Curing dry rock
- Thread starter willyb123
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Im assuming its a minimal amount of bleach. My current plan was to throw the rock in rodi water and add a reactor with carbon and gfo. Replacing the water two or three times hoping the rodi would pull some of the leachables out. Considering adding some bleach in the first run. Thank you Shaun.
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Just use bleach for 24hrs, rinse with RO, the let dry in the sun for a couple days. To cure, just use saltwater and add some good bacteria, either from your tank in the form of rubble, sand or buy some rubble from aquabiomics. I would buy some Dr. Tims ammonia and use it to cycle the rock, no shrimp necessary. I like PNS substrate sauce, as it comes with PO4 to feed the bacteria, which speeds up the cycle. Seeding it with actual live bacteria is the best way, no bottled bacteria is going to do the job, other than providing nitrifying bacteria. The key in all of this is using actual bacteria, not stuff from a bottle.
Bleach will kill anything on the rock. But if this rock was from an old established tank, then it has lots of dead life on the rock, including coral bases and coraline algae.
Coraline algae covers the surface of the rock and closes up all those pores in the rock that we want for surface area.
Last summer I took 700lbs of rock and put it in a tub with citric acid. Citric works great for cleaning equipment so I figured it would be good to clean all the dead life off the rocks.
And it worked great! It not only broke down all the old life but it cleaned the surface of the rock by eroding the surface layer.
After 24 hours in the bath, I put it in the yard and used a pressure washer to blow off all the old crap and silt. Then into a rinse bath, then another pressure wash, then a few days in the sun.
When I did put the brand new looking rock in the tank there was still a ton of fine sediment that turned the RO water into chocolated milk. But after running for 24 hours I opened the valve between the new 750g and the established 750 gallons of the rest of the system, and the silty water diluted in the over all system. There were no ill effects to the live stock in the rest of the system from the silt, and I was able to start adding corals into the new tank in 24 hours.
Dave B
Coraline algae covers the surface of the rock and closes up all those pores in the rock that we want for surface area.
Last summer I took 700lbs of rock and put it in a tub with citric acid. Citric works great for cleaning equipment so I figured it would be good to clean all the dead life off the rocks.
And it worked great! It not only broke down all the old life but it cleaned the surface of the rock by eroding the surface layer.
After 24 hours in the bath, I put it in the yard and used a pressure washer to blow off all the old crap and silt. Then into a rinse bath, then another pressure wash, then a few days in the sun.
When I did put the brand new looking rock in the tank there was still a ton of fine sediment that turned the RO water into chocolated milk. But after running for 24 hours I opened the valve between the new 750g and the established 750 gallons of the rest of the system, and the silty water diluted in the over all system. There were no ill effects to the live stock in the rest of the system from the silt, and I was able to start adding corals into the new tank in 24 hours.
Dave B
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If you need a big bin to cure the rock in let me know. I have one that is slightly smaller then 4x4 and has been on the side of my house since I cured my rock in it last year. I'm on the Long Beach OC border
I just rinsed mine with the hose. Let it dry out. Then put it in the bin. I also ran GFO and Carbon. Changed it 3 times in 2 weeks.
Then I added the bacteria and started dosing small amounts of ammonia. Added an airline. After a couple of weeks I started adding live phyto plankton, and then a couple weeks later I started with pod cultures. Once the pods populated everything I moved it into the tank. Added more pods and the clean up crew.
Everything was great until I turned the lights on and the whole tank turned to hair algae display for 3 months. Which actually worked out OK for me since my first fish were 3 of the CB Biota Yellow tangs. They ate the algae, grew fast and now the tank is algae free and has a great biodiversity.
My advice would be to cure the rocks, but then also to intentionally start adding biodiversity. Getting a cup of sand, or very small pieces of rock from other reefers will really help with your biodiversity. You want to get as many strains of bacteria, phyto, and pods as you can, and let them establish before you add fish or coral.
BRS does have a few videos on this, specifically cycling to add biodiversity and how not to create a monoculture, but my advice will differ from there's a bit.
Welcome back to the hobby.
I just rinsed mine with the hose. Let it dry out. Then put it in the bin. I also ran GFO and Carbon. Changed it 3 times in 2 weeks.
Then I added the bacteria and started dosing small amounts of ammonia. Added an airline. After a couple of weeks I started adding live phyto plankton, and then a couple weeks later I started with pod cultures. Once the pods populated everything I moved it into the tank. Added more pods and the clean up crew.
Everything was great until I turned the lights on and the whole tank turned to hair algae display for 3 months. Which actually worked out OK for me since my first fish were 3 of the CB Biota Yellow tangs. They ate the algae, grew fast and now the tank is algae free and has a great biodiversity.
My advice would be to cure the rocks, but then also to intentionally start adding biodiversity. Getting a cup of sand, or very small pieces of rock from other reefers will really help with your biodiversity. You want to get as many strains of bacteria, phyto, and pods as you can, and let them establish before you add fish or coral.
BRS does have a few videos on this, specifically cycling to add biodiversity and how not to create a monoculture, but my advice will differ from there's a bit.
Welcome back to the hobby.
Bleach is pretty hard on equipment, I would just soak the rock alone in bleach. Rinse until you can't smell bleach anymore, let dry, then start to cure. 24hrs is all you need to do the job. I used to clean buckets of sand and rubble every week on a coral farm and that's all we ever did. Keep it simple and move on. But, like Dave mentioned, if it's full of organics, then a form of acid will remove them more efficiently. You do lose a little rock as it dissolves, but you get super clean rock.
Quick update incase anyone is interested. Did a bleach dip for 24 hrs, an rodi dip with heater, carbon and gfo for 48 hrs and the rock has been drying outside for 48 hrs now. They are still out there. Considering wether to cure the rocks in my tank or in a bin with saltwater next. I will be using live sand so leaning towards just adding them to the tank already and getting the cycle started.
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