Live Rock ?

[HMG-Reefer]

I am setting up a Nano Cube 12 and I have rock from when I tore down my 29g. It had a lot of hair algae and that was the reason for tearing it down. Can I boil the rock and re-cure it or is it best to start with clean rock? Thanks.

 

[bbl_nk]

Boiling it will make it clean but also won't be "live" but will kill off the algae in the process. You might look at getting a small piece of premium "cured" live rock to help seed the clean rock. It will just take a bit longer to get back up to the point of being live again. Just be patient and keep your bio-load low for a while maybe giving it a few months before adding anything major. If you go too fast, you won't have the biofilter established and will probably be in the same boat with nuisance algae.

 

[Bdimas]

X2. That's basically what I'm doing with my tank right now. I'm not going to seed it with live rock though. I'm going to try the bacteria in a bottle, I want to try and eliminate the possibility of introducing nuisance algae and nuisance anemones.

 

[RiOnRoxXx]

Are you going to reuse the sand from the 29 for the cube? If so, that may help in aiding the growth on the cooked rock also.

 

[HMG-Reefer]

Unfortunately I had given away the sand, but I can always take a little sand from the 55g and the 80g and do like Brian said by using a few pieces of premium rock. I want to try to avoid algae problem, they are painful.

 

[bbl_nk]

I got a sample of Special Blend from Microbe-lift at IMAC last weekend. Check the stuff out. Its from Ecological Laboratories and they've been in the waste treatment business for something along the lines of 30 years. As a matter of fact, they are the company that cleaned up the rowing pond for the Beijing Olympics. If you recall, it was a real cesspool.

The Special Blend is a different bacteria than the "spore" based products on the market. Having had nitrate and algae problems, I started dosing on Tuesday. My nitrates were at about 10-15 ppm and after adding, cut them down to zero in 24 hours...so far so good.

I am following the dosing plan of weekly for a month then every other week. The bacteria is also supposed to help break down the organic sludge. Corals, fish and inverts are looking fine as well.

The product is FDA and EPA approved. Pretty good stuff so far.