Just bought Live Rock from Craigslist. What to do Next??

Koop

Koop

New member
Hello,

I just bought a used tank setup from Craigslist and I am not sure what is the best way to proceed. 125 gallon drilled tank had about 150 lbs of rock and about 200 lbs of sand. Guy had been traveling overseas. He gave away his corals and fish then filled tank with freshwater to show it wasn't leaking.

So the rock has been in a dark, uncirculating tank with freshwater for the last month.

Do I bleach everything and start over with the rock or just begin the cycle process??

Any thoughts on cleaning the sand?

Thanks for your help.
 
Mmmm. Fresh water. That's going to kill off the beneficial bacteria. Hose it all down, wash it all, dunk it in Prime water (chlorine-killer), then set up and proceed as if it were dry rock. There might be some life left in it, but be prepared (GFO reactor) for a lot of phosphate and probably nitrate. Tanks that have died of neglect often have a big phosphate load.

Run the heater about 80 degrees. Chemistry goes faster in warm water. Never mind the light.
 
Thanks for quick response.

I have read some use acid for phosphate reduction. Does that make sense here you think?

Sorry for the silly question, but what is prime water?
Thanks
 
Prime is a product from seachem among other things it will neutralize chlorine from tap water.

As far as the sand goes if it looks pretty good I would remove it and give it a thorough rinsing.

The acid your referring to is muriatic. I have never used it but there are many threads on the topic if you do a search. Good luck just my 2 cents.
 
the acid melts off the surface of the rock, so any phos that was absorbed will go too as well as dead worms and stuff. A less drastic option is lanthanum chloride which you can drip into the water and it will crystallize the phos to be filtered out. In phos-free water the phos in the rocks leaches out faster, so you keep dripping and removing the phos from the water and it pulls it all out of the rock.

I wonder if you could test the water its in right now? Some marine kits are accurate for fresh water too, but idk if phos is one of them. Alternatively, you can let it sit in new salt water for 3 days and if that water reads any phos then you know you have an issue.

I'd buy new sand, it soaks stuff up just like the rocks but you can't pull stuff out of sand.
 
Personally I would nuke it and throw away the sand. I would NEVER add anything to my tank from someone that I had not personally seen how they handle their tank / how their livestock is treated. The money you spend on treating the rock is still less than the cost of buying brand new rock.

Bleach the rock to kill absolutley every last bit of living stuff on the rock. Rinse, Prime, Rinse, Prime, Rinse. Use a 100% vinegar bath to remove the outside layer of the rock and remove any copper and other medications that are left on the rock.

Brand new rock.
 
In my fresh water tank I clean the gravel in a bucket by just running water in it and stirring it up. Can I do the same with sand. I would hate to throw it away only to buy new.
Thanks for your thoughts and input.
 
to me it really depends on how the sand looks. If it looked decent enough I would rinse rinse rinse. If it looks questionable as mentioned earlier I would get new stuff.

I don't know if your in a warm area if so I would rinse it and let sit out and dry thoroughly.
 
The sand looks fairly clean. After rinsing it well it buckets would it make sense to rinse in vinegar to remove any phosphates? Does that make sense?
Thanks
 
200 pounds of sand is A LOT of sand! Before you go and take the time to clean all that sand (should you decide to) I would take the time to research deep sand bed and see if that is something you actually want to do. I have 150 gallon tank with about 80 pounds of rock (Pukani, dry so I took up a fairly large foot print in the tank) and only about 80 pounds of sand. My sand bed is about 1.5" deep. The best way to do it is to put the rock in first then the sand so that the rocks don't shift should something burrow. Should you do it this way with the rock in first THEN the sand, you will end up with less area needing sand and definitely not need all that sand. I put the egg crate down first so the rock wasn't directly on the glass.

Just something to think about. I am going to guess though that the original person had a deep sand bed and the rock on top if there is that much sand.
 
You are right. It is more and than I need because I will not do a dsb. I am looking to get the sand as clean and trouble free as possible. That's why I am wondering about bleach and or vinegar to start out right.
 
I conducted a small scale experiment. Two cups. One with bleach and one with vinegar. Added about a half a cup of sand to each cup and stirred them for a couple of minutes then rinsed and poured onto a papertowel. They vinegar definitely reacted by bubbling. While still wet the vinegar sand looked coarser and yellower. Once dry I could tell a difference in texture and strangely the vinegar sand now looked whiter.
I guess the big question is any of that necessary or do I just rinse it and go?
 
Okay, glad you had already realized that because I would have felt horrible for anyone that took the time cleaning that all only to then realize they didn't need most of it. If I had to pick between those two, I would use the vinegar but I avoid bleach at all cost when it comes to the tank. I even use peroxide for my filter socks rather than the common bleach approach.

I don't see why vinegar would hurt to use while doing the wash and it isn't expensive. I don't think sand really holds the garbage in though like rock so I think you would be okay to just rinse really well. (But I would probably be where you are in wanting to clean it as well as possible considering you have the opportunity)
 
Okay. I will rinse and vinegar sand. I already bleached and scrubbed the rock. If it holds more phosphate than the sand should I dip it in vinegar also? I was focusing on the sand because some people were suggesting to just throw it away.
 
I have a thread with almost the same exact scenario.

Check it out, might have most the answers you're looking for in the first couple pages
 
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