*more* BB questions

M

mayjong

New member
hey all-
going BB but i have several (of course) questions.
my rockwork is going to consist of a couple arches and maybe a pinnacle.
that is 100lb of LR , bearing on 4-5 points. i don't really want to put that "cutting board " material down, are there other options? or can i just leave it bare glass (my preference, but woriied about that weight bearing on such small areas)

the other issue, is i'm using rock that has aptasia and vermatids, as well as some algea. i want to DESTROY all of this stuff, and want no part of it in my tank.
have no problem taking the time needed to do this. i've read up on "cooking" rocks, but it seems some stuff (aptasia, vermatids) might survive this process. how do i ensure this is not the case?
is there any way to kill off this stuff (on the exterior) and not kill off beneficial bacteria? (at least not all of it!)
freshwater rinse,inplace of saltwater rinse?
bleach solution "dip"?

thanks!
 
I would not want that much weight on glass in such a small area. You could try some pieces of acrylic under the base points for added support and to distribute the weight.

As for the aptasia, I went through the very same thing. After everything I read I found out that aptasia is very resilient. Like you I wanted no aptasia in the new tank so I was willing to sacrafice the bacteria to eliminate the aptasia. IMO the only way to make sure the aptasia is gone and not coming back is to kill the rock. I gave the rock a 48 hour bleach bath following a 48hour muratic acid bath 1-10 ratio for both. Rinsed several times and then a 48 hour RO bath. Air dried for a week. Guaranteed no aptasia but also a long cylce.
 
That works very well. I followed Pauls thread on that from the start. I built one myself and killed hundreds of aptasia. Only problem is that it is almost impossible to get them all. When you think they are all gone others start popping out of spots that you cant get to. This is a good way to maintain the population of aptasia but without killing them all they will come back. I am still sticking with my statement that if you want to make sure they will not come back you must kill the rock and everything on it.
 
The rock on the glass should be fine as long as you don't drop any of it. Let's say your 100 lbs of rock has 10 sq inches of contact that ends up being 10psi. No big deal.

Rock is easy to modify if you are really worried about it you could cut off any sharp edges with a hack saw. Heck you could even make your base rocks perfectly flat on the bottom.
 
thanks to all-

sounds like i'll be bleaching and acid bathing my rock.
at that time, it sounds like i would just "cycle" in tank (for a long time, with added bacteria) rather than "cook" it in the dark (cause there will be nothing "cook"!)

right????
 
If you give the rocks a acid bath there will be no reason to cook the rocks. Just place the rock in your tank with a cured rock or two from an aptasia free tank and let the cylce begin.
 
I was over run with vermitids and did the bleach then acid wash. I had no choice. I had 1000's of them. I couldn't touch any rock without getting stuck by one. I had finally had enough. Here is a shot of vermitids that colonized an SPS.

IMG_1373.jpg


Later
Drew
 
thanks Drew!
i , too have a serious vermatid issue! the aptasia is "controllable" , but the vermatids are everywhere. i assume it (bleach, acid) worked for you?
how long did you have to cycle after that?
 
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