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Home      Reply		Viewed: 337 -- Replies: 17
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Posted	dry living rock
09-05-2006 23:15 by frozenball	I have just purchased soem lighting for my new tank and the fella i bought the lighting unit said he had a large amount of dried out living rock and if i wanted it i could have it . My question is , is it worth while putting this stuff in my tank with the living live rock i am going to put into it and if so how do i clean it as it is full of holes , tiny ones . I have also noticed there is some dried out hard corals in there too . Please advise me cause i havent a clue if this is any good for my tank . thanks mark
09-05-2006 23:26 by hijacker	Yeh if its free take it! if ya fish die go throw the rocks at the bloke who gave them to you.
10-05-2006 07:36 by billysfc	Definately take it, it'll be just as good as normal living rock when it's been in the tank with your living rock for some time. As for cleaning, you can sterilize it by boiling it, but if your worried how to clean out any organic matter from all the little pores, it's almost impossible, so I would just give it a good scrub under the shower head and add it to the tank a piece at a time over a couple of weeks and keep an eye on the skimmer to see if it starts producing any excess waiste, also keep an eye on ammonia levels as these will be a good sign of a problem.
10-05-2006 07:46 by yanton	i would put the rock in a spare tank and run that for a few weeks until water quality evens out. there may be some organic matter in the rock that could cause some pollution. if its free though, grab it.
10-05-2006 08:22 by Alan	Personally I wouldn't bother and just fork out for high quality live rock. Eventually this rock will be recolonised but the risk of organics polluting the tank is high and equally you don't know if the bloke has ever used copper on the set up the rock was in and I would certainly be dubious if he has allowed the live rock to dry out it would have made more sense for him to have sold it before breaking his tank down. To many unknowns for me.
10-05-2006 08:31 by D.R.	Totally agree with Alan! Dried living rock no longer has the established flora and fauna on it and would take a long time to re-colonise. Certain types of organisms might predominate after a while. Take the rock any way and place it in a spare container of mature seawater - wouldnt hold your breath for it to spring back to life
10-05-2006 10:33 by frozenball	im cycling the tank from fresh anyhow , im buying 40kg of the live stuff anyway i plan to have the tank empty for around 6 weeks before anything goes in , apart from the rock ( it seems to be the recommended ) . I got the rock out my back and it is bone dry and the edges do break away easly due to all of the vein's there are two 25kg reef salt bucket full of the rock and corals . he used to keep reef so im guessing and it is guessing that if he did use any medication it would of been reef friendly But if there was copper medication used is there any way of finding out . How about the dried corals are they any good to put in ? also i had my skimmer through in the post today ( deltec mce600 )Should i run the tank for a moth with the live rock before i switch it on as i have been advise by others ? Just wanted to know peoples general thoughts as some say days some say weeks some say months . thanks for input
10-05-2006 11:08 by yanton	good point made about copper, if it has been used, then you could damage any inverts
10-05-2006 12:12 by Alan	Its not a risk I would be willing to take equally adding rocks for the sake of it is a bad idea it is a careful balance between water volume and rock work thats why it is best to go for around or just over 1 kilo per imp gallon arrange the rock carefully giving an open structure with plenty of places for coral to sit and away you go. As far as dried corals steer clear I detest the things myself one has to wonder why a reef keeper would have dried corals in his tank is he mixing up the definition of fish only and reef? To many things don't add up I would steer well clear not worth the risk as if copper has been used iot will kill the live rock and at around £9-11 per kilo is it worth the risk with 40 kilos. Personally I would get the skimmer going straight away you will get a certain amount of die back even on cured live rock as it is not shipped in water best to avoid any unwanted pollutants from the start the arguement for leaving it off is to give the fauna on the live rock a chance to multiply with out any impat on the inhabitants of the tank but at the end of the day the skimmer will impact at a later date if you delay equally the water quality will suffer the only way to avoid the effect on microfauna is to go skimmer less using an Eco system tank. Personally I don't think it is the inhabitants themselves that are removed but their food so it may be worthwhile supplementing the food whilst maturing using something like marine snow the skimmer will remove it over a few hours but in that time inhabitants will have been able to feed quite a bit boost the biodiversity I would also try and get hold of some farm grunge stm sell it basically the crud from the bottom of there live rock curing vats as well as a kilo or to of live sand from their DSB just as an extra biodiversity boost. As far as bristleworms go expect loads of them personally I don't think they are a bad thing they do a hell of a lot of good in a tank some can be a pain eating corals but in my experience I have had none do this. I have 1,000's of worms in my tank and as mine is fishless at the moment they are always out and about.
11-05-2006 20:32 by deejdave	I buy in and sell dried living rock, have sold tons over the last few years with no reported problems. Give it a good rinse off and add it slowly, piece by piece over a few weeks. Using AMQUEL PLUS or some other similar ammonia/nitrite remover will help to de-toxify anything that might be given off but your skimmer filter should cope easily. It is surprising how quick it will blend in with your other rock, and is far better than ocean rock which is very non-porous and will never harbour beneficial bacteria because it is so dense.
11-05-2006 20:33 by deejdave	Oh and definately put your skimmer on straight away.
11-05-2006 20:35 by deejdave	PS... most fish shops do free water testing... soak a bit of the rock in some saltwater for a few days then get it tested for copper. If there is any in the rock it will show up in the water, very unlikely anyone who has had living rock in their tank would be stupid enough to use copper anyway... surely...
12-05-2006 08:27 by Alan	Is it not a stupid thing to do to allow live rock to dry out instead of selling it live or for that matter giving it away live? If someone is willing to let live rock dry out surely they would be capable of dosing it with copper to would they not to many risks.
12-05-2006 15:49 by frozenball	i think it was case of loss of interest alan to be honest , that s all . Not purly sillyness just a cant be bothered attatude . If it has had copper what testing kit , if there is any on the market that can test for copper.
12-05-2006 21:40 by frozenball	i put the rock in a bucket out the back earlier today added some reef crystals and water and this evening there are a couple of peices covered in green and purple algae is this unusall . i will take a photo of it tomorrow and post it
15-05-2006 08:16 by Alan	It will probably all die back and rot the only way to test for copper is to wait and see if it leaches into the water there are test kits you can use on the water but testing the rock itself is not possible.
15-05-2006 09:09 by frozenball	your quiet correct it did die back and has turned a light brown colour there was like a green slim algae as well but that is going now as well .
18-05-2006 18:48 by garry	i would have blasted it with a pressure washer then put it into buckets with a good flow and a skimmer and tested for ammonia every other day,water change a few times until all readings are normal.a lot of people use this rock as the back bone of there structures and put good quality live rock on top this will seed the dried stuff within a couple of months

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