Drying out live rock

[jeffpettis]

My wife and I are moving and we are going to break down our 65 gallon reef. We have gotten rid of all of our corals and only have live rock left in the tank. We want to start over with a smaller reef in our new house. I want to dry out the live rock we have to make sure we are starting as "fresh" as possible in the new tank with no unwanted hitchhikers. It's going to be about a month before I start the new tank. What is the easiest way to dry out some of the live rock I have to use as a base to reseed? I know some are going to think I'm nuts for doing it this way but our situation warrants it. Any help would be appreciated.

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[Addicted2Coral]

I sun baked mine for 3 days taking it in at night and out on newspaper during the day. If indoors, have a fan running on it. Once you dry it COMPLETELY, rinse and swish it around several times in rodi water to get out all of the dead organisms. Otherwise it'll be phosphate leach galore. (Been there done that) lol.

 

[Tobias9413]

So if you “dry” your live rock you’ll have to start your cycle all over. If you really want to start fresh, you need to pretty much get rid of everything living in your rock and also use new sand in your new tank. There are a couple of ways to dry your live rock. You can do an acid bath which is the fastest way of getting rid of anything living in your rock. You can also do bleach baths which will also kill everything. You can also cure the rock which takes longer but makes sure everything is really gone from your rock.

Personally I’ve done bleach before and it’s what I plan on doing for my next tank. Just bleach the rock, rinse in fresh water with Prime, sun dry and repeat if necessary.

I wouldn’t keep any of your old rock “alive” to use it to reseed your tank because other wise there would have been no reason of going through the process of drying the rock. After you dry your rock your going to have to start a fresh cycle with new sand.

 

[jeffpettis]

Like I said, we want to start completely over. New live sand, we have black Fiji sand now and the wife wants white. "New" live rock to seed with. But I have some cool pieces of rock I want to re-use. Would taking it out, scrubbing and washing, and drying in the sun for about 3 weeks be sufficient? My problem is I'm not going to be around for the next month to do much with it.

 

[Addicted2Coral]

+1 to muriatic acid bath. Don't do it in your drive way though....lol. Bleach works well too. These 2 things will surely make you start from scratch like you're wanting.

 

[tthouston]

+1 BLEACH
No worry any more. Two days bleach, then soak then two days or more on Sun dry then store the rocks in the box for next time use.

 

[jeffpettis]

Thanks for all the replys so far guys. I do have another question though. My thought was to just remove it from the tank, scrub and wash it really well, and let it sit in the sun for a week or two. What is the down side to doing this?