Does drying out kill everything?

Wildreefs · Feb 13, 2019

does desiccation , or drying out items in quarantine, specifically ttm, like heaters, tanks, pvc pipe for 24 hrs kill all diseases ?

I’ve read it kills ich , what about brook, velvet etc.

Thanks

scuzy · Feb 13, 2019

Everything is dead without the water.

Reefahholic · Feb 14, 2019

If it’s completely dry I’d say Yes. This is just my experience from looking at these on slides. There’s data on this, but I’ll have to dig it up. ICH is dead after 24 hours, but velvet and others we’ll have to look for that data.

There’s a bug we deal with at work called Clostridium difficile. The spores can persist on hard surfaces for as long as 5 months! Hard to believe that’s even possible, but it is. It’s normally shed in feces though. Obviously much different than parasites (not living in saltwater), but it does make you wonder just how resilient some parasites might be under the right conditions.

#ReefSquad

saltyhog · Feb 14, 2019

Most fish disease it does. Dinoflagellates however, can live for years in an encysted form.

rkpetersen · Feb 14, 2019

Reefahholic said:
There’s a bug we deal with at work called Clostridium difficile. The spores can persist on hard surfaces for as long as 5 months! Hard to believe that’s even possible, but it is. It’s normally shed in feces though. Obviously much different than parasites (not living in saltwater), but it does make you wonder just how resilient some parasites might be under the right conditions.

I was thinking of the Clostridium spore formers as well. They can tolerate being dried out for a very long time. Including the botulism and tetanus organisms.

Not certain how relevant they are to this hobby, though.

Also Bacillus species, such as the anthrax organism.

rkpetersen · Feb 14, 2019

saltyhog said:
Most fish disease it does. Dinoflagellates however, can live for years in an encysted form.

Is this true? I was wondering about dinos, and other algae.

saltyhog · Feb 14, 2019

According to the dino experts (see the enormous thread). Several species of dinos can encyst under hostile conditions and survive dry for years. The suckers are pretty much impossible to keep out of our tanks. If the right conditions develop (at least in part very low NO3 and PO4) they can happen to anyone!

Dr. Reef · Feb 14, 2019

but cant survive bleach. I had a forest of dinos in my tank. came in on some frags i purchased and within a few weeks took over the tank killing every coral i had and all the inverts. I run an extremely ULNS with absolute zero on nitrate and phos so it was great conditions for dinos to take over.
I tried everything on that forum mentioned and didnt put a dent.
I finally got tired and hit the reset button. Pulled all fish to holding tanks. corals and inverts died. took rocks out and put them in totes and bleached them. Ran a couple of gal in main tank for few days and then drained it. dried it for few weeks and restarted with rodi water in main tank then mixed salt over time.
Combination of bleach then dry then freshwater got rid of the issue i had and tank been up and running now for about a month and no sign of dinos.
Fingers crossed i hope it stays that way.

Hemmdog · Feb 14, 2019

I kinda have a question to, sorry op lol. I’ve had a few nice Fiji live rocks I took out of one of my smaller tanks and ended up just putting it outside on my deck. It’s been rained on, tons of sun, hot summer, more rain, more dry time in the sun(uv). It’s been out there about 8 months.. do you think if I wanted to use it again it would be good to go? Or would I need to cure it in RODI for a few days like normal dry live rock you buy online? Thanks

Dr. Reef · Feb 14, 2019

Rinse well then just to be on safe side i would cure them in a bin with saltwater and powerhead.

Ron Reefman · Feb 14, 2019

Hemmdog said:
I kinda have a question to, sorry op lol. I’ve had a few nice Fiji live rocks I took out of one of my smaller tanks and ended up just putting it outside on my deck. It’s been rained on, tons of sun, hot summer, more rain, more dry time in the sun(uv). It’s been out there about 8 months.. do you think if I wanted to use it again it would be good to go? Or would I need to cure it in RODI for a few days like normal dry live rock you buy online? Thanks

I'd even go so far as to wash it with bleach or vinegar to make sure nothing terrestrial had gotten started on it that could be a problem. I mean, how hard is it to give it a quick bath in bleach before you put it in some RODI water for cure time?

Dr. Reef · Feb 14, 2019

I agree with @Ron Reefman
This is my standard practice on rock no matter what the source is. I never buy live rock. Always dry.
Bring it home place it in a tote with bleach water for 24 hrs then drain and rinse with a garden hose let it dry for 24-48 hrs then cure.

Greybeard · Feb 14, 2019

Note: Nutrients are not alive... drying rock saturated with nutrients does nothing to remove those nutrients.

But yeah, living marine pest organisms are likely dead, once the rock is completely dry.

S-t-r-e-t-c-h · Feb 14, 2019

Hemmdog said:
I kinda have a question to, sorry op lol. I’ve had a few nice Fiji live rocks I took out of one of my smaller tanks and ended up just putting it outside on my deck. It’s been rained on, tons of sun, hot summer, more rain, more dry time in the sun(uv). It’s been out there about 8 months.. do you think if I wanted to use it again it would be good to go? Or would I need to cure it in RODI for a few days like normal dry live rock you buy online? Thanks

I read a recent post from @Randy Holmes-Farley about some rock that he had stored outside for a period of months, but leached phosphates when he added to the tank...

although now I can't find it so maybe it was another poster...