“Live” rock question...

SandJ

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I bought an established setup and have about 150 pounds of “live” rock I plan on keeping for my new tank. The live rock is currently in 2 Brute trashcans with water. This rock has nothing on it...no corals, algae, pods, bristleworms, coralline algae, absolutely nothing but bacteria. I am debating just letting the rock dry out to make it easier to aquascape the new tank (it is 30” tall and 30” deep so it will be a little difficult to arrange the rocks).

Would is everyone’s thoughts...keep it wet and alive or just let it dry out and take my time aquascaping?
 

mcarroll

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I bought an established setup and have about 150 pounds of “live” rock I plan on keeping for my new tank. The live rock is currently in 2 Brute trashcans with water. This rock has nothing on it...no corals, algae, pods, bristleworms, coralline algae, absolutely nothing but bacteria. I am debating just letting the rock dry out to make it easier to aquascape the new tank (it is 30” tall and 30” deep so it will be a little difficult to arrange the rocks).

Would is everyone’s thoughts...keep it wet and alive or just let it dry out and take my time aquascaping?

That doesn't sound like live rock, that sounds like dead rock that was in someone's sump.

Do you know that it was live at one time– as in live from the ocean?

(That's what "live" actually means in this context...much more than bacteria.)
 

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Eh... if it makes things easier, let it dry.

You're going to have to establish a bio filter anyway... a bottle of Dr. Tims would likely be as good as trying to keep that rock 'live'.
 

KrisReef

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If this rock came from an established system, what ever you do I would suggest that you test your barrel water for phosphate/phosphorus . Hopefully it will be zero, but you might be surprised. I had a barrel cooking for months, and for "fun" I decided to check out P with my new Hanna ULR Phosphorus Checker. The vial turned the prettiest blue color, and the water had to be diluted 10x's to get a reading inside the meters range.
Rock came from an "established" tank.
I hope you don't find this, but if you do you will be glad you tested.
 

jda

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I would never kill established rock. If you do, you will have the burden of getting rid of the dead organic matter and then repopulating the rock - this can be a 1 to 5 year process... but usually closer to 1 year. Even the phosphate is high, some water changes, GFO or Lan Chloride can get it down pretty well. Remember that aragonite binds phosphate at an alarming rate.

Just let it "cook" in the brutes with some water movement. You can search for "cooking rock" since that is what people used to call it before the dry/dead rock phenonomen and the sensitive types are all mad over the term because a few dummies actually put rock in the oven or tried to boil it (don't do that).

Live rock to me is porous with the crevices and structure all gummed up with dead or alive organics with areas of oxic and anoxic bacteria. There is no substitute for this, IMO.
 
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That doesn't sound like live rock, that sounds like dead rock that was in someone's sump.

Do you know that it was live at one time– as in live from the ocean?

(That's what "live" actually means in this context...much more than bacteria.)

I don’t think this was live from the ocean...just live in the sense that it has bacteria (hence the quotes around “live”). It was not dry rock, but it never was seeded with any forms of life. The only thing on it alive is bacteria. It was in the tank, not sump (seen it set up and broke it down myself).
 
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I would never kill established rock. If you do, you will have the burden of getting rid of the dead organic matter and then repopulating the rock - this can be a 1 to 5 year process... but usually closer to 1 year. Even the phosphate is high, some water changes, GFO or Lan Chloride can get it down pretty well. Remember that aragonite binds phosphate at an alarming rate.

Just let it "cook" in the brutes with some water movement. You can search for "cooking rock" since that is what people used to call it before the dry/dead rock phenonomen and the sensitive types are all mad over the term because a few dummies actually put rock in the oven or tried to boil it (don't do that).

Live rock to me is porous with the crevices and structure all gummed up with dead or alive organics with areas of oxic and anoxic bacteria. There is no substitute for this, IMO.

There really is nothing living in this rock but bacteria. There is nothing at all (but bacteria) to die off. That is why I was wondering if I do let it dry out, will it hurt anything.
 
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SandJ

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If this rock came from an established system, what ever you do I would suggest that you test your barrel water for phosphate/phosphorus . Hopefully it will be zero, but you might be surprised. I had a barrel cooking for months, and for "fun" I decided to check out P with my new Hanna ULR Phosphorus Checker. The vial turned the prettiest blue color, and the water had to be diluted 10x's to get a reading inside the meters range.
Rock came from an "established" tank.
I hope you don't find this, but if you do you will be glad you tested.

Good idea, then I could take measures to reduce phosphates before I do anything else with it.
 
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Eh... if it makes things easier, let it dry.

You're going to have to establish a bio filter anyway... a bottle of Dr. Tims would likely be as good as trying to keep that rock 'live'.

That’s what I was thinking...just don’t want to do something drastic without considering all the effects.
 
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SandJ

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The bacteria, porous structure and lack of bound phosphate is all that you are after. The pods, coralline and other good stuff will come back quite quickly.
 

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I'd let it sit in the trash can with a powerhead. Check for phosphates as suggested earlier.

Why let it dry out? I don't see the benefit to that. What am I missing?
 
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I'd let it sit in the trash can with a powerhead. Check for phosphates as suggested earlier.

Why let it dry out? I don't see the benefit to that. What am I missing?

The main reason is so I can lay all the rock out and work on aquascaping with out making a mess with the water, to make it easier to glue the rock structures together, and being able to take my time and not worry about killing all the bacteria.

Plus I will have to add the rock structures into the tank while the tank is dry (because the top of the tank is over my head and the tank is 30” deep). It will take some time to fill up 235 gallons. If the rock is dry, I can fill with RODI and add salt to the sump. If the rock is going to be kept “live” then I would assume I would need to fill with saltwater.
 
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The bacteria, porous structure and lack of bound phosphate is all that you are after. The pods, coralline and other good stuff will come back quite quickly.

I plan on adding some true live rock, such as Tampa bay rock, to get some life in the tank. This rock really has zero life...there was not even a pod to be found in the tank. It must have been started with dry rock and never had any corals or other rock added.
 

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Either way will work fine. I would scrub it despite it's appearance. There is likely more organic material there than you think which could make the new tank "uglies" a little more severe and longer lasting. Some of it is in the crevices where you can't do anything about it.
 

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all good advice above on keeping the rock wet & whatever life(bacteria) alive. Doesn't matter if it has or had no algae on it. Your tank is a completely different situation.
Great idea to test the barrel water. Is it old water from the tank it came from or new? If you get above natural results ,drain the old water refill ,wait a week & test again.
Put a power head in there & put the lid on to darken. If this rock has a bunch of No3/Po4 in it , it will most likely cause issues down the road. Might put a slow on your tank build but well worth the wait to avoid probs down the road.
 

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The rock in that picture looks to have some coralline algae on it which says to me that it might be better rock than you think. I wouldn't dry it out. I would use it but put a power head down in the bucket and test the water.
 
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The rock in that picture looks to have some coralline algae on it which says to me that it might be better rock than you think. I wouldn't dry it out. I would use it but put a power head down in the bucket and test the water.

Oh, that is CaribSea Life Rock that is painted purple.
 
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