Live Rock covered in dead worms shells!

[JTDillon99]

Hello everyone.

I will be honest, I am an imposter.... I am a F.W. Planted Tank/ Cichlid hobbyist. I come to your guys' forum because I am in need of assistance and I hope it is okay I ask here....I also didnt quite know the exact forum to post this under so I apologize in advance for that too :/ Thank you so much for your time...

I am setting up my 180 gallon FW tank for my Wolf Cichlid. I needed some large rock to make tunnels/caves big enough for my Dovii, at my LFS I found some awesome pieces that already have caves and such in them but the issue is, it was used for SW before and is almost entirely covered ( no exaggeration ) in old Feather Duster Worm tubes. As you guys know, theyre extremely hard and despite an hour of searching on Google I haven't found a single shred of info about how to remove these tubes. Google has been consistently letting me down lately... The worms themselves are long gone. The rock is safe for FW use as well, I have sanitized the rock to make sure anything nasty that may cause problems is gone.

I am just left with all these tubes!! Common sense tells me there is no easy way to do it, but you never know... I sincerely appreciate your time. Thank you so much in advance and apologies again for coming here to ask

 

[Crabs McJones]

Hello everyone.

I will be honest, I am an imposter.... I am a F.W. Planted Tank/ Cichlid hobbyist. I come to your guys' forum because I am in need of assistance and I hope it is okay I ask here....I also didnt quite know the exact forum to post this under so I apologize in advance for that too :/ Thank you so much for your time...

I am setting up my 180 gallon FW tank for my Wolf Cichlid. I needed some large rock to make tunnels/caves big enough for my Dovii, at my LFS I found some awesome pieces that already have caves and such in them but the issue is, it was used for SW before and is almost entirely covered ( no exaggeration ) in old Feather Duster Worm tubes. As you guys know, theyre extremely hard and despite an hour of searching on Google I haven't found a single shred of info about how to remove these tubes. Google has been consistently letting me down lately... The worms themselves are long gone. The rock is safe for FW use as well, I have sanitized the rock to make sure anything nasty that may cause problems is gone.

I am just left with all these tubes!! Common sense tells me there is no easy way to do it, but you never know... I sincerely appreciate your time. Thank you so much in advance and apologies again for coming here to ask

Welcome to R2R! Dont worry, all are welcome here no need to apologize @DSC reef is a cichlid guy he may know. Not sure if you can soak the rock in vinegar or citric acid to dissolve the tubes. Let's get more eyes on it and see if any members of the #reefsquad may know

#WelcometoR2R

 

[WVNed]

I believe I would chuck a wire brush in an electric drill and remove them

 

[40B Knasty]

I was thinking acid bath. Then "cook" the rock. That means lights out/covered, heated, powerhead on it, and change the water every week for four weeks. Using Prime also.

 

[DSC reef]

Not much you can do but remove them manually. They can be very sharp so be careful. @Lovemyreef2015 was the cichlid guru Look into Texas holey and dragon rock as well. Welcome to R2R

 

[ZoWhat]

 

[Flippers4pups]

Acid bath would remove them and anything else organic on the rock.

 

[Scotty Buttons]

Do you want to remove them just because there ugly? I would think that the calcium tubes breaking down over time would be good for the water chemistry in a cichlid tank.

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

I agree with above about removing it manually. My personal opinion I would not waste time with that rock and just get some nice pieces of dragon rock and build caves. Welcome to R2R

 

[MnFish1]

Dovii cichlids usually like a soft acid water. Perhaps a different choice of rock would be best? (i.e. what is the base rock made of - if its standard 'live rock' from a SW tank - Im not sure this would be a good plan. Here are mine:

 

[saltyhog]

Acid bath would also dissolve some of the rock if you're not careful.

 

[Flippers4pups]

If it's aragonite based rock, then yes with a FW tank PH at or around 7 it will in time dissolve the rock very slowly. That's why FW tanks use granite, lava rock, quartz rock for rock structures.

Best to find different rock.