Used - Live rock

[Sirrtuan]

All, someone give me their live rock that used to be in their system (Fiji rock?).
I breached and power washed them. However, they still look "dirty". I still see some yellow and black tint on them as well as dead coral encrusted on them.
Is this safe and worth using on my new system (I'm moving from 10 to 32 gallons)?
Should I start with new rocks? I don't want to run into some issues later on. Let me know your thoughts.

 

[ApoIsland]

I would use seaklear to make sure the phosphate is out. That’s the only thing I would be concerned about at this point.

This thread below gives examples of how to do it.

Removing bound up phosphate from curing bin live rock???

What would be the best way to remove the bound up phosphate from live rock in a curing bin. Bought real live rock and put it in a curing bin for a future build and my phosphates are off the chart (Hanna phosphorus checker). Would a phosphate removing resin or Chemi pure in front of the...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Sirrtuan]

Thanks! I will follow your steps in that post.
I want to confirm, you don't see any problem with dead coral on the rock right?

 

[mdb_talon]

If they have been bleached and powerwashed any solids on the rock that could significantly impact parameters should be gone and of no concern. As @ApoIsland indicated though phosphates would be primary concern. Other possible issues could be contamination from things like copper..and that would be the main one i may worry about if i dont know the rock came from a healthy reef tank.

 

[Sirrtuan]

As far as I know it came from a healthy reef but they have been sitting in a bin rotting for awhile before I got them.
For preventative, is there anything I can use to remove copper?

 

[ApoIsland]

If they have been bleached and powerwashed any solids on the rock that could significantly impact parameters should be gone and of no concern. As @ApoIsland indicated though phosphates would be primary concern. Other possible issues could be contamination from things like copper..and that would be the main one i may worry about if i dont know the rock came from a healthy reef tank.

ahhhhh. I totally forgot about the copper. good catch.

Op - If some goofball dumped a bunch of copper meds in the tank then you could run cuprisorb to get it out.

Seachem - CupriSorb

www.seachem.com

 

[Sirrtuan]

Thank you both. Should I handle phosphates first then copper?

 

[ApoIsland]

You could always run the cuprisorb after you get the tank setup if you are having problems and an ICP test comes back positive for that. Copper / other heavy metals is usually a non issue.

on the other hand cuprisorb is so cheap you might just run it anyway. I would do it after the tank is setup though as a preventative measure.

 

[Sirrtuan]

Thank you again for your help!!

 

[Jeeperz]

Nice score. Clean up as posted above and cycle it. Reefs in nature are mostly built upon years and years of dead coral skeleton, so you are good there unless you don't like the look.

 

[Sirrtuan]

@Jeeperz - That's make sense, I'm not picky. Eventually, they will be covered by coral anyway. This way they don't go to waste.
thanks for making me feel better about reusing them

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

In my experience, the rocks should be completely white when you are done. I let my rocks soak in bleach for 2-3 days, then soaked in vinegar for another 2-3 days, then sat in rodi water for a week, the rocks were snow white when I was done.

 

[Sirrtuan]

I was expecting them to turn all white as well. Yesterday, I soaked them again in bleach. I can try soaking them in vinegar after.

 

[Jeeperz]

I don't believe bleach or vinegar will remove the old organics inside the rock. They just sterilize the rock

 

[Sirrtuan]

I made the decision to start over. I will add vinegar bath in n between bleach and Seaklear. I will deal with copper at the end. Hopefully this will prevent all the problems.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Cool. I bleached my rocks for a week and some came out bone white while others came out dirty looking. I started my tank and have not had an issue with them as far as I can tell

 

[Sirrtuan]

@Projects with Sam - glad to hear they don't all have to look white and still safe to use.