Ever rinsed your Ocean Rock?

[brandon429]

You can do it surgically like a dentist scrapes a tooth with metal picks working around the base of corals. Corals attached to rocks can sit out on the counter for an hour easily, they won’t die.


peroxide can be spot applied to surfaces without touching corals this way.

Dribble saltwater across them if concerned and they can go hours, detail work allows you for example to de attach bryopsis that may be abutting expensive corals and anchored into rock surfaces, this surgery is often better for the tank than affecting the entire water column away from coral positive params and into plant starving params, cleaned rocks can go back into normal waters this way

 

[chema]

You can do it surgically like a dentist scrapes a tooth with metal picks working around the base of corals. Corals attached to rocks can sit out on the counter for an hour easily, they won’t die.


peroxide can be spot applied to surfaces without touching corals this way.

Dribble saltwater across them if concerned and they can go hours, detail work allows you for example to de attach bryopsis that may be abutting expensive corals and anchored into rock surfaces, this surgery is often better for the tank than affecting the entire water column away from coral positive params and into plant starving params, cleaned rocks can go back into normal waters this way

Yes, I thought of something similar, and even doing it that way it is not easy to access many places in my rock structure.

My tank is more than 10 years old. What I have done a few times are partial changes in the rock structure, taking away old rocks and replacing them with new live rock. Also, I have replaced, little by little, most of the sand. I vacuum it a few times per year. The sand bed is around 1-4 cm in depth.

I think that a RIP change is feasible in a nano, but a huge amount of work in anything more that 75 g, and my tank is around 125 g. So, small changes from time to time help to reduce accumulated waste and also increase biodiversity.

 

[brandon429]

120 gallon rip clean

I’ve decided to perform a rip clean on my 120 with 100% new water. The tank has been running for 5 years and was battling Dino for several months. I used the bacteria method from elegant corals and worked great I haven’t seen Dino in months now. But I tried several other methods including...

www.reef2reef.com

we do have steps for large tanks that want to employ the method but agreed wow it’s a lot of work. If I had a large tank I don’t think I’d be using sand, managing it is too hard on aging large systems. Jon’s setup there is neat, there wasn’t anything wrong with his tank he did the rip cleaning just to be thorough and kick out any leftover dinos

 

[James_O]

Yes sir!!

Before the rip clean:

After the rip clean:

As you can see, there was a TON of GHA in my tank before I did the rip clean.

It DOES work. I had my doubts to begin with, but now I’m a firm believer.

 

[LRT]

Just curious. How do you do that when you have every single piece of rock covered with corals?. Even with not so many corals, I do not see any viable way to dismount the whole rock structure and reorganize it while keeping the tank running.

Realistically this is a method that really should be used during new cycle start ups and cure process, so you don't have to deal with the uglies and nasties later on.
I've done nothing new here in power scrubbing and cleaning my ocean rock. Back in the day it was pretty standard practice for one of my lfs owners to take all new ocean rock shipments out back of his shop and power wash with an actual power washer throughout his cycle and cure process before it was sold.
Having said that ive done it all kinds of ways now.
To fully answer your question I wouldnt even attempt this process without being fully prepared and with the right tools for the job. A well though out plan to execute as quickly and methodically as possible. A few 20 gallon tubs for transporting, cleaning, washing and dipping before it goes back into the system. A pile of clean brushes, a cheap high pressure nozzle attached to faucet in tub.
One rock at a time if you have to until your comfortable with process.
You should have this process timed to pulling the rock, transferring to tub, scrubbing, cleaning and placing back in system water within just a few minutes. Rock never out of water for more than 30 seconds to a minute in between the steps throughout the process.
Thoroughly clean and spray around corals with precision and quickness.

Don't be scared. It is rock afterall. Ive cleaned around lots of rock around tons of corals now and haven't suffered any losses.
In fact I take all the bristle worms, snails or whatever critters come out of rock and place back system to and allow them to re populate the rock after im done

I just got done doing another100 lbs of gulf rock this same exact way. Tons of tunicates, hitchiker corals, shrooms, a cpl hard corals, clams the size of baseballs, etc. 0 losses.
Its all about precision and where with all honestly.

 

[LRT]

Whatever I take out of the sea, I throw in my tank the way it is. I will remove the crabs though. But thats just me.

I do love this and understand how you can be 100% successful doing things the way you do it.
Quick trip to collect rock- place in sea water-bring home-clean up and into system it goes. 0 cycle. No death and no time out of water.
Perfect for natural tank with 0 cycle time.
I shared this for folks because It has many applications that can be used by folks in different scenarios that aren't so lucky to be able to source rock that way.
I do believe it can be extremely beneficial for folks to use in older systems. Ive taken my ocean rock, scrubbed and rinsed and stripped most of the built up nutrients, fossils from over time haha, nuisance algae. You name it. Pretty much everything i dont want in my system..
If applied in correct setting with due diligence it is an excellent alternative to chemicals and lets say using lanthanum chloride to remove phosphates etc. Ive seen same drastic phosphate removal results that lanthanum shows by simply scrubbing and washing my rocks.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Realistically this is a method that really should be used during new cycle start ups and cure process, so you don't have to deal with the uglies and nasties later on.
I've done nothing new here in power scrubbing and cleaning my ocean rock. Back in the day it was pretty standard practice for one of my lfs owners to take all new ocean rock shipments out back of his shop and power wash with an actual power washer throughout his cycle and cure process before it was sold.
Having said that ive done it all kinds of ways now.
To fully answer your question I wouldnt even attempt this process without being fully prepared and with the right tools for the job. A well though out plan to execute as quickly and methodically as possible. A few 20 gallon tubs for transporting, cleaning, washing and dipping before it goes back into the system. A pile of clean brushes, a cheap high pressure nozzle attached to faucet in tub.
One rock at a time if you have to until your comfortable with process.
You should have this process timed to pulling the rock, transferring to tub, scrubbing, cleaning and placing back in system water within just a few minutes. Rock never out of water for more than 30 seconds to a minute in between the steps throughout the process.
Thoroughly clean and spray around corals with precision and quickness.

Don't be scared. It is rock afterall. Ive cleaned around lots of rock around tons of corals now and haven't suffered any losses.
In fact I take all the bristle worms, snails or whatever critters come out of rock and place back system to and allow them to re populate the rock after im done

I just got done doing another100 lbs of gulf rock this same exact way. Tons of tunicates, hitchiker corals, shrooms, a cpl hard corals, clams the size of baseballs, etc. 0 losses.
Its all about precision and where with all honestly.

I second this and will add in a few tricks I have used for years with real live rock.

- if something is desirable on the rock, I use bone cutters or my bandsaw to cut it off.
- if newly aquired live rock, I do the above and then place it in a tub/ I then take a bottle of club soda, place that in a tub, suck up club soda with a turkey baster and blast the pores of the rock. I have never had a crab or shrimp make it into any tank when doing this. For me, it has worked better than high salinity dips. Especially for crabs, as those guys sometimes have to survive in a tide pool where salinity can get quite high after evaporation.
- After the club soda, the fizz brings all kinds of crap out of the rock, so it gets blasted with tap water from a high pressure attatchment on my garden hose. Yes, I use tap for the main rinse.
- give it a good scrub, as well. Then rinse again.
- After that, a quick swish in RODI water and into the tub for some observation to make sure no undesirable macros were missed, or desirable macros were missed.

Took about 1.5 hours to do over 100lbs of KP rock the last time I had to do this. Did not lose a single critter that the club soda ran out of the rock, coralline was not affected badly (some went white, as expected, but quickly grew back over the white spots), and rock was now free and clear of years of detritus build up. All of the macro went into the macro grow out and is still doing well.

Now, here is a different thing. I also culture my own live rock (legally, as there is a loop hole). We have a dock at my dads house that sits in the intercoastal. Salinity ranges form 1.021 to 1.026, so basically SW all the time. I hang dry rocks from ropes tied to the docks, let them sit for about a year or 2 and then take them home. The fact they are tied to an owned structure and never touch the bottom is the loop hole. Due to tide changes, boat traffic, etc., these rocks are constantly in some sort of flow. These rocks do not need a bath except with some club soda to remove the crabs. Never had a shrimp in one, except a scared coral banded once, lol. With that said, those rocks typically do not even have much macro on them. Being around a stable structure, fish eat them clean. Mostly end up with sponges, some coralline, barnacles, mollusk of all types and sometimes some of the more desirable macros (not often). So if legal, and you can get rock or other items like that from tidal areas, it pretty much should be good to go for having clean pores.

Note: I am not knocking the rock at all from TBLR, KP, etc. Most can stick it in the tank with no issues and be fine, but why not clean out the pores a little so the rock can be more efficient at doing its job. Clogged pores means less surface area for bacteria. Open more means more surface area.

Just my way of doing it, so take it with a grain of salt lol.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I do love this and understand how you can be 100% successful doing things the way you do it.
Quick trip to collect rock- place in sea water-bring home-clean up and into system it goes. 0 cycle. No death and no time out of water.
Perfect for natural tank with 0 cycle time.
I shared this for folks because It has many applications that can be used by folks in different scenarios that aren't so lucky to be able to source rock that way.
I do believe it can be extremely beneficial for folks to use in older systems. Ive taken my ocean rock, scrubbed and rinsed and stripped most of the built up nutrients, fossils from over time haha, nuisance algae. You name it. Pretty much everything i dont want in my system..
If applied in correct setting with due diligence it is an excellent alternative to chemicals and lets say using lanthanum chloride to remove phosphates etc. Ive seen same drastic phosphate removal results that lanthanum shows by simply scrubbing and washing my rocks.

I know what @Paul B trick is. Same as my dad. He has access to mud. Nice real live mud. All those little worms and critters keep the rock as it should be, just like in nature. They crawl all around eat any detritus, crawl through the mud and detritus, open up the pores, etc. etc. If we could all be so lucky lol. 2 years and I will have that same access, but for now, I can keep everything else but mud stable and alive for the 12 hour trip back home.

 

[LRT]

Lol thank you @Eagle_Steve
I thought I was going crazy here with all the crazy votes hahaha

 

[LRT]

I second this and will add in a few tricks I have used for years with real live rock.

- if something is desirable on the rock, I use bone cutters or my bandsaw to cut it off.
- if newly aquired live rock, I do the above and then place it in a tub/ I then take a bottle of club soda, place that in a tub, suck up club soda with a turkey baster and blast the pores of the rock. I have never had a crab or shrimp make it into any tank when doing this. For me, it has worked better than high salinity dips. Especially for crabs, as those guys sometimes have to survive in a tide pool where salinity can get quite high after evaporation.
- After the club soda, the fizz brings all kinds of crap out of the rock, so it gets blasted with tap water from a high pressure attatchment on my garden hose. Yes, I use tap for the main rinse.
- give it a good scrub, as well. Then rinse again.
- After that, a quick swish in RODI water and into the tub for some observation to make sure no undesirable macros were missed, or desirable macros were missed.

Took about 1.5 hours to do over 100lbs of KP rock the last time I had to do this. Did not lose a single critter that the club soda ran out of the rock, coralline was not affected badly (some went white, as expected, but quickly grew back over the white spots), and rock was now free and clear of years of detritus build up. All of the macro went into the macro grow out and is still doing well.

Now, here is a different thing. I also culture my own live rock (legally, as there is a loop hole). We have a dock at my dads house that sits in the intercoastal. Salinity ranges form 1.021 to 1.026, so basically SW all the time. I hang dry rocks from ropes tied to the docks, let them sit for about a year or 2 and then take them home. The fact they are tied to an owned structure and never touch the bottom is the loop hole. Due to tide changes, boat traffic, etc., these rocks are constantly in some sort of flow. These rocks do not need a bath except with some club soda to remove the crabs. Never had a shrimp in one, except a scared coral banded once, lol. With that said, those rocks typically do not even have much macro on them. Being around a stable structure, fish eat them clean. Mostly end up with sponges, some coralline, barnacles, mollusk of all types and sometimes some of the more desirable macros (not often). So if legal, and you can get rock or other items like that from tidal areas, it pretty much should be good to go for having clean pores.

Note: I am not knocking the rock at all from TBLR, KP, etc. Most can stick it in the tank with no issues and be fine, but why not clean out the pores a little so the rock can be more efficient at doing its job. Clogged pores means less surface area for bacteria. Open more means more surface area.

Just my way of doing it, so take it with a grain of salt lol.

Steve i love this man.
All i can add is throughout my washing and cleaning process.
Yes if I scrubbed rock a little too hard I did experience a few white spots.
Having said that though.
One can literally watch the coraline grow in place of nuisance algae from light cycle to light cycle. Its stunning actually.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Lol thank you @Eagle_Steve
I thought I was going crazy here with all the crazy votes hahaha

Opinions are like........

But seriously, all tanks are different. All live rock is different. Rock pulled from the top of the pile will be cleaner, but have more macro or micro algae. Rock pulled from deeper in the pile will have more pores clogged, as flow is reduced through/across it. I am by no means an expert in rock, but have bought tons of rock from most companies out there doing live rock and have received what seems to be top layer and bottom layer rock. Not that that is an issue, but to me, it makes sense. The bacteria is not affected in way that I can tell. It might kill some, but it grows back and you still have more diversity that something out of a bottle. Again, JMO, but it works for me lol.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Steve i love this man.
All i can add is throughout my washing and cleaning process.
Yes if I scrubbed rock a little too hard I did experience a few white spots.
Having said that though.
One can literally watch the coraline grow in place of nuisance algae from light cycle to light cycle. Its stunning actually.

I agree. If coralline can get a good foothold, it will grow and prevent nuisance algae from growing in that spot. On the other hand, it can be annoying in large amounts, as it like alk and calcium too lol.

 

[LRT]

Opinions are like........

Lol I love this. And never really much cared. Wife says its a personality defect. I say why should I care about someone else opinion when they not caring about mine hahaha.

Oh wait theres another saying or something haha.