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Coral Vue Hydros

Old and dried out "live" rock and sand


MMK1

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I'm starting up a 24 gal JBJ Nano and I found a fellow forum member on another forum that has live sand and rock that has been sitting in his garage for a few weeks. I was wondering if this would be a good buy and if it is, what would I need to do in order to clean both the rocks and the sand so that I can mix them with the live rock and sand I buy from my LFS?

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JavaJacketOC

if it's actually all dried out there's not much to worry about. You can either give it a good 24 hour bath in vinegar then a 24 bath in RODI and a few good rinses. Or you can bake the rock in the oven, or boil it then soak it in RODI. There are lots of options, however it's really only a good deal if you like the rock type/shapes, etc. There are lots of options for dry live rock that can be very inexpensive.

 

I would suggest comparing the type of live rock to a few of the online retailer sponsors here to see if the asking price and type of rock is really a "good deal". Ultimately though, if you don't like the type of rock I would pass.

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Jackal_Knight

if its old live rock thats dried out i would give it a nice acid bath just to get rid of the old organics on the rock so you don't have any phosphate problems later on and it would be the fastest way, or you could cook the rock for a few months in some tubs.

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It depends on if the rocks are bound with high levels of phosphate which could leach back into your tank. No amount of cleaning will get rif of the phosphate in the rock (just the phosphate in the dead organic material). You must leach the phosphate out of the rock (if it is full of bound phosphate); and this is a long and potentially expensive treatment (using GFO, many water changes, or LC to remove the phosphate which is leaching out of the rock). Eventually, it will stop leaching phosphate in water with low phosphate levels.

 

Testing would be required to check it. If you trust this source, then you shouldn't have to worry about them ever using copper in the tank with the rock and sand. If you don't know for sure, it could leach copper too. The sand can be thoroughly cleaned and reused; however, the same issues that can affect rock, can also affect aragonite sand.

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