Adding a big non-oceanic rock to new reef tank, bad idea?

[snapcrackler]

I aquired a neat looking rock when I bought a couple of used freshwater tanks a while back. It's unusually heavy at about 10lbs, lots of porosity, and almost appears to have some iron in it. It has such a unique cave shape that I would like to add it to a 55gal salt tank which is newer and only has a a few pounds of live rock so far. There's damsels, red hermits, ceriths, established sludge, etc living in there now and happy as can be with critters growing fast. Levels are perfect. Can I just dump this rock in? I know it was previously in a fresh tank, and after I got it I washed it in the dishwasher with no soap and it's been on a coffee table since. Or would it be better to soak it in a bucket of 1.024 with powerhead or something for a few days first, or just forget it altogether because it has too much metal content or something. This thing is heavy and I dont want weird metals leaching into my SW tank. Thanks much for your time.

 

[Guest]

It looks like Lace Rock to me, and some lace rock does have metals in it... If it truly is lace rock, I have used it before. I took it out though when I purchased LR. No real reason, I just didn't like the looks of it like I did the LR....

Check this out. Does the lace rock look like it?
http://www.hbhnet.com/products_rocks.html

 

[fishfreek]

appears to have some iron in it

That part concerns me some. If you use it look for rust colored veins appearing in the rock. If you see them then remove the rock.

 

[snapcrackler]

Thanks much for the reply. I looked up some specs on lace rock and read that Lace Rock is lightweight, but my rock weighs a ton. So maybe it's overweight lace rock. It sure does look like there's iron in it now that I look at it. Sounds like iron = not so good.

I think I'll pass on dumping it in there.