Once Live Rock

[cweaks]

This is a sad story, so bear with me. I have a 65 Gal tank that was a reef tank. Unfortunately, illness put me in the hospital for a while and my darling wife decided that it was more important to look after me than it was to look after the aquarium. (Not a bad choice when you think about it.) The water got low, the pump burned out, and algae went wild. She finally just turned out the lights and let it sit there. As I got better, she decided to try to do something about the tank before I came home. She had learned, back when the tank was a FO and we had artificial and dead rocks and coral, that, if the algae got too bad, she could lay it out in the sun. Our hot Florida sun would definitely get rid of the algae. Well, she decided that if it worked for the artificial stuff, then why not do the same for the LR. IT WORKED! NO MORE ALGAE!

I don’t need to go on. You can imagine the end result. I am now doing much better health wise and am in the process of rebuilding the tank. My question is… The fifty pounds or so of ONCE (expensive) LIVE ROCK is still on the patio. It is a beautiful white color. What would be the result of putting it back in the tank? I have put about thirty pounds of new LR in the tank and it is coming along fine, but I would like to build it up a little more. Would the rock ever recover? What precautions should I take if I do put it back in? Should I boil it to make sure it is really sterile? Would it hurt, even if it won’t recover, to use it as a base underneath the new LR to make it look like it was more?

I really do love my wife and I didn’t get mad. She had me to worry about and I thank her for that.
Thanks,

 

[d9hp]

Well, sounds like she meant the best. I would think it will turn live, isnt that what base rock does? I would wait for some others to chime in.

 

[BillyZ]

First, glad to hear you're feeling better.

As far as putting the old rock back in the tank... I would give it a REAL good rinseing. It's nice and white, but there's still a lot of dead "material" from the dead matter in the pores of the rock. I would be concerned that material will give you a hefty amonia spike when you put it back in the tank. I've never done it with that much rock, but I did have A large rock I had to "douse" to kill a pesky hitchhiker I couldn't get out. And when I put the rock back in the tank i had a heavy ammonia spike. That would be my only concern.

Once that concern is remedied, you should have no problems, the rock will pick up the algae and other critters just as you base rock has. The rock I doused is covered with algae and critters once again ;o)

good luck, wait to hear from a few others on here, they may have more suggestions (they may even tell you I'm completely wrong! It's quite possible )

 

[kribbz]

is your new tank cycled and running? becuase if it is i would say that it would cause a huge spike as the others stated before. but if it isn't cycled or is currently cycling over then i would suggest rubbing the rock down with a nice clean brush and placing it back in the tank. IF the tank is still cycling then this could replace the decaying shrimp with the decaying or dead matter left in your rock.

 

[Guest]

I would have to say that an ammonia spike would depend on how long the rock has been sitting on the patio. It is highly unlikely that the dead stuff is still resident enough to create that much of an ammonia spike. In any case, I would scrub it good and then rinse well and place it in the tank...I am gonna say if it is white, there is nothing left on there to worry about. If you pick it up and it smells dead? you know what I mean, then you may have the problem with ammonia..Again, what was said above should still be regarded for safe measures...Glad to hear you are doing better...Stay well...

 

[cweaks]

OK! I added some of my ONCE LIVE ROCK tonight. See the big piece on the far left and the piece in the foreground on th right. We'll see what happens. Thanks for all the advice.

 

[kribbz]

looks like it was some very nice rock!