Should I boil my old Live Rock?

[shadfish]

I had to break down my 75 gal reef 7 months ago and put the old rock and sand in buckets in my garage. It was a sad day.

Also, about a year ago bought a record producer's seriously neglected 220gal that had about 200lbs of dead rock base... and it has been sitting dry in a different place in my garage for about 13 months.

I'm now setting the 220 up and am curious if I can reuse the old rock without boiling, and if so will it help speed up cycling my tank? No doubt it's covered in phosphates so thought it might jump start the cycle. I had also thought about sifting the old sand and mixing it with newly purchased live sand.

My thoughts are to boil the rock I bought (that had been in the dirty tank) and just rinse my old rock as it was from my very clean and well maintained tank. I know not to boil indoors (toxins), so I plan to use an outdoor turkey boiler.

Can anyone help me with some advice? Should I boil the dirty, just rinse my old rock and reuse the sand?

Any advice would be helpful. Planning to start the process in the next week or so.

Thanks for your help!

 

[stacy22]

I would soak the rock in a bleach solution for a day or two then rinse completely. After it dries out it's ready to use.

Personally, I would buy all new dry sand. It's fairly cheap (relatively speaking for this hobby) and would help eliminate the possibility of nasties/contaminates, etc that may be lurking in the old.


Oh, and welcome to ARC and back to the hobby!

 

[rdnelson]

stacy22;1006827 wrote: I would soak the rock in a bleach solution for a day or two then rinse completely. After it dries out it's ready to use.

Personally, I would buy all new dry sand. It's fairly cheap (relatively speaking for this hobby) and would help eliminate the possibility of nasties/contaminates, etc that may be lurking in the old.


Oh, and welcome to ARC and back to the hobby!

100% agree on all counts. Especially the welcome.

 

[tginger]

After you bleach for a day rinse, rinse, rinse in RO/DI. After each rinse and dry test the rinse water for chlorine. When no chlorine is present I feel ur good to go. Remember the rock is full of pores and you don't want active bleach in ur tank.

 

[mikesmith34]

After the bleach bath just rinsing in water and setting out in the sun will do. The sun does a pretty good job at breaking it down. (1-2 weeks)

 

[nickh06]

From personal experience I would not use the old sand. I tried mixing old with new after rinsing the sand in ro/di and still ran into problems down the road.

 

[tonymission]

shadfish;1006822 wrote: I had to break down my 75 gal reef 7 months ago and put the old rock and sand in buckets in my garage. It was a sad day.

Also, about a year ago bought a record producer's seriously neglected 220gal that had about 200lbs of dead rock base... and it has been sitting dry in a different place in my garage for about 13 months.

I'm now setting the 220 up and am curious if I can reuse the old rock without boiling, and if so will it help speed up cycling my tank? No doubt it's covered in phosphates so thought it might jump start the cycle. I had also thought about sifting the old sand and mixing it with newly purchased live sand.

My thoughts are to boil the rock I bought (that had been in the dirty tank) and just rinse my old rock as it was from my very clean and well maintained tank. I know not to boil indoors (toxins), so I plan to use an outdoor turkey boiler.

Can anyone help me with some advice? Should I boil the dirty, just rinse my old rock and reuse the sand?

Any advice would be helpful. Planning to start the process in the next week or so.

Thanks for your help!

I think I quoted your roof. Did you go with someone else on that? :wiggle:

 

[lsu_fishfan]

Nickh06;1006865 wrote: From personal experience I would not use the old sand. I tried mixing old with new after rinsing the sand in ro/di and still ran into problems down the road.

What problems did you have? I have been advised to rinse old sand and reuse it so i am interested.

 

[rdnelson]

LSU_fishFan;1006876 wrote: What problems did you have? I have been advised to rinse old sand and reuse it so i am interested.

You can do that. But if you don't do a good job of it, the sand will have lots of old decayed biological matter in it that you will be dumping in a nice clean tank.

 

[redstang]

Bleach will work great from everything I've read(never tried it) but you can also look up the muriatic acid route which will likely be the route I go if I ever use traditional rock again.

 

[shadfish]

tonymission;1006867 wrote: I think I quoted your roof. Did you go with someone else on that? :wiggle:

I think that may have been a family member of mine. I didn't have a roof issue. But I'll keep ya in mind if I do...:up:

 

[shadfish]

All great replies you guys. Thanks for the warm welcomes and the advice!

I'll post pics when i get it all setup.

 

[kirkwood]

I have done this with great success. I pretty much agree with everyone just slightly different on the 2nd step...

Step 1 - soak in Chlorine/water mixture - i forget the ratio but its probably like 50/50 (search out an RC thread to be exact)... Important to note here is that you can use normal tap water..

Step 2 - soak in RODI water with Seachem Prime.. use a powerhead to circulate water... after that you're rock is good to go...

while you have your rock looking pristine, might as well take the time to pre-drill some holes in it to fit frag plugs... you'll thank yourself later when the tank is set up...

 

[y-not]

If you boil it, do it outside.
There are a few horror stories of boiling live rock inside. For example: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2253493">http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2253493</a>

Bleaching it will work. It takes a bit more time to clean off the bleach.
Vinegar and water and 24 hours will do it too. Just a causal rinse and your good to go. Any left over vinegar that may still be on the rock is not going to cause problems. Bleach on the other hand, might be an issue.

 

[tonymission]

bassett22;1007038 wrote: you can also consider a muratic acid bath, its pretty common to do with old dead rock to strip out all bound bio materials.

+1

 

[jennm]

So many people recommending bleach

IMO it's overkill...

We would wash old rock with just water and a pressure washer to dislodge any old detritus, then cycle it in a tub with some existing live rock to let it repopulate with beneficial bacteria. Add bit of Seachem Stability to help things along, and give it some time.

The guy you bought the tank from - was his name Howard?

Jenn

 

[wannabeeareefkeeper]

shadfish;1006951 wrote: All great replies you guys. Thanks for the warm welcomes and the advice!

I'll post pics when i get it all setup.

If your not too busy today around 4:00 PM, I highly recommend you stop by for some chit chat on Reef Keeping. The ARC meeting is today @ 4:00 PM and you are now officially invited. Just tell them that Wannabee invited you. Any stipulations? Just a few minutes out of your day [dependent of how long you want to chit chat] and the transportation costs of getting to the meeting and back home.

Wannabee

More info here:

 

[shadfish]

Thank you for the invite Wannabee... I am unable to make it today but know you guys will have a blast!

 

[shadfish]

JennM;1007231 wrote: So many people recommending bleach

IMO it's overkill...

We would wash old rock with just water and a pressure washer to dislodge any old detritus, then cycle it in a tub with some existing live rock to let it repopulate with beneficial bacteria. Add bit of Seachem Stability to help things along, and give it some time.

The guy you bought the tank from - was his name Howard?

Jenn

Thanks mucho! This is helpful.
No ma'am... wasn't Howard. This guy's name is Memphitz Wright. He's a major hip hop producer. We have a mutual friend and she connected us. He gave me an incredible deal!

 

[wannabeeareefkeeper]

shadfish;1007246 wrote: Thank you for the invite Wannabee... I am unable to make it today but know you guys will have a blast!

Your welcome man. I hope you can make it to February's meeting. Announcement should be coming relatively soon for February's gathering of Reef Keepers.

Wannabee