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crispin said:
Turbo, yes it can be used again BUT with a huge deal of curing. You can use it as an environment for bacteria to live in once it has been cured.

however i would cure that stuff for a VERY long time on its own. the die off in there would have been total and that may lead to environmemntal pollution within a tank, so i would cycle that for months in a container on its own. but it can be reused with due care
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Alot of the rock is boulder shape like round... I was thinking maybe breaking them up into halves and like you suggested get them into an empty tank with salt water, heater and a pump for circulation.

Do you think 2 months is too little time for a curing process?

I'll see if I can take a few pics of the rocks tomorrow and post them.
 
I found out that a mate of mine has about 45 kg of "live rock". Reason I got live rock in quotes is... the rock was kenya live and was in a marine setup, but has been laying outside for close to 5 months now.

Can this rock be used again?
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Yes, if it has not been polluted during the time it was outside the tank.

The "dead" rock will still be porous, and will become "live" again real quickly once added to a tank with some real "live" rock to seed it.

Hennie
 
Welcome to MASA !!!
 
A VERY WARM WELCOME to MASA, TurboSnail. Great to have you on-board!

Just to answer your question, w.r.t live rock, with a "vague answer" ;)
Like everything else in live, everything is "relative" (Einstein's theory of relativity).
Meaning: (pertaining to your question):
IF YOU CAN EXPORT THE NUTRIENTS YOU PUT INTO YOUR TANK, then, there are quite "many ways to skin a cat":
Here are some scenario's:
1) IF you don't want to use a lot of live rock, you CAN possibly compensate, by getting an extra large skimmer, and/or, get a huge Deep Sand Bed (DSB), and/or set up a refugium with a HUGE amount of macro algae in it, to remove the most of the final stages of the seperate chemical compounds/building blocks, that make up the nutrients (these would be end products from the denitrification cycle/process)...
2) you can use a huge amount of "bio-rock", as long as it is extremely porious, and a little amount of live rock - but you DO need to get the best quality live rock then.
3) the rock you are talking about, that have been "lying dry outside", is not live rock anymore. It is "dead rock", that has the same "value", as bio-rock. I would not purchase this, because you could end up with more problems than it is worth. My personal opinion: rather get 80% bio-rock, and 20% of the best quality fuji or fuji premium/malaysian/tonga branch, etc live rock - you will have a much healthier system, in the end...

So - I hope that you have grasped what I am trying to say. If not - please let me know, and I will elaborate.

Good luck with your journey into keeping marines. It's a GREAT addiction!

Please ask as many questions, as it takes, that you can become the BEST reefkeeper you can be.
Also - PLEASE come and ask our opinions, BEFORE you go out and purchase stuff at a LFS...... as we do not have any financial gain, in giving you good advice.

Also - PLEASE BE PATIENT! This is MOST likely the MOST important part of starting/keeping marines!

Good luck, and enjoy!
 
RiaanP said:
I do not think this will work. Rock will be solid from outside, not porous. No critters can enter it, no bacteria that makes life rock what they are can live inside it.
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Ya but I'm just using it as a base. I'm going to pack the ive rock over it.
 
If you want to use the dry life rock (now dead rock), I would rince it properly in RO water, see what flushes out. (Dip, take out, dip take out ....)
That should get a lot of rubbish out. Then you still have to cure it separate. Also you need to put a proper piece of LIVE rock that is alive in the same tank or container. So that there is at least some live that can migrate to the dry pieces.

I will not break them up. Bigger pieces are always better than crumbs. Maybe after curing breaking one or two, but I will not do it.

So this dry rock and your Biorock can form 80% of your rock and you still need good quality rock to have a proper system.
 
TurboSnail said:
Alot of the rock is boulder shape like round... I was thinking maybe breaking them up into halves and like you suggested get them into an empty tank with salt water, heater and a pump for circulation.

Do you think 2 months is too little time for a curing process?

I'll see if I can take a few pics of the rocks tomorrow and post them.
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i would say 2 months would be fine......if you left it for another 4!

ie no, 2 months is not enough, let it cycle and then cure. as JB says export the stuff that is breakking down in there, i would use a skimmer and a algae scrubber and then a seperate bin for a dsb.

i am possibly setting up a simmilar system to cycle LR while I wait for my tank to be ready and make some Bio rock (or buy it:)) if i do i will send you some pics but that wont be for a few weeks.
 
Annoying said:
Ya but I'm just using it as a base. I'm going to pack the ive rock over it.
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Understand, but rather use bio rock. Over time it will be the same as live rock. (or almost 80% or more the same).
If you are doing the effort, rather look at threads where guys are making bio-rock for themselves. Over time the bio rock will be surface area AND internal space for critters where a solid object is just a surface area.
 
This is a picture of what the rock currently looks like now. I've had a look at them and they are all very similar in condition to this one.

Very dry and whitish in color, thou they are some spots which have a very very light color purple on them (possibly from dead coral line algae?). The rocks have been lying under a wheel barrow on some river sand.

liverock.jpg
 
Looks good, please just don't break it up into smaller pieces.
Rinse them, then cycle them searate for 2 months. Then use it with other live rock pieces.
 
Yeah I also thought the rock looked pretty descent :) Just one thing thou... Once I've got the rock back into some salt water, should I start circulating the water immediately or not? (and should I have a heater in the water as well?)

Also would your'll recommend Fuji live rock to seed these or what?
 
Yes, from when you want the seeding to start, need small circulation pump heater and light. Not mayor stuff

Maybe leave it a week, where you rinse it every day in RO water. See if you can flush out as much junk before you start the seeding process.
 
welcome to MASA Turbosnail, hope you enjoy it here with us. Sorry for being a bit late on the welcome, was on a training course. I see my fellow advisors and mods already gave you some great advice, so I'll tag along with your build ;)
 
RiaanP said:
Yes, from when you want the seeding to start, need small circulation pump heater and light. Not mayor stuff

Maybe leave it a week, where you rinse it every day in RO water. See if you can flush out as much junk before you start the seeding process.
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Good advice. If space is a problem you can cycle the rock in a plastic or rubber dustbin, or preferably in one or two of those 50 liter plastic "tidy" bins sold by most supermarkets, Builders Warehouse, etc.

You don't need heavy water movement until you have the rock in sea water and you've added a few "seeding" pieces of fresh live rock. After that, I would try to have as much water flow from the bottom of the container/rock to the top - that's where the plastic containers come in handy, as you can drill a hole and install a "tank connector" to the very bottom, mount a pump on the outside, and have a "semi-CLS" with the water being pumped back on top of the rock.

Hennie
 
Welcome To Masa Lee
 
Hi guys,

This is the tank design I've come up with. It makes use of a coast to coast overflow system.

Any thoughts? The two upper outlets in the front view pic will be used on a close loop system? (how effective is this)

The lower two holes are for the return water from the sump.

Front View


frontviewg.jpg


Back View

backview.jpg
 
Hi TurboSnail - I replied to your PM. Sorry that I could not reply earlier on.

Design looks great. I just have one question, though - where will the "CLS pumps" get the supply water from? Where will the "inlet water" for the supply pumps come from?

Cheers mate!
 
Nope,
when power goes, all the water will drain down to the sump. Via the return lines.
Empty tank
wet house
angry other half
 
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