Killing live rock.

Zach Vs Ponies · 03/11/2012, 02:16 PM

Hi everyone. To make a long story short, my heater cracked a few weeks ago and killed everything (with the exception of two things) inside of my 55gallon reef tank a few weeks ago. I'm now setting up a new 125 gallon using 75lbs. of live rock I'm going to order from Liveaquaria, and the rest will be ~50lbs of LR from my old aquarium.

I've been reading a lot about people using "dead" rock for their aquariums. I just don't know if I like the idea of killing my live rock. Is the the "new thing" to use dry rock? Whenever I read about dry rock, I knew I had one piece of rock I wanted to kill. The rock is 16 lbs, and is covered with zoanthids. You have to keep in mind that whenever I was taking my tank down I was sort of being rushed so I wasn't able to care for the zoanthid colony, and it is as good as dead now. The colony actually spread so much that it was on another rock of mine, which has been saved. The rest of zoanthids I am going to kill, along with the rock.

I have read about boiling live rock, so that's what I've been doing, but I still noticed some of the zoanthids are still hanging on, though. I would figure since they're in hot water that they would be dead, should I just try to brush them off with a tooth brush after I take it out of the boiling water? After a good few hours in boiled water, I was going to put it in a bleach solution for a few hours, then leave it in the sun to dry.

Now, should I do this with the rest of my live rock from my old aquarium, or just leave it live (I am going to keep it stored in an unlit and unheated bucket for a few days, and then clean it with a toothbrush)?

Thanks for any help you can give.

username in use · 03/11/2012, 02:26 PM

If there are no pests on the rock I would not kill it.

KafudaFish · 03/11/2012, 02:28 PM

Stop!

Do not boil the rock. You could inhale the toxins from the zoas and get a round trip to the ER.

If you are going to kill everything do it outside with fw, leave for a day, use a pressure washer and then let it dry if you are dead set on killing everything.

gmate · 03/11/2012, 02:32 PM

BLEACH/RO bath, then vinegar/ro bath, then ro/di bath a few times, scrub clean, perfect. This way the rock doesn't leach phosphate or anything nasty into the water.

Zach Vs Ponies · 03/11/2012, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KafudaFish

Stop!

Do not boil the rock. You could inhale the toxins from the zoas and get a round trip to the ER.

If you are going to kill everything do it outside with fw, leave for a day, use a pressure washer and then let it dry if you are dead set on killing everything.

Hi Kafuda, thank you for your concern.

I forgot to include that I did a bit of reading on Zoanthid's secretion of Palythoa toxin last night. The boiling took place outside. I will do what your advice said, and I'll leave it in the water overnight. I guess I need to find dads pressure washer

...

username in use · 03/11/2012, 02:39 PM

You don't need to kill it if it doesn't have any pests.

The whole "starting with dead rock" thing is for two reasons. 1 - Its cheaper and doesn't pull as much off the reefs, and 2 - you can ensure you don't have any pests.

If you already have live rock with no pests, keep it live, you have spent a long time building up the biodiversity of that rock, don't go and throw that all away for no reason.

Zach Vs Ponies · 03/11/2012, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by username in use

You don't need to kill it if it doesn't have any pests.

The whole "starting with dead rock" thing is for two reasons. 1 - Its cheaper and doesn't pull as much off the reefs, and 2 - you can ensure you don't have any pests.

If you already have live rock with no pests, keep it live, you have spent a long time building up the biodiversity of that rock, don't go and throw that all away for no reason.

I'm not going to be doing it with all of the rocks. I'm only doing it with this one because it's filled with aipasta and dead zoanthids.

thor109 · 03/11/2012, 02:58 PM

Sometimes you get mad and have to get even

BossHoggin · 03/11/2012, 03:49 PM

Cant say I would advise boiling liverock indoors. There is certainly a potential to seriously harm yourself. I'm also sure it smells GREAT.

thor109 · 03/11/2012, 04:04 PM

I had fan on it vents outside, and no zoas. it didn't smell great but sure did feel great. the rock looks awesome now, coraline algae is all ready growing on it.

Sent from my ARCHOS 80G9 using Tapatalk

NvyroMental · 03/11/2012, 08:00 PM

Killing a live rock can only hurt/slow the tank in its progression. The biodiversity in that rock is what helps the tank remain stable, removing waste and performing the nitrogen cycle, and by killing it you remove all that stability and open it to parameter fluctuations. IMO i would have left the rock live, and watched your parameter levels as things died and performed water changes to counteract this process. It may be more work right now, but will pay off in the long run.

Zach Vs Ponies · 03/11/2012, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NvyroMental

Killing a live rock can only hurt/slow the tank in its progression. The biodiversity in that rock is what helps the tank remain stable, removing waste and performing the nitrogen cycle, and by killing it you remove all that stability and open it to parameter fluctuations. IMO i would have left the rock live, and watched your parameter levels as things died and performed water changes to counteract this process. It may be more work right now, but will pay off in the long run.

I'm confused, this will happen if I kill all of the rock, or it is going to happen now that I've only killed one 16 lb rock out of the 125 I'm putting in the tank. The rest of the rock is coming from my other tank or it is coming live from live aquaria.

Agu · 03/11/2012, 09:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zach Vs Ponies

I'm not going to be doing it with all of the rocks. I'm only doing it with this one because it's filled with aipasta and dead zoanthids.

You're fine cleaning up one rock. Since you've already boiled it, a cleaning with a spray followed by an RO/DI soak will be sufficient.

In the future a fresh water soak would be more than adequate to kill nasties on the rock.

NvyroMental · 03/11/2012, 11:10 PM

I must have misunderstood that your only doing one 16 lb. rock out of 125 lbs. This would be the case if you were to "kill" all of your LR. I dont doubt that you'll be ok only doing one rock, but as a general reference i would have just allowed the rock to cycle and degrade naturally, while watching water parameters and responding accordingly. IMO. There are many microfauna that can prey on dead, decaying organisms, such as 'pods, worms, snails, crustaceans, etc that would likely result in minimal water quality fluctuations if you have a mature tank.

Zach Vs Ponies · 03/12/2012, 10:14 PM

Thanks everyone for the help. The rock sat in a bleach solution for a good while today. It will get a little dip in RO/DI water tomorrow and sit out in the sun to dry until I get water, sand, and more LR for my new aquarium.

I picked up my new aquarium today. It looks SO cool, and I'm really exited to get some water in it! I can honestly say that I've never kept an aquarium with a sump, but I'm really excited I have one in my new system. Here's a picture of it below..

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Zach Vs Ponies · 03/12/2012, 10:15 PM

I just noticed this one. Don't know how this happened... Sorry for the TRIPLE post! What a fail.

Zach Vs Ponies · 03/12/2012, 10:16 PM

Sorry for the double post

567234ta · 03/12/2012, 11:09 PM

I had to kill about 150 pounds of LR because of bubble algae and hair algae from the LFS.
i just set it outside in the rain and sun for a few weeks, it was pretty dead.

03/11/2012, 02:16 PM	#1
Zach Vs Ponies Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Mississippi Posts: 108	Killing live rock. Hi everyone. To make a long story short, my heater cracked a few weeks ago and killed everything (with the exception of two things) inside of my 55gallon reef tank a few weeks ago. I'm now setting up a new 125 gallon using 75lbs. of live rock I'm going to order from Liveaquaria, and the rest will be ~50lbs of LR from my old aquarium. I've been reading a lot about people using "dead" rock for their aquariums. I just don't know if I like the idea of killing my live rock. Is the the "new thing" to use dry rock? Whenever I read about dry rock, I knew I had one piece of rock I wanted to kill. The rock is 16 lbs, and is covered with zoanthids. You have to keep in mind that whenever I was taking my tank down I was sort of being rushed so I wasn't able to care for the zoanthid colony, and it is as good as dead now. The colony actually spread so much that it was on another rock of mine, which has been saved. The rest of zoanthids I am going to kill, along with the rock. I have read about boiling live rock, so that's what I've been doing, but I still noticed some of the zoanthids are still hanging on, though. I would figure since they're in hot water that they would be dead, should I just try to brush them off with a tooth brush after I take it out of the boiling water? After a good few hours in boiled water, I was going to put it in a bleach solution for a few hours, then leave it in the sun to dry. Now, should I do this with the rest of my live rock from my old aquarium, or just leave it live (I am going to keep it stored in an unlit and unheated bucket for a few days, and then clean it with a toothbrush)? Thanks for any help you can give.

03/11/2012, 02:26 PM	#2
username in use Sciencing Daily Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 6,560	If there are no pests on the rock I would not kill it. __________________ Joshua "With fronds like these, who needs anemones?" - Albert Einstein Current Tank Info: multiple nano's sprinkled around the house

03/11/2012, 02:32 PM	#4
gmate MASC Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Littleton, CO Posts: 2,267	BLEACH/RO bath, then vinegar/ro bath, then ro/di bath a few times, scrub clean, perfect. This way the rock doesn't leach phosphate or anything nasty into the water. __________________ https://www.marinecolorado.org/ 180, 90 and 50 gallon reef ready systems. Fragging & trading since 2010. Current Tank Info: 180g, 90g & 50g frag tank

03/11/2012, 02:39 PM	#6
username in use Sciencing Daily Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 6,560	You don't need to kill it if it doesn't have any pests. The whole "starting with dead rock" thing is for two reasons. 1 - Its cheaper and doesn't pull as much off the reefs, and 2 - you can ensure you don't have any pests. If you already have live rock with no pests, keep it live, you have spent a long time building up the biodiversity of that rock, don't go and throw that all away for no reason. __________________ Joshua "With fronds like these, who needs anemones?" - Albert Einstein Current Tank Info: multiple nano's sprinkled around the house

03/11/2012, 02:28 PM	#3
KafudaFish Cyprinius carpio Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 4,496	Stop! Do not boil the rock. You could inhale the toxins from the zoas and get a round trip to the ER. If you are going to kill everything do it outside with fw, leave for a day, use a pressure washer and then let it dry if you are dead set on killing everything.

03/11/2012, 03:49 PM	#9
BossHoggin Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Compton, CA Posts: 198	Cant say I would advise boiling liverock indoors. There is certainly a potential to seriously harm yourself. I'm also sure it smells GREAT.

03/11/2012, 04:04 PM	#10
thor109 Registered Member. Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Plainfield, Indiana Posts: 822	I had fan on it vents outside, and no zoas. it didn't smell great but sure did feel great. the rock looks awesome now, coraline algae is all ready growing on it. Sent from my ARCHOS 80G9 using Tapatalk

03/11/2012, 08:00 PM	#11
NvyroMental Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Kansas City Posts: 51	Killing a live rock can only hurt/slow the tank in its progression. The biodiversity in that rock is what helps the tank remain stable, removing waste and performing the nitrogen cycle, and by killing it you remove all that stability and open it to parameter fluctuations. IMO i would have left the rock live, and watched your parameter levels as things died and performed water changes to counteract this process. It may be more work right now, but will pay off in the long run.

03/11/2012, 11:10 PM	#14
NvyroMental Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Kansas City Posts: 51	I must have misunderstood that your only doing one 16 lb. rock out of 125 lbs. This would be the case if you were to "kill" all of your LR. I dont doubt that you'll be ok only doing one rock, but as a general reference i would have just allowed the rock to cycle and degrade naturally, while watching water parameters and responding accordingly. IMO. There are many microfauna that can prey on dead, decaying organisms, such as 'pods, worms, snails, crustaceans, etc that would likely result in minimal water quality fluctuations if you have a mature tank.

03/12/2012, 10:14 PM	#15
Zach Vs Ponies Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Mississippi Posts: 108	Thanks everyone for the help. The rock sat in a bleach solution for a good while today. It will get a little dip in RO/DI water tomorrow and sit out in the sun to dry until I get water, sand, and more LR for my new aquarium. I picked up my new aquarium today. It looks SO cool, and I'm really exited to get some water in it! I can honestly say that I've never kept an aquarium with a sump, but I'm really excited I have one in my new system. Here's a picture of it below.. Uploaded with ImageShack.us

03/12/2012, 10:15 PM	#16
Zach Vs Ponies Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Mississippi Posts: 108	I just noticed this one. Don't know how this happened... Sorry for the TRIPLE post! What a fail.

03/12/2012, 10:16 PM	#17
Zach Vs Ponies Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Mississippi Posts: 108	Sorry for the double post

03/12/2012, 11:09 PM	#18
567234ta Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Fort Smith AR Posts: 579	I had to kill about 150 pounds of LR because of bubble algae and hair algae from the LFS. i just set it outside in the rain and sun for a few weeks, it was pretty dead.