How to reseed dead live rock?

[Veng68]

Hi,

I have a friend who has a lot of old (dead) live rock. He's had it in his garage for about 10 years........ bone dry.

I am just wondering what is a good method of reseeding this rock?

Also how long do you think it would take to re-seed?

Cheers,
Vic [veng68]

[mark]

I grabbed a piece from a garage sell, people said in was on a shelf for years. After a good scrub, rinse drying in the sun, just put it in the tank and now after about 3 weeks it getting some coralline growth. Same idea as base rock from the LFS, things will move over.

The only concern I have was it clean enough before I put in in the tank, were the people smokers, did they Pledge the shelf and overspray the rock etc? Might be something to consider.

[Beverly]

Ten years in a garage? That's a lot of car exhaust and carcinogens on those rocks unless they were in rubbbermaid tubs tightly and thoroughly sealed with duct tape. If they were out in the open, or even in cardboard boxes, I wouldn't use it at all. No amount of scrubbing is going to remove ten years of who knows what got on those rocks if they were not properly protected from car exhaust.

On the other hand, if the rock was tightly sealed in plastic tubs, I would thoroughly clean the rock in tapwater. I would then recure the rock in tubs new tubs with heaters and powerheads, not in the display tank, with changewater and a generous amount of crud from an existing tank. Bacteria will be all over the crud which will seed the rock with bacteria. Once the rock is cured, I'd use it as base rock in a tank with rock already covered in coralline algae.

I'd also make sure reef chemistry is up to snuff by testing and adjusting alk, Ca and Mg every two weeks so coralline algae will spread. If you need links to reef chemistry links, let me know and I will post them.

But, imo, rock in a garage for ten years is a touch and go proposition.

[Quinster]

I would do the same thing I am doing with my reef bones as well as a couple pieces of base....I have a 30G drum I use as my waste water collector when I do water changes, the last waste water I kept with a couple power heads....just put the rock in there, let it sit a couple days to a week, drain some water out, do another water change, put it in there, you are dumping it anyway...may as well put it to use....use it for cycling the new rock. Even with base or bone rock, you never know where it came from or how it was stored between the time of cultivation to when you get it.