not have any in the tank at all, since, they kill my zoos on contact. I'd rather have nuked all the rocks to a guaranteed dead state and then just get some live sand from someone to re-seed the critters, minus the aiptasia.

V

 

[Dischirm]

IMO you are asking for trouble. You cannot clean the rock without killing all the life on and in it. That includes the bacterial life. Aptasia is tough to get rid of once it takes hold. You would have to kill everything in the rock, and then it would just be rock. I would go elsewhere to get rock. Even if you just used freshwater without soap, it would kill the bacterial life in the rock.

 

[six.line]

All right. Thanks, y'all.

 

[WaterKeeper]

Power scrubbing Aiptasia will get you nowhere. The same goes for scraping it off. You always leave a portion of the basal attachment on the rock and from it springs a new Aip. Using the juice, KW or vinegar is the preferred method but you might try using a Berghia nudibranch if there is a lot. See Aiptasia Control if you haven't already.

I wish I had a simple method but there really isn't one.

 

[six.line]

Yeah, I think you hit it there... I'm looking for a simple method to clean up the live rock and get it cheap.

 

[Vincerama2]

Hey, forget about the bacteria part. It's OK to kill it all, the rock will reseed with bacteria. The bacteria involved in the ANN cycle is everywhere. Put one fish in your tank and withing a month, you rock will be well on it's way to a full bacteria population!

Live rock's value is actually in it's unique structure, since it's actually dead coral and coralline algae, it has lots of nice spaces in it that makes it ideal for ANN bacteria colonization, with some deeper parts good for anaerobic bacteria as well.

Don't sweat the bacteria!

If you get the rock at a good price it may still be worth buying. If I could get it cheap, I would, then I'd try and save any small life (pods, brittle stars, bristle worms) in the manner I mentioned (just put it in a tank of water, lots of those things just leave the rock)

If you want to be totally safe, then dip the rock in freshwater for a day or two (toget to the deep parts of the rock), then put the rock in the sun for 2 weeks. Hopefully even the stuff hiding in the nooks and crannies will die by then (In full sun, it should heat up enough to kill the stuff, even in the still moist core of the rock).

You don't want aiptasia. All the other bonus life can be reseeded. But aiptasia can be a nightmare you don't need. Like I said before, I nuke the aiptasia as I find it, but it's a PITA and I'll never get rid of it. It's better to start without it.

And .. did I mention not to sweat the bacteria?

Oh yeah, all the coralline will die too, but again, you can reseed it. with a single piece of AIPTASIA FREE rock.

V

 

[skeeter_ca]

IMHO. If it's free it might be worth it. otherwise your just going to have to kill everything on it to get rid of the aips. Then you just have dead base rock. Spend some money and get some good rock with life on it. You won't regret it.

 

[six.line]

Thanks for the info.

 

[piranhaking]

do a search for rock cooking on here. It kills most everything but the bacteria, but some of the coraline survives sometimes