Removing live rock from tank to clean it and put back possible?

[Chepre01]

Hello guys,
fighting since months with red hair algae.

Is it possible to remove live rocks from my tank, put in a RO DI water basket, srub it and thread it with peroxide there and then put it back into my tank?

Guy of my reef shop told me not to do that, because i "destroy/kill" the live rock as soon as i put it out of my tank?

Not sure if this is true, due to fact i dont have any corals or whatsoever on the rocks i want to remove out of the tank to clean

 

[Troylee]

You can take them out and scrub them in a bucket of tank water if you wanna keep the bacteria alive.. if you plan on bleaching or doing an acid wash it will kill everything including the bacteria.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

not "as soon" as you take them out of the tank, but yes, putting them into RO water for extended time will kill a lot of the bacteria. You need the bacteria to keep the fish alive.

As mentioned above, do the scrubbing in a bucket of salt water.

 

[Nano_Man]

He is right in one way but if you have some tank water in a bin you can take a lump at a time and scrub it in the water

You can take them out and scrub them in a bucket of tank water if you wanna keep the bacteria alive.. if you plan on bleaching or doing an acid wash it will kill everything including the bacteria.

beat me to it lol

 

[T€rm]

As stated above , clean them in tank water when you do a water change.
Rodi water will kill off your beneficial bacteria!

 

[Jekyl]

Have pics and parameters? As mentioned above there are ways to do it. However you're still not addressing the root cause and it may return.

 

[jda]

Take it out, scrub it in a bucket of tank water and put it back in. This will save the most microfauna and bacteria. The algae will come back unless you get more consumers. However, consumers will have an easier time if the algae is shorter.

 

[brandon429]

yes it is done, but not that way

you aren't destroying anything at all, it's precision work, like dentistry.

read this whole thread for the win:

Advice for changing sand on established tank with sand sifter

So my uncle passed away back August and left behind several of his tanks, only one saltwater tank with life in it. It’s a biocube, but he was pretty weak towards the end and admittedly it got a little out of hand. I somehow managed to drive the tank and fish from Colorado to Washington and keep...

www.reef2reef.com

peroxide isn't sloshed all over the rocks, or a dip. we show there it's used precision, like a dentist would use it on a big old tooth needing plaque detailing. after being rasped with a metal scraper (which is what removes the algae, it's precision rasping work like a dentist)

the result in the example threads you can see within that link above are pristine shiny reef tanks. go ahead and wash the sand too for the best win/that's what all the examples did. if you have sand that has cloudy waste in it, your algae grows back much less fast with that waste removed as we do in rip cleans.

if the algae is only on one rock and not a system outbreak due to waste storage and too bright light, then just do the remove rock + detailing treatment.

 

[mfinn]

I've removed all or a portion of my rock several times and wired brushed it off using tank water as a rinse.
Just keep the rock moist and you will be fine.