Mold on (dry) live rock ?

[SlugSnorter]

I let rock sit outside in a bucket and re-used it. I even used a extra large coral skeleton from my moms garden outside (was decretive). No issues. I never bothered with acid or bleach. I just cycled it. I suppose worse case is it could leach out PO4 for awhile if it was from a dirty tank or in a garden for years previously.

but salt will kill the mold... it's not like going to come to life and eat your fish

some mold is toxic, main concern is some of that getting into the tank

 

[Tamberav]

some mold is toxic, main concern is some of that getting into the tank

Toss some carbon in then if one is worried. It will be fine.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Maybe I am wearing my tin-foil hat but it seems hasty and poorly thought out to spend thousands of dollars on a tank and then throw some random stuff from the garden in...
That being said, I have done things very similar with my FW setups without problems.
Maybe I'm just being too precious because of inexperience.

 

[Solga]

I can actually see multiple sides of this. Part of me thinks, it's already dry and not providing any beneficial biology at this point, so what would it hurt to throw it in some bleach water. (Besides the fact that it will just take that much longer to get started.) But another part is saying, it's gonna sit in circulating saltwater for a few months, so anything that can't live in that environment will perish anyway... And if it can live in a saltwater environment, well, who says it's not in our tanks already ?
Most of this rock was given to me anyway, so I wouldn't be losing anything by getting all new, but on the other side of that coin, why would I throw out perfectly good rock ? Every bit of it has come from well established systems anyway, so I think it's beyond leaching anything out of it.
Anyway, after seeing other view points, I think it's clear as mud, as why I asked the question to begin with !

 

[Projects with Sam]

Good point on the time. Those two weeks of rock treatment was frustrating... I wanted to get started mortaring it all together. I guess if it is mold just wear a facemask while handling it. (specially if black mold - if Bob Mould, turn it up!)