Live Rock Treatment

[thomas.vette11]

Hello Everyone,

I’m getting back into the Saltwater aquarium hobby after 20 years.
Re-learning and discovering new things as I go. I established a small reef tank and have been adding fish, live rock,and frags in increments. Will post pictures at a later time.

One purchase I made recently, was a 5-gallon bucket of live rock from a Facebook Marketplace seller for $50; it’s a small amount in the grand scheme of the hobby. I inspected some pieces at the top and was on my way; unfortunately, at the bottom half of the bucket, was several pieces with hardened skins from some type of worm. It’s unfortunate people do this, but $50 is small for a lesson learned such as this.

If any is of this is salvageable, great; but I want to know what are current methods everyone uses to treat live rock before putting into their tank.

1. Who can identify the thing pictured?
2. Once identified, is it something that can come back to life slowly in the presence of water?
3. What processes have you used besides a 15-30 minute chemical dip to treat live rock to rid most harmful contaminants?

Thank you.
-Thomas

 

[dadnjesse]

Was the rock in water when you got it? It's not live rock any more if it's dry. You can soak it it bleach and then put it in Muriatic acid for a few minutes if you want to really clean it. Just don't leave it too long as the acid will eat the rock slowly. Those tubes look like Vermetid snails.

 

[thomas.vette11]

The Vermetid’s started growing in places, I’ve read different articles about these being good and bad for the overall tank.
Any weigh-in from experts?

 

[JGT]

They are an annoyance. Their web can irritate corals. Get rid of them when you can.

 

[mfinn]

Hello Everyone,

I’m getting back into the Saltwater aquarium hobby after 20 years.
Re-learning and discovering new things as I go. I established a small reef tank and have been adding fish, live rock,and frags in increments. Will post pictures at a later time.

One purchase I made recently, was a 5-gallon bucket of live rock from a Facebook Marketplace seller for $50; it’s a small amount in the grand scheme of the hobby. I inspected some pieces at the top and was on my way; unfortunately, at the bottom half of the bucket, was several pieces with hardened skins from some type of worm. It’s unfortunate people do this, but $50 is small for a lesson learned such as this.

If any is of this is salvageable, great; but I want to know what are current methods everyone uses to treat live rock before putting into their tank.

1. Who can identify the thing pictured?
2. Once identified, is it something that can come back to life slowly in the presence of water?
3. What processes have you used besides a 15-30 minute chemical dip to treat live rock to rid most harmful contaminants?

Thank you.
-Thomas

Is this dry rock, or rock that was kept in saltwater?
If it's still live rock and you want to keep it that way. I would just wire brush off ( chip with a chisel) anything you are concerned about. Rinse and dunk.
I kind of thought maybe those were feather duster cases.
If it's dry, then I would do a 24 hour bleach soak. Then a soak in a dechlorinator solution.
Bleach will remove any organic material.
I would not bleach soak wet live rock unless it was covered in any thing undesirable. ( algae etc.)