Cleaning live rock

[Michael v]

I had a a bad case of cyano in my reef tank. My system is a little over 4 years old. Some of my rock works have a sludge built up on it. I want to pull the rock from the tank and hose it off then return it to the tank. Is this a bad idea? Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I had a a bad case of cyano in my reef tank. My system is a little over 4 years old. Some of my rock works have a sludge built up on it. I want to pull the rock from the tank and hose it off then return it to the tank. Is this a bad idea? Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

You sure can and then add some denitrifying bacteria to your tank at 1.5ml per 10 gallons daily for 2 weeks to help re-seed

 

[bushdoc]

Do you want to hose it off with tap water?
It is unlikely you will kill all cyanobacteria this way as they are ubiquitous and will hide somwhere in nooks anc crannies of live rock.
I would take the rock out and give it a good scrub with saltwater and also analyze what conditions caused outbreak of cyano-low flow, high nutrients, light spectrum, etc.

 

[Michael v]

Do you want to hose it off with tap water?
It is unlikely you will kill all cyanobacteria this way as they are ubiquitous and will hide somwhere in nooks anc crannies of live rock.
I would take the rock out and give it a good scrub with saltwater and also analyze what conditions caused outbreak of cyano-low flow, high nutrients, light spectrum, etc.

The cyano pretty much stopped but I think the way I have my rock work water flow is the problem. I’m going to reduce the amount of rock see if that will increase flow. For the most part I have a lot of trapped gunk on my rocks. Thank you for the advice