Live rock question

[Chickenboxkings]

Hello, I'm new to reefing. I want to start a larger tank(150) I have a 30 gallon running now. I have a chance to get a pretty good amount of live rock for free. Approximately 50 pounds. What is the general consensus on this. It appears to have a good amount of algea on it though. Should I clean it and cook it? Just use it? Just don't use it? Any help would be appreciated. I'm eat up with the reefing bug. I want to go big! Any help would be great? Thanks

 

[NinnJinn]

Me personally I would clean it by soaking it in bleach. That way you know for sure the rock is clean of parasites and live pests...

I would NOT cook it aka boil the rock! if the rock has had palys or zoas on it, you are asking for a disaster with palytoxin! There could be some of the coral left in the nook and crannies of the rock that you can not see.

Welcome to R2R!!! Glad to have you here!

 

[rastareefs]

Hello, I'm new to reefing. I want to start a larger tank(150) I have a 30 gallon running now. I have a chance to get a pretty good amount of live rock for free. Approximately 50 pounds. What is the general consensus on this. It appears to have a good amount of algea on it though. Should I clean it and cook it? Just use it? Just don't use it? Any help would be appreciated. I'm eat up with the reefing bug. I want to go big! Any help would be great? Thanks

I would recommend taking a toothbrush to it and clean the rock as much as you can. Then I would throw it in a brute with some flow and heat and let it sit for about a month so anything photosynthetic that you don't want will die off. Maybe do a few phantom feedings during that month so you can keep the bacteria colony thriving.

 

[cvanchuck]

Personally I would scrubIt then bleach it. After a very good rinse I would put in a brute with heater and water for a month or two. Ghost feed to build bacteria up

 

[Mellotang]

What’s the point of getting “live rock” to kill the “live” aspect of it in bleach?!

I would keep it live, saving the beneficial bacteria
Run it in some sort of holding tank with a little light, heat n flow
Do water changes
Clean it

And

Keep it LIVE


If not just use dead rock
Lotta work to get some live rock, kill it, then try to bring it back

Don’t understand that

 

[Mellotang]

And what is “ghost feed”

Where do people come up with this stuff

 

[SeaSickness]

The concern is that apart from the algae, there could be some very undesirable pests on or in this rock.
Therefore putting this in to your system could introduce such things as aptasia, bristleworms, or worse.

 

[NinnJinn]

What’s the point of getting “live rock” to kill the “live” aspect of it in bleach?!

I would keep it live, saving the beneficial bacteria
Run it in some sort of holding tank with a little light, heat n flow
Do water changes
Clean it

And

Keep it LIVE


If not just use dead rock
Lotta work to get some live rock, kill it, then try to bring it back

Don’t understand that

He is getting the live rock for free.


And like others have posted, reason for killing the live rock is to make sure there are no pests... Apstasia, bristleworms etc.

As for ghost feeding, you act as if you are feeding fish to get the beneficial bacteria started again.
Or you can spend extra money and use items such as Dr. Tim's.
Or the OP can use a piece or 2 of live rock that they already have in their original tank provided there are no pests in there initial tank.

As for "where do we come up with this stuff?"
It is tried and true research. If you have access to a Marine Biologist, ask them sometime about what we are telling the OP and they will tell you the same thing that we are telling the OP.

Do a search on here or on Google about what I just said, you will find plenty of info supporting what we are saying.

 

[Mellotang]

Considering I’ve been reefing for 25 yrs and have never had a successful tank using dry rock or dead rock to or “ghost fed” rock I was just trying to help

I am a marine biologist
Ghost feeding is not a professional term
You will Not hear it in any professional public or
Private aquarium

Been growing SPS since the 90’s

It will take you forever to be successful without
Live rock, at least 3 yrs till you’re biologically diverse

Live rock Is the key

And since when are bristle worms detrimental??


Go ahead Have a sterile tank
Wait forever for bio diversity
Have pale bleached corals

Enjoy the long, money wasting ride

 

[Mellotang]

Grown 1990s

Plenty of live rock
Plenty of bristle worms
Hell even flat worms n AEFW

You know what helped?!
The bio diversity n stability of the live rock

 

[Mellotang]

From Frags that I glued to the LIVE ROCK

 

[Krully]

@Mellotang How do you explain all those having very successful tanks with a dry rock start?

 

[Mellotang]

How do you determine success?

You see a lot of fully grown out SPS tanks started from dry rock? I don’t

Read about how many reefers that have been in the game forever, guys that know what’s up that tried dry rock and could never achieve the same success as the past.

Eventually they all go on a hunt for real
Live rock again.

You can do it however you want buy IMO live rock is gold

 

[EMeyer]

Can you point to a single person who has started a live rock reef and a dry rock reef, side by side, and considers them equally successful?

OP, don't kill the rock. The pests people worry about are mostly overrated or inevitable. I certainly wouldnt kill live rock over some macroalgae.

 

[Mellotang]

All I see about dry rock are “what’s this algae”
“Why are my corals dying”
“Why is my tank cloudy”
“Mysterious death”

 

[Mellotang]

If You don’t want the free live rock I’ll take it n keep it alive

Send it all!!!!

 

[Krully]

All I see about dry rock are “what’s this algae”
“Why are my corals dying”
“Why is my tank cloudy”
“Mysterious death”

And all I see about live rock is "is that a gorilla crab?" "bobbit worm in tank" etc... Everybody can play that game. I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying I think you're biased because I've seen successful tank started with dry rock only when done right. It takes much more patience however and you have to make sure your bioload increases really slowly. Dry rock doesn't mean you won't get anything from the ocean, coral plugs, small rocks corals come attached too, chaeto from established tanks etc... contribute too. We're not talking about having a sterile environment, just reducing the risk of pests when starting ONLY with live rock.

 

[Mellotang]

So why put The OP at a disadvantage telling him To kill his rock when you admit it’s difficult to do a dry rock reef correct?

 

[bobnicaragua]

My tank is less than 4 months old, started with established live rock from multiple sources, and I seeded the sand from multiple sources. Fish were in immediately and started putting in sps at 2 weeks.

 

[YankeeTankee]

What’s the point of getting “live rock” to kill the “live” aspect of it in bleach?!

I would keep it live, saving the beneficial bacteria
Run it in some sort of holding tank with a little light, heat n flow
Do water changes
Clean it

And

Keep it LIVE


If not just use dead rock
Lotta work to get some live rock, kill it, then try to bring it back

Don’t understand that

Agree with mello, except dropping in an occasional very small amount of food aka ghost feeding while in holding for bacteria seems reasonable.

Only question for Mello is - why the "little light"?