Live rock clean up

[steve_london_uk]

Hi all. Long story short... I bought some cruddy USED LR years ago, jet washed and scrubbed all the algae and mess off of it, soaked it in RO and then setup a tank. Never had the best results and then when I moved house I let it dry out thinking it would kill all the nitrates and phosphates with it.


Bought a new read sea reefer, perfectly clean 0 reading water and within a couple of hours of adding rock the nutrients went through the roof. It is all leaching out of this old rock and I can't 'clean' it quicker than it's leaching. I plan on buying new dry rock and resetting the system taking this current rock out but how can I clean this old rock to get it not leaching anything so I can reuse or sell it later?

Thanks.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The inside of the rock gets filled up with worms, pods, and other micro organisms. Pressure spray and scrubbing the rocks only cleans the outside of the rock.

The best way IMO is put the tock in a bleach water bucket with a powerhead for a few days. The bleach and flow will melt everything inside the rock, then you have a completely sterile rock.

 

[steve_london_uk]

Thank you for your reply. Will that kill the nitrates and phosphates within the rock to stop them leaving again?

 

[littlefishy]

It will not "kill" phosphates, no. It will continue to leach them until in equilibrium with the tank water phosphate levels.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The rocks can absorb phosphates, and then leach them out slowly afterwards, so you have to tackle phosphate separately with some kind of phosphate binder like rowa phos or E-phosphate.

The nitrate would be from the decomposing organisms inside the rock, so bleaching the rocks will get rid of that,

 

[steve_london_uk]

I understand. Unfortunately the equilibrium is currently off the scale so I need to do something as it's ridiculous and almost on the verge of packing up and selling it. Which would be a shame because I have a lot of kit and could make an amazing tank if I got the rock right.

 

[PotatoPig]

What phosphate numbers are you getting that are off the scale?

The nitrates should be able to be resolved via the curing folks upthread have mentioned - once all this dead stuff is gone you’re good.

Phosphates should be controllable via one of the lanthanum products or some other binder - this will be a lot more economical if you otherwise like the rock.

Edit: Rereading it sounds like this is the first time it’s been wet other than a surface cleaning with the jet washer? If so you might do well curing it in salt water in a brute trash can or sturdy plastic tote box (or whatever similar sturdy products are available in the UK) with a lower head to circulate water. This will give all the dead stuff buried in the rock a chance to finish biodegrading and in doing so will cycle the rock.

Edit 2: Is this for a reef tank? If so did the rock come from a reef tank or FOWLR? If it came from a FOWLR there might be copper also bound to it that will essentially void it for reef use without significant effort. Might be worth testing for copper.

 

[steve_london_uk]

What phosphate numbers are you getting that are off the scale?

The nitrates should be able to be resolved via the curing folks upthread have mentioned - once all this dead stuff is gone you’re good.

Phosphates should be controllable via one of the lanthanum products or some other binder - this will be a lot more economical if you otherwise like the rock.

Edit: Rereading it sounds like this is the first time it’s been wet other than a surface cleaning with the jet washer? If so you might do well curing it in salt water in a brute trash can or sturdy plastic tote box (or whatever similar sturdy products are available in the UK) with a lower head to circulate water. This will give all the dead stuff buried in the rock a chance to finish biodegrading and in doing so will cycle the rock.

Edit 2: Is this for a reef tank? If so did the rock come from a reef tank or FOWLR? If it came from a FOWLR there might be copper also bound to it that will essentially void it for reef use without significant effort. Might be worth testing for copper.

I bought it from a guy that had it in some dirty algae ridden holding tank. Then after a light clean it went into my reef tank (I say reef... softies, a couple of LPS and a few SPS... of which mostly didn't survive past a few weeks) as far as I know has been no copper.

the last tests were from last year as it's just been left owing to home renovations and other commitments but now come time to sort it out. Before the rock was added my NO3 was 1.7 and PO4 was 0.08. After adding the rock two weeks later NO3 went to 34 and PO4 1.42. I'm sure I did another test afterwards and was even higher which was the point I just gave up and put it on the back burner.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Phosphate can be stripped from rock by soaking in seawater with lanthanum in it, or by soaking the water in acid to dissolve away the outer layer.

 

[Reefahholic]

IMO, you want to leach instead of bind. The tank will be much cleaner and GHA can be resolved later. As Randy mentioned above, you can pull it and nuke it with Lanthanum.

Personally, I’d do a acid bath to remove the outter layer of crud from the rock. If it’s really dirty, bleach it first. Then soak and test for phosphate. If still leaching use lanthanum.

Remember, phosphate isn’t that bad. If you’re over like 0.8 to to 2ppm or something then I would maybe consider using lanthanum. Otherwise if like 0.2-0.6 I’d let it ride.

Not the difference between the 1st and 2nd bath.

 

[Reefahholic]

Rock is clean now.

 

[Reeferbadness]

I just watched something about this on BRS TV. I have a bunch of old rock from a tank I took down - much of it covered in dried out organic matter ( sponges, etc ) am going to do the bleach method then slowly cure it in a barrel for a few weeks after fully drying out post bleach. Check the video out here