How to cure live rock that is now dry?

jacqueline1989

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I got a large amount of live rock over a year ago. Only some of it went into my tank cause I suck at aquascaping and I already had my tank running with fish and a small amount of live rock for over a year which makes it difficult to move stuff around. I ended up putting the rest into buckets and it's completely dried and it's been over a year now, but I want to use the rest of the rock now. I've had some of it in a bucket filled with saltwater with a heater and powerhead for about 4 weeks now (with 3 water changes), but I'm not sure if there's something else I need to do considering its been out of water for so long. I did ammonia test and it's at .50ppm so obviously it's not ready to put in the tank. I know people will use bleach or vinegar, but I'm hesitant to use it, especially the bleach. The rock is still red and I want to try and keep the coloring and I'm pretty sure that will be stripped off the rock if I use bleach. Is there something else I can put in the water to help this process or changes I should make?
 

Spare time

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You can add a bottle of microbacter 7 which should finish things off. It will help break things down as well as add some bacteria to deal with ammonia. I like to have gfo in with a rock that is curing as it helps get rid off the phosphates from the rotting crud
 

bushdoc

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Was it Live rock sold to you wet or life rock sold dry?
It is basically dry, dead rock with some dead organisms on it I suppose. If it was genuine live, porous rock, that it might be worth saving it, otherwise you could also consider buying fresh, dry rock and skip all the hustle of cleaning it.
 
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jacqueline1989

jacqueline1989

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You can add a bottle of microbacter 7 which should finish things off. It will help break things down as well as add some bacteria to deal with ammonia. I like to have gfo in with a rock that is curing as it helps get rid off the phosphates from the rotting crud
I just ordered the MicroBacter Clean which I believe does the same thing as mircobacter 7, but also targets cleaning live rock and other surfaces. I've used mircobacter 7 in my tank before but I felt like it didn't do much, but I guess we'll see!
 

doubleshot00

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I just ordered the MicroBacter Clean which I believe does the same thing as mircobacter 7, but also targets cleaning live rock and other surfaces. I've used mircobacter 7 in my tank before but I felt like it didn't do much, but I guess we'll see!
Hope you cleaned the rock before just soaking it in saltwater.

Is it just soaking in fresh saltwater and nothing else?
 
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