How should I go about nuking live rock?

[alexshefchik]

I am going to buy a bunch of live rock and it is full of turf algae and other nuisances of the hobby and I was wondering what is the quickest way to get this stuff ready to put in my tank? Any advice would be much appreciated as I have never done this before!:squigglemouth:

 

[Elan]

for the red turf, you have to take all the rock out and remove as much as you can manually and scrub the rock down. then buy a rabbit fish or foxface and it will never come back.

 

[alexshefchik]

Has anyone ever bleached there rocks? what is the waiting period?

 

[butts182]

I have used bleach. Just need to get a really good rinse, soak, rinse, air dry, soak, air dry, soak, air dry, etc to make sure all the chemicals are gone.

 

[Emoney]

ive had good luck " cooking rock"...putting to heater's in a drum as hot as you can, fill up with salt water, do a nice size water change every few days in the begining, can stech them out a little longer the longer you cook them...takes some time though..like 6-8 weeks

 

[Hammmerhead]

Just lay it out in the sun to dry for a couple of days and everything will be gone.

 

[whip1]

yeah cooked mine that had Ha on it and it still came back on that same dam rock! what's that????

 

[alexshefchik]

I think I will just lay it in the sun for a few days that should work! I really do not want to mess with the chemicals!! Is there any way I can stop a cycle? I want to put it in my existing tank!

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

I would dry it in the sun for more than just a few days, maybe a week or more. Just to make sure it completely dries out and there is no moisture deep within the rock. Thats just me though, a few days would prob work. If it turns out not to be enough time, then it was all for nothing. Then your going to need to be careful because adding that dry rock to your tank will release all of the decay that the sun drying created. I'd place it in a rubbermaid with optimal temp saltwater/flow and do regular water changes (or 100% water exchanges) bi weekly or more for a few weeks to make sure all of that death is gone and not released into your tank. Then if it was me i'd leave it in the rubbermaid for a while to get it back to health, maybe add a few pieces of your l.r. from your tank to seed it, give it a few weeks for the seed to grow.

 

[whitleyjb]

I am in the process of doing the same thing. Drying the rock out for few weeks, place in a sump with a skimmer for a couple of weeks and then move to the tank.


I will also dip each roch before adding to the tank

 

[jascymcl]

I use nature to combat nature. I find an ant mound that is expose to the sun and set the rocks a couple feet from the mound.Then when everything starts dying off the ants eat it all up.With in a couple of days they are nice and clean remember the ants get in all the little hole and eat up every bit.Then i bleach and rinse them for a day or two. works great :xd:

 

[alexshefchik]

hmm interesting! I am considering just buying base rock! I am so undecided!

 

[wingman1234]

put it in the oven at 400 or in a bbq it will burn eveything off and anything was living turns to *** after its done. scrub it and rinse it and its like brand new

 

[whip1]

I dono guy's I boiled mine for an hour and let it dry for a few days then reseeded it and put it back in the tank and a few weeks later that same rock was affected again..

 

[IPisces]

I am having an issue with this stuff too and was wondering when taking the rock out of the tank to, boil it, bake it, whatever is done to kill this crap, could I put a piece of life rock from my other tank into the one I am pulling all the rock out of with out any problems to this new rock? I suppose if the water paramaters are good and the issue is only with the rock I am pulling out, it should be okay, but I dont want to just start over with the same problem on another rock.
I have a red sea max 34 that I am having issues with and I also have a couple other tanks that I can pull rock out of to put in the 34 but I dont want to end up with the same problem on this rock.

 

[tkrause88]

Boil it in tap water for about 15 min then hose it off really good and make sure you get as much dead stuff off of it as you can then let it sit out for a few days. Then start cycling it. make sure you cycle it before you put it back in your tank or you will have a spike in your water parameters.

 

[sprinklerdudes]

the reason for buying live rock is for all the neat life plants critters etc, if you are going to nuke it, dry it, kill it off, just buy base rock, macro dry rock etc, it is a lot cheaper, wont do detrimental damage to your tank, and will become live rock in about the same amount of time as your onnce live now nuked rock, just my two cents, it could save you a lot of money and hart ach

 

[alexshefchik]

Yea I totally agree! I am going to buy some dry rock and just do it that way it is a little more pricey but I think its less hassle!