Using Previously Dead Rock

[Squado]

I previously had a saltwater reef about up until a year ago. I had a 29 gallon tank with about 70 pounds of LR (in the refuge too). Anyway, to make a long story short, I have about 70 pounds of LR sitting in an old fish tank in my basement. As we all know, it would be expensive to replace all of this LR in the new tank, if I decide to start again. Is it possible to use this LR even though its been dry for about a year now? Also, if I can use it, what steps are necessary to get it back to life (if possible). I am basically going to be setting up a nano (20g). My previous tank had some kind of "disease" that took out all of my corals - I never really found an answer (all parameters were always very pristine, 0's across the board with the proper levels of calcium, iodine, etc. If it was in fact a disease that did kill the corals, could it survive all this time on the rock out of water for almost a year? If I have to buy new LR its not a problem, just dont want to spend money when I dont have too. Any comments appreciated.

 

[melosu58]

Dead rock will become LR over time. Just cycle your tank and cure the LR at the same time. You`ll need something like a small shrimp to jump start the cycle since there is not much die off on your dead rock. You might want to buy a few pieces of LR to seed the old rock. HTH

BTW Welcome to AA

 

[Innovator]

The only red flag is if you ever medicated anything in the main tank that would cause such coral die-off? Live rock can be spoiled if that is the case, but if not as melosu stated, it will become live once bacteria recolonizes. Of course, you might as well mix fresh uncured lr to jump start the cycle.

 

[roka64]

Or a raw unseasoned jumbo shrimp if you don't want to buy more uncured rock...

 

[cmor1701d]

If you want to get coraline algae growing on the rock you will need a source. A single rock from the lfs will do and shouldn't cost much.