cleaning liferock live rock thats been sitting outside

[jldesign]

i have a bunch of liferock from caribsea that has been sitting outside for 3 years. not in mud or anything and looks really clean and new just a bit of dirt on bottoms. how can i safely clean and reuse this to reboot my tank without destroying the color on the rock already also?

 

feels like a waste to not reuse it but am i opening up any issues? no chemicals have been used around them either

[seabass]

You could scrub off the dirt using a stiff bristled brush and tap water.  I'd probably also soak it in some RO water for few days, followed by a final rinse.

 

Then I'd put it in circulating saltwater, and establish a working biofilter on it by:

• Using DrTim's Ammonium Chloride to dose ammonia up to 2ppm
• Wait until ammonia drops to 0.25ppm
• Repeat the above steps until your rocks can process 2ppm of ammonia down to 0.25ppm within 24 hours.

[mcarroll]

On 12/17/2021 at 1:03 PM, jldesign said:

i have a bunch of liferock from caribsea that has been sitting outside for 3 years. not in mud or anything and looks really clean and new just a bit of dirt on bottoms. how can i safely clean and reuse this to reboot my tank without destroying the color on the rock already also?

 

feels like a waste to not reuse it but am i opening up any issues? no chemicals have been used around them either

In terms of cleaning it up, just spray it off with a hose.  There's nothing in dirt that would hurt a reef tank...if anything I'd think it would help the tank cycle faster if you left the dirt on.

 

Should be no potential issues other than a possible ammonia spike, depending how clean/lived-on the rock was before it was dried out.

 

I'd put the rock in a saltwater tank as "dirty" as your judgement allows, and just do the standard thing - which is watching a Seachem AmmoAlert badge for any sign of an ammonia spike.  Act accordingly to keep levels under 2 ppm....higher levels can actually harm your nitrifying bacteria.  (Usually water changes are the simplest way to deal with high ammonia levels, but there are other options.)

 

If an ammonia spike doesn't happen (ie the rock was pretty clean) then you just start building your bio-load slowly....avoid having an ammonia spike at all.  👍

[Lee Turford]

I had some old rock sitting in a shed and a few pcs that ended up in the garden for many years. I power washed them, (no soap, water only)

 and put then in a bucket of saltwater with a wave maker for over a week.Tank cycled fine with turbo boost in about a week.