How do I properly clean live rock

[Reef Pilot]

What am I missing here?? If you buy live rock, why would you then kill it with acid or bleach? Save your bucks and buy dead rock (marco rock or equivalent) and do the acid with that if you must.

When I first got into this hobby 4 years ago, I had to deal with old tank syndrome live rock (inherited a 10 year running tank) with both high nitrates and high phosphates. It took a while but eventually got it down to zero nitrates and phosphates. Knowing what I know now, that time would be drastically reduced if I had to do it again.

Also added marco rock and only rinsed and soaked it for a few weeks (with many water changes) before adding to my display tanks. I did get a phosphate spike again, but got that under control pretty quick. I have used Foz Down also, and it really works well to get a serious phosphate problem under control. But as others have said, you need to be careful with your doses. Then I just maintained with GFO.

The key also is having the right P04 test kit. Your color test kits are not accurate enough and can lull you into thinking you have low or no phosphates. You need the Hanna digital checker for that.

[FishyFishy!]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

What am I missing here??

Im not sure what the OP's reasons are, but I did mine because of bad pests. Namely byropsis.

[jason604]

I bought the rocks for rly cheap like 50 cent a lbs but they were rly dirty so might as well kill everything on them. My tank is full of long green hair algae. Been running a Gfo reactor for a week now but it doesn't seem to be improving.

[jason604]

Just wondering y I have to soak the rocks in ro water after the acid. Can't I just use tap n rdy it out after to remove chlorine

[SoloSK71]

Originally Posted by jason604

I bought the rocks for rly cheap like 50 cent a lbs but they were rly dirty so might as well kill everything on them. My tank is full of long green hair algae. Been running a Gfo reactor for a week now but it doesn't seem to be improving.

Pest problems (and algae) and new tanks take a LONG time to get under control.

Yes, you can use all sorts of products and, if you are extremely rigid with your schedule, you can shorten the time a lot.

Yes, you can do a LOT of work (Myka's guide or how Fishy did it) to also try and short circuit the pest problems.

I feel that I am better educated and prepared for any problems down the road for having taken the long term approach. That is, putting the rock in the tank, leaving it 'fallow' for almost 3 months and then dealing with issues one at a time. It has taken three years to deal with large pests (that can kill fish or coral), algae (the source and the actual algae itself), small pests (working on that now, just got rid of red flatworms) and finally getting nutrients and various supplements/elements steady.

Charles

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by jason604

Been running a Gfo reactor for a week now but it doesn't seem to be improving.

For really serious P04 problems, use Foz Down. That will bring it down guaranteed. Then use GFO to maintain.

You didn't mention nitrates (unless I missed it). That is also a problem with new (or old) live rock. You have to get rid of that, too with bio pellets or carbon dosing. Be sure to use MB7 or some other beneficial bacteria supplement, or you will end up with cyano.

If you read my journal about the early days of my tank, you can see how I did it. Like I said, though, knowing what I know now, could get it done much sooner.

[jason604]

My nitrate is 0 and my p04 is 0 too for some reason. Using salifert test kit. The rocks in my tank right now is ugly none pouris pieces anyways.

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by jason604

My nitrate is 0 and my p04 is 0 too for some reason. Using salifert test kit. The rocks in my tank right now is ugly none pouris pieces anyways.

If you have a lot of algae it will consume the PO4 as quickly as it is produced giving you a false indication of phosphate levels.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by jason604

My nitrate is 0 and my p04 is 0 too for some reason. Using salifert test kit. The rocks in my tank right now is ugly none pouris pieces anyways.

Yup, I used a salifert PO4 test before too, and it also showed zero. Then I got a Hana checker which goes down to 2 decimal places, and took another big effort before I finally got that one down to zero.

Even nitrate color tests can be misleading if you don't do it right. Need to really follow instructions with shaking the solutions and waiting the required times, or can also get false readings.


If you truly had zero nitrates and phosphates, you wouldn't have an algae problem. I still remember my algae almost falling off the rocks with slight tooth brushing after I hit zero on those parameters. I found that hair algae in particular will thrive with less than 0.10 ppm P04. Just recently, I let both nitrates and P04 get out of control a bit, and the hair algae came back with a vengeance. So I know very well how quickly and easily that happens.

Also should mention to have good flow across your rocks, and if necessary occasionally turkey baste them to be sure no detritus collects. Hair algae loves to attach where it can collect particles.

And hopefully you have some tangs. They (Kole is the best) also do a great job of keeping algae off rocks before it has a chance to form.

[mikellini]

I had great success just using RODI and the sun. If you have the time, this is the best way to avoid chemicals and still leach phosphates/metals from the rock, and has the advantage of not losing any mass (like you would with an acid bath).

To start, I placed the rock in a large rubbermaid of RODI for about 3 days. Lots of circulation. After 3 days it was pretty ripe, rinsed/scrubbed the rock in buckets of RODI and left in the sun to dry. Repeated this about 3 times and the water was clear by the third time, so I just started doing water changes every three days. No smell and no measurable phosphates two weeks later, nice clean rock!