Live rock now dead?

D

Docsuliman

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Hi guys

So my tank leaked almost a month ago. I Had taken sum of the rocks n placed them in the sump. Others in a bucket. I had gone on Holiday for 10days and upon returning the pump had stopped working and some were completely out of water due to water loss. Now many of rocks are black. Gona restart my tank again this week. Do I need to do anything to the rocks? Or can I jus add them into the tank and start the cycle

Thanks guys.
 
the rocks that were out of the water are dead you should cycle them again. as for the ones that ate black I'm not sure but if the pump had stopped and the water was not being circulated I would say just cycle everything just to be on the safe side
.. you can add some special bled bacteria if you wanna speed up the proces
 
there will always be some ounce of bacteria on the rock but the effort to rehabilitate the rock may not totally eradicate the problem.

if the rock is in a really bad way (which it sounds like it is) i would investigate the option of acid bathing the tock to expell dirt and dead matter trapped within the inner pores of the rock..

it would be nice to have a fresh start and know you not going to have leaching of phos and nitrate from the rock which will more than likley lead to problem algae outbreaks...

have a look at the link on the first page on this thread...

prepping reef bones with acid - Marine Aquariums South Africa
 
So I can't just restart the cycling process with the rocks in the tank? I have no life so I'm starting from scratch.
 
leslie hempel said:
there will always be some ounce of bacteria on the rock but the effort to rehabilitate the rock may not totally eradicate the problem.

if the rock is in a really bad way (which it sounds like it is) i would investigate the option of acid bathing the tock to expell dirt and dead matter trapped within the inner pores of the rock..

it would be nice to have a fresh start and know you not going to have leaching of phos and nitrate from the rock which will more than likley lead to problem algae outbreaks...

have a look at the link on the first page on this thread...

prepping reef bones with acid - Marine Aquariums South Africa
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Agreed...:thumbup:
 
Docsuliman said:
So I can't just restart the cycling process with the rocks in the tank? I have no life so I'm starting from scratch.
Click to expand...

you can... but the dead matter that is trapped inside the rock will leach...

this is sometimes why you get patches of GHA and Cyano on sections of your reef and not all over it.. the algaes/ bacteria are doing what they do naturally... trying to eliminate the harsh nutrients and purify the water.. the problem is that with an evolving system the scale sometimes tips to the bad side of things and you find yourself spending cash fighting a war against GHA and cyano which could have been avoided..

the GHA and bacteria fighting buisness is the real money maker in this hobby....
 
Aish. K so this cooking seems inevitable. Can I use normal tap water in the buckets and salted tap water to soak rocks in or must I use RO salted water? My wife is already pee'd off after the water leak made a mess now this. This is becoming ominous. ;0
 
Cooking is when you put rock into a drum with saltwater and allow them to cycle in the dark.

What we are discussing here is acid washing to basically steralize the rock of all nutrients that will make your lufe a misery in the longrun.

It may seem like a task but its actually quicker to acid wash than cook.

You will need to add a kg or 2 of new LR to reintroduce life into your system when you start running the rock in the main system.
 
leslie hempel said:
Cooking is when you put rock into a drum with saltwater and allow them to cycle in the dark.

What we are discussing here is acid washing to basically steralize the rock of all nutrients that will make your lufe a misery in the longrun.

It may seem like a task but its actually quicker to acid wash than cook.

You will need to add a kg or 2 of new LR to reintroduce life into your system when you start running the rock in the main system.
Click to expand...

Lol, sorry. I'm still struggling to get a handle on this. So if this were your rock what would u do.
 
I have just obtained a few kg of bio rock and im going to be acid bathing it when I get the chance. So researching aswell.

but from everything I have read and seen on the net its easy to do. Just need to wear protective gloves and beware of the fumes.
 
All this depends on what you want to keep and when do you want to keep them.
What I would do is wash the rock in ocean water thoroughly and use a stiff brush on it several times till it appears clean and rinse it quite well in and out of the water to get some of what’s in there out, then put it back in and start the cycle again with some fresh ocean water for a slow start or use some purchased bacteria if you want a quicker start.

Don’t wash it in tap water and don’t use non RO tap water any where at any time, neutralised or not, tap water has much in it that will permeate the dead coral and give you a little grief.
You will never have enough algae support and bio sinks to handle what’s in tap water, so don’t use it with out reverse osmosis for a reef tank.
Cooking the rock just soaks out crap you might say and though it does work, I wouldn’t bother if you were not adding quality inverts any time soon.

Wash everything including substrate media in fresh salt water or RO water, not tap water!

If you had any life like unwanted algae or crab on-in that rock before this, put it in very hot salt water till it cools and then add it.
Put it all back in and attack phos from the beginning whether it tests positive or not and keep that up “always”!
Nitrate is something your bio filtering should be able to handle and if not, time for a sump style change or use nitra titanium when life is introduced and from then on.
Ad a bit of decorative live rock here and there for colour and presentation and this bit of live rock should have nothing to do with what you will use for bio media.
Then when phos is continually contained at near zero add delicate inverts and so on.
 
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Keeganp said:
How many KG's do you have anyway?

If it's not much I'd get new LR and keep these dead rock, and when ready to clean it then clean it and reuse.
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I got a looot. Got a 1.8 m tank. Really regret it since the 'burst'. But I'm in it now so giving it a second chance. U guys are AWSOME. Thanks for the help.
 
So my tank is almost ready to go. Can I start off the cycle wid normal tap water and add salt?
 
Docsuliman said:
So my tank is almost ready to go. Can I start off the cycle wid normal tap water and add salt?
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Nooooo, you'll regret it later when you start getting unwanted issues. You should always use RO water - perhaps try getting some from your LFS.
 
erratiC said:
Nooooo, you'll regret it later when you start getting unwanted issues. You should always use RO water - perhaps try getting some from your LFS.
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It's 1000l tank. That's y I ask. Excluding the sump. I'm quoted at R1.50/L. Can u buy mature water? The first time I started with normal tap water but had no rock. Guessing the situation different now.
 
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