Dead Live Rock...?

[DSlater]

Ok - yes I would love more tips on the acid treatment. Would you do a bleach bath first or just jump right to acid. And what kind & where would I get the acid. There's about a 45 gallon drum full of rock - any ideas how much we'd need to buy? Then do I let it dry out after rinsing and for how long?
So no MB7? I used Stability to get my original tank going w/ live rock. Is MB7 about the same? just speeds up the cycling period...
Also - what do you guys use to do the acid bath - a new garbage can? what kind of tub...?
Thanks so much!!
Cheers.

[don.ald]

My point being, if you are going to cook your rock for a couple of months you don't need microbactor7. Or acid??
Me , I wouldn't use the acid....just not my way of doing things....I will leave that explanation for ckmullin.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by don.ald

Me , I wouldn't use the acid....just not my way of doing things....I will leave that explanation for ckmullin.

Agreed. If you're cooking it for months, no need for the acid. If you're using acid, no need for cooking.

[DSlater]

ohhh - so I could just cook it with a skimmer running for a few mths. We're in no hurry to set up - we're in the middle of renos and my husband's going to plumb the sump into the crawlspace w/ the ro system... but if I cook it, then I could slowly start reseeding it before putting into the new tank?

[Aquattro]

I'd cook it (find an in depth article on the process, I think Myka has one posted in her sig) for a few months, add to tank, slowly populate tank. It will develop bacteria on it's own. Adding some live rock would help populate the critters that should be on/in it.

[ckmullin]

There is no point to waste your energy/time/electricity, not to mention smell...to cook something which is devoid of life but full of unwanted dry dead material. This is long dead rock.

If that rock was not sitting outside and still had wanted bacteria, I'd say cook 100% but this rock is the exact same as picking up a rock on the side of a road. It needs to be sanitized and deeply.

Use acid, clean the rock and it'll be done in a matter of hours. Then use that 2 months to properly seed that clean rock.

DSlater, I'll give you a pm and answer any questions.

[Myka]

Cooking the rock is exactly what I would do. "Cooking" live rock simply refers to leeching the "dead material" aka nutrients out of the rock - primarily phosphate and nitrate. The first step in "cooking" is to "cure/cycle" the rock. This rock will cycle. All the dead matter on and in the rock will be partially decayed and will continue to decay once it gets wet again and will result in ammonia. The amount of ammonia produced directly relates to the amount of nitrate that will result. Since there is no anaerobic denitrifying bacteria left within the rock the rock will not be able to process any nitrate for quite some time (several months).

Once the rock has cycled (no more ammonia present) I would add a few pieces of live rock (the more the better) to seed it. The new live rock will probably produce another small cycle. I wouldn't add the new live rock until the dry rock has cycled because ammonia over 1 ppm will be detrimental to most beneficial life on the rock that you are trying to introduce, and ammonia over 2 ppm is quite deadly to most life on the rocks.

I am definitely in favor of acid bathing algae covered rock, but I don't see any reason to acid bath dry rock. Acid will not remove nitrate or phosphate and dead rock will be chock full of both. I also see no reason to add MB7 as the decaying matter from both the dry rock and the new live rock will produce all the nitrifying bacteria you will need.

Check the link in my signature for details on "cooking".