Whats inside my live rock

[Timbo Slice]

I was doing a water change today and I broke open one of my pieces of rock. What is growing inside? I never put that piece back in but now im concerned if its growing inside all my rock.
Should i be concerned?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

How old is that live rock?

 

[Timbo Slice]

How old is that live rock?

Roughly 3 years old

 

[Tavero]

I was doing a water change today and I broke open one of my pieces of rock. What is growing inside? I never put that piece back in but now im concerned if its growing inside all my rock.
Should i be concerned?

Your rock is rotting from the inside. Probably some faint smell of sulfur?
Happens when there isn't enough oxygen in the water or if cured rock dries up and gets put back afterwards.

Edit. Some other reasons could be if the rock is covered with detrius which is clogging the pores.

Where was the rock located inside the tank?

 

[Timbo Slice]

Your rock is rotting from the inside. Probably some faint smell of sulfur?
Happens when there isn't enough oxygen in the water or if cured rock dries up and gets put back afterwards.

I'm unsure about the smell as I have lost my sense of smell years ago.
I did get the rock from a guy on marketplace years ago and it was dried.

 

[Tavero]

I'm unsure about the smell as I have lost my sense of smell years ago.
I did get the rock from a guy on marketplace years ago and it was dried.

Where was the rock located in your tank?

 

[Timbo Slice]

Where was the rock located in your tank?

The rock was down on the substrate for the longest time, approximately 2.5 years.
I sprung a leak and had to remove all the substrate to reseal the tank. I left the tank bare bottom after the resealing. That was about 6 months ago

 

[Tavero]

The rock was down on the substrate for the longest time, approximately 2.5 years.
I sprung a leak and had to remove all the substrate to reseal the tank. I left the tank bare bottom after the resealing. That was about 6 months ago

Yeah I also expected that rock to be positioned on or inside the substrate.
That rot could have gone on for some time.
One way to mitigate the risk is to put rock on some egg crate before filling in sand. That way the rock don't sink in.

But you already have a bare bottom right now? Maybe this is the damage from when you still had a sand bed. Some rocks are more prone to fouling than others. We won't know without breaking them apart. Maybe the rest is fine.

 

[Timbo Slice]

Yeah I also expected that rock to be positioned on or inside the substrate.
That rot could have gone on for some time.
One way to mitigate the risk is to put rock on some egg crate before filling in sand. That way the rock don't sink in.

But you already have a bare bottom right now? Maybe this is the damage from when you still had a sand bed. Some rocks are more prone to fouling than others. We won't know without breaking them apart. Maybe the rest is fine.

Yes, I'm running bare bottom now.
Should I be concerned about the other rocks or my parameteres becoming unstable with having rock like that in the tank?

 

[chip shop]

Looks perfectly normal to me broke some pieces of out of my tank that’s been going for 30 years and looked same no damage to new set up and was cycled straight away

 

[Subsea]

Looks perfectly normal to me broke some pieces of out of my tank that’s been going for 30 years and looked same no damage to new set up and was cycled straight away

Kudos to your post.

@Timbo Slice
What prompted you to break rock apart? I would expect live rock interior to have de-nitrification bacteria.

 

[Timbo Slice]

Looks perfectly normal to me broke some pieces of out of my tank that’s been going for 30 years and looked same no damage to new set up and was cycled straight away

Perfect thank you

 

[Timbo Slice]

Kudos to your post.

@Timbo Slice
What prompted you to break rock apart? I would expect live rock interior to have de-nitrification bacteria.

I was actually trying to drill a hole into it so place a coral plug in it. The rock broke apart while drilling

 

[Tavero]

Yes, I'm running bare bottom now.
Should I be concerned about the other rocks or my parameteres becoming unstable with having rock like that in the tank?

Shouldn't be an issue for the parameters if just a few rocks are having this issue. The hydrogen sulfite will damage the rock after a few years though.
I still have a rock from a problematic live rock shipment from 6-7 years ago, which smelled funky when I opened the bag. Around a year ago the rock started to crumble. It continues to do so.
It's similar to that degradation of stone statue in acidic rain.

 

[Tavero]

Looks perfectly normal to me broke some pieces of out of my tank that’s been going for 30 years and looked same no damage to new set up and was cycled straight away

Its definitely not normal as in optimal. Freshly broken apart life rock should look white not black. The reason for the black spots is due to sulfur bacteria. The reason his rock broke apart in the first place is probably due to the the produced h2s inside of it.