Restoring Live Rock. What is the procedure?

[mbrady]

Six months ago I broke down my 90 gallon tank and stored the live rock (100 lbs.) in a Rubbermaid 40 gallon container. The container is filled with saltwater and has a mag 7 power head for circulation and an air hose. It has been covered for all that time. Periodically I throw some purple up in it. The tank had been neglected for a while and the rock had green long hair algae growing all over it. I scrubbed all the algae off prior to putting it into the Rubbermaid container.
I am now setting up a 120 gallon tank and want to reuse the 100lbs of Live Rock. What steps do I need to follow have a successful restart?Thank you for all the feed back.

Mike

 

[A1t2o]

It depends on if you want to reuse the rock as live rock or if would kill to get rid of the algae and treat it like dry rock. If you are going to use as is then toss it in the tank and add a little ammonia to get the water to 2ppm. Test after 24 hours and if you have 0 ammonia and nitrites then your bacteria survived and you should only have to wait a week or 2 before adding fish. I would cover the tank for a "dark out" period to kill the GHA if you still have it. Water change to get the crap out then you should be good to go.

If you are going to kill it off then an acid bath, power wash, then sun dry would do the trick. Then you could start as if it were a new tank.

 

[scooter31707]

Go get a 32 gallon Brute trash can from Lowes or Home Depot and put all the rocks in there making sure they are covered in freshly made saltwater. Also you need to put some type of powerhead in the can for circulation. About once every 3-5 days, drain all the water and refill with fresh saltwater. Keep during the process. They will eventually become live rock.

 

[mbrady]

Original post asks
Any other thoughts or cautions I should be aware of when restarting my new tank?
My intent was to reuse the rock as is. If a cycle is necessary so be it. My real concern is I do not want to have to repurchase live rock.
Thank you all for your help.

 

[chimmike]

I'd treat it with muriatic, then rinse well, then soak in a lanthanum chloride wash to leech out all the phosphates and start over. Then you're starting with totally, 100% clean rock.