Cleaning Rock

KeMiKiLL · Dec 4, 2022

I know, I know. There are a million threads on cleaning rock. I've read a ton of them and have yet to find one with the information I need.

I have a crashed biocube. It went down over a year ago but I've left it as it was and just topped up RODI as needed. It is a green algae utopia, but that is it. Just thick mats of dark green algae covering the substrate and live rock.

Today I am going to rinse new substrate until clear, put the rock into a bucket of new salt water, then strip the tank. Pump, tank, power heads, etc., will all get a thorough soak and wipe with Isopropyl, then a good rinse in the tub (we are on a well), then a final rinse with new RODI. I'm keeping my bio gems, after a quick rinse in RODI, but the rest of the filtration stack will be new.

Okay. Back to the rock. I don't want to nuke all the bacteria as I want this tank to be cycled and ready to go once all is done. I'm thinking about going to town on the rock with brushes and manually removing as much as possible. Would this be ok? Anything else I should consider to help that won't wreck the biological filtration? I knrow there are some tank additives around for some things, but I don't know enough about them and possible side effects.

I had a similar algae overgrowth in a 5G Evo a while back. A 80% water change, substrate siphon, and a light rock scrubbing with toothbrushes cleaned most of it. Four female emerald crabs were added and the tank has been spotless since.

HankstankXXL750 · Dec 4, 2022

When I scrub current rock that is in a tank and saltwater, I like to scrub it in tank water. Either old, when doing a water change, but if you don’t have enough, mix new.

I can’t speak to isopropyl, but I use diluted vinegar for cleaning and disinfecting items from my tanks. Started that after reading humblefish guide to Tank Transfer Method.
Wash, scrub, dip in vinegar water solution. Allow to dry and it is sterile.

I have used bleach baths in the past, but chlorine must be rinsed really well and then dried completely before it can be placed back in the tank. Getting a small amount of vinegar in the tank won’t hurt anything as it is what many use for carbon dosing.

KeMiKiLL · Dec 4, 2022

Good point. Maybe I'll use vinegar instead of the Isopropyl.

KeMiKiLL · Dec 5, 2022

Update -

Spent several hours on this tank today! All components cleaned up well and I scrubbed the rock really good, or so I thought. I scrubbed it in the tank with the old water. Tested salinity and it was at 1.046!! Siphoned the substrate really well. The original plan was to toss it all and replace with fresh substrate but the tank wasn't actually as bad off as I thought once the bulk of the large chunks of algae were plucked out.

Topped off with fresh RODI and ran the pumps and powerheads for a couple of hours. Salinity at 1.028 now so I siphoned more small pieces of algae that could now be seen better and topped with RODI again. Everything is very foggy but i can already see some spots on the rock that I didnt get as well as I though. I'm going to let it run over night then most likely scrub the rock some more, siphon out the small pieces of algae and top off to get salinity within spec.

I'll run a full battery of tests to see how it all looks. If it's good, I'm going to drop a bit of ammonia into the tank and test after a day to see if my bacteria is doing its job. If it is, it's off to the LFS for a few CUC members - turbos, astreas, and a bunch of female emerald crabs.

Anything I should add, modify?

HankstankXXL750 · Dec 5, 2022

Just because I don’t know, why female emerald crabs? And secondly, emerald crabs were highly suggested to me for GHA removal by lfs, but I’m reading a lot of posts that they pick at certain corals. I’m not 100% sure, but I had a beautiful pipe organ coral with polyps extending 3/4-1” started from a Frag and had for months. Almost overnight I thought it died. Kept meaning to pull it out, but never got around to it. Weeks later I saw a few really small polyps and thought it’s coming back.

Couple nights ago I caught an emerald picking at it. Can’t swear it was picking at the polyps but there isn’t any GHA on it so I’m guessing.

KeMiKiLL · Dec 5, 2022

HankstankXXXL750 said:
Just because I don’t know, why female emerald crabs? And secondly, emerald crabs were highly suggested to me for GHA removal by lfs, but I’m reading a lot of posts that they pick at certain corals. I’m not 100% sure, but I had a beautiful pipe organ coral with polyps extending 3/4-1” started from a Frag and had for months. Almost overnight I thought it died. Kept meaning to pull it out, but never got around to it. Weeks later I saw a few really small polyps and thought it’s coming back.

Couple nights ago I caught an emerald picking at it. Can’t swear it was picking at the polyps but there isn’t any GHA on it so I’m guessing.

I had a bad GHA outbreak in a 5G Evo that I couldn't get under control for months. Even after scrubbing the rocks there was tons of it due to the porosity of the rocks. Threw in a few emeralds and they cleaned it right up in a few weeks. I take only females as I was told they are less aggressive towards each other and other inverts. I've never had a problem with them eating corals. They absolutely have picked off the corals, but no damage at all.

I had a bad GHA outbreak in a 5G Evo that I couldn't get under control for months. Even after scrubbing the rocks there was tons of it due to the porosity of the rocks. Threw in a few emeralds and they cleaned it right up in a few weeks. I take only females as I was told they are less aggressive towards each other and other inverts. I've never had a problem with them eating corals. They absolutely have picked off the corals, but no damage at all.

HankstankXXL750 · Dec 5, 2022

Good to know about the less aggressive female. And as I said, I can’t prove mine did anything wrong, but have had others post about them. I have them in both of my reefs, but my hair algae is gone so wondering if they eat other things when they don’t have hair algae to eat.

vetteguy53081 · Dec 5, 2022

KeMiKiLL said:
I know, I know. There are a million threads on cleaning rock. I've read a ton of them and have yet to find one with the information I need.

I have a crashed biocube. It went down over a year ago but I've left it as it was and just topped up RODI as needed. It is a green algae utopia, but that is it. Just thick mats of dark green algae covering the substrate and live rock.

Today I am going to rinse new substrate until clear, put the rock into a bucket of new salt water, then strip the tank. Pump, tank, power heads, etc., will all get a thorough soak and wipe with Isopropyl, then a good rinse in the tub (we are on a well), then a final rinse with new RODI. I'm keeping my bio gems, after a quick rinse in RODI, but the rest of the filtration stack will be new.

Okay. Back to the rock. I don't want to nuke all the bacteria as I want this tank to be cycled and ready to go once all is done. I'm thinking about going to town on the rock with brushes and manually removing as much as possible. Would this be ok? Anything else I should consider to help that won't wreck the biological filtration? I knrow there are some tank additives around for some things, but I don't know enough about them and possible side effects.

I had a similar algae overgrowth in a 5G Evo a while back. A 80% water change, substrate siphon, and a light rock scrubbing with toothbrushes cleaned most of it. Four female emerald crabs were added and the tank has been spotless since.

You can. I too am adding rock to a larger tank and found some in garage I did not realize I had and am doing a bleach/water solution and then run under cold water after a full day until smell is gone thereby neutralizing the bleach