leaving the pests behind... the live rock

[FishTruck]

I am moving up from a 300 to 800 gallon tank. The 300 has picked up 10 years worth of pests, that I would like to leave behind. I can have the tanks running in parallel for 3 months (until my old house sells). Help me come up with a plan for bringing my live rock. It was started from dry rock a decade ago.

I need to get rid of the mushrooms, bubble algae, Mojanos, and Ich - which has made an appearance every few years in my DT. After scrubbing off the algae and mushrooms.... I could....

1. Dry it out and start over. I would leave it outside for a week and then cycle it for a month in vats. I could do this ahead of time.
2. Fallow and darkness for 72 days. I would just set up the new tank with rock straight from the old tank and wait 2.5 months before putting any fish in it.
3. Fresh water soak or Hypo soak of the rock.
4. Medicate the rock with something besides copper.

Any thoughts? Experiences?

I'll post a separate thread on dipping / QT fish and corals before they go in the new tank.

 

[lagatbezan]

Can do Muriatic acid. Will kill and dissolve anything organic in the rock. The rock will be brand new.

 

[reelredfisah]

Yep if you want a clean start go the acid method. Just take your time and be careful.

 

[FishTruck]

Can do Muriatic acid. Will kill and dissolve anything organic in the rock. The rock will be brand new.

That will wipe the bacteria too. I guess the advantage over drying the rock in the yard would be a more thorough cleaning and speed.

 

[redfishbluefish]

You might wish to watch Marc Levenson's video on cooking live rock. Since you have the time, it might be a direction you wish to consider.

 

[11cmortarman]

Thats tough. Live rock is precious. Hate to see you kill it off. I would run fallow and slowly work the rock one by one and keep all the good on the rock. Just my .02 cents though

 

[FishTruck]

The other trick is bringing the corals. They too could carry encysted parasites. The only way to ditch the parasites without killing the coral is to fallow the coral - according to the research I have done. So the acid strategy doesn't really make sense - since I can't treat the rock attached to the corals with acid.

Here is what I think I will do.

Now - Summer 2018 - I'll get a big batch of dry rock "cooking" in vats. In the dark. No fish. New dry rock mixed with spare LR from my tank. Mojanos will probably croak without light and mushrooms too, with enough time - right?

Fall 2018 - pull the fish out of the DT and put them into QT about a month before the big transfer. The corals can then be starting the fallow period in the old DT.

Winter 2018- after one month of QT for all fish, I can put the fish in the new DT, with the rock than has been cooked and fallowed. Let the nitrogen cycle run. Keep the lights low until I am sure it is over. I am only planning to bring about 15 fish, so there should be PLENTY of live rock and sand to avoid any detectable ammonia.

Later Winter 2018 - Finally, bring the fallowed corals over to the new tank. I'll have to minimize the attached rock and scrub / Kalkwasser off any clinging mushrooms or mojanos. Now I can break down the old DT.