Turning Live Rock into Dead Rock

[shawnth]

Hi,

I was wondering if I can get advice in the easiest way to turn live rock into dead rock ? The story is I bought a bunch of live rock (33 lbs) from auction on the cheap and during delivery because the guy didn't pack the rock properly it arrived with all the water drained and rocks completely dry. The sender is being a complete jerk and telling me this isn't his problem as he put (No Returns allowed) on the auction listing.

I believe this means I have to cure the live rock over again but reading up on the process I don't have the equipment (mainly large enough container) to do something like that and hoping turning this into dead rock would be easier. I've read up quite a few things on the web and am thinking of doing the following:

- Let the rocks sit outside on my balcony for a week to kill everything off. The thing here though is the balcony gets only a few hours of sun a day but that's the only open area I have in my apartment. Should that suffice ? I've read boiling and bleaching are also options but also read some bad things about it.
- After a week drying out put it in buckets with fresh water for a few weeks. Changing out the water weekly. I have 2 x 5 gallon buckets which I was using for water changes which I was hoping to use. I was wondering how big does the container have to be in respects to the rock ?
- Dump the rocks in my tank, how do I actually tell when its okay to do this ?

What I want to avoid is to go and buy a large 30+ gallong trash bin just to cure the rocks. It'll cost me a lot to get and when it comes time to get rid of here in Japan (as I have no space to keep it long term) I'll end up having to pay a good amount to dispose of it. So was hoping converting it to dead rock would be easier.

What I currently have is a 6 week old cycled tank with a little bit (10lbs) of live rock. Just dumping the rock in the tank would've been an option a week ago but I've already got an emerald crab and some snails which I presume will suffer or die if I do so.

Shawn

 

[emmett0122]

you can put in you tank but you need to rinse it off really good if it was dry when you got it it is dead. just dont put all in at once but if you tank is cycled the bio filter will stop anything from being hurt just as you add watch you ammonia nitrites and nitrates

 

[kbuser92]

Are there sf service car washes there? Like pay $2 and use a pressure sprayer? That's what I would do, but just use water, no soap or anything. Otherwise, dry it out and just rinse it in the bathtub really good. There's no need to cure in my opinion, as long as it's clean.

If it were driftwood or something like cinderblocks (only used in frickin huge tanks...) or DIY rock, then those need time to cure for all the chemicals to leach out. But in your case, that's unnecessary.

 

[shawnth]

Thanks for the advice guys I feel better and will try this out.

 

[FishyReef]

I cured my mostly DOA live rock in a rubbermaid tub that I picked up at target - stuck a powerhead and heater in there, left it for a month in my back stairwell, and that was enough to recure it. Doesn't need to be complicated!

I've also bleached rock pretty successfully - let it soak overnight in a rubbermaid tub with 1:10 bleach to water ratio solution, then scrubbed the heck out of the rocks in my bathtub to get the dead material off (soft-bristle tooth brush and hand held scrubbing brush like you'd use for household cleaning, but obviously never used). Then rinsed them under the bathtub faucet, left them overnight in a different rubbermaid tub with water and dechlorinator, rinsed again and repeated until they didn't have any sort of chlorine smell.

I used those as my base rock, then the DOA live rock that I recured, cycled my tank, and no problems.

Good luck!

 

[Civicdemon]

Is your tank Cycled already ??? If not just cure the rock in the tank and it will kick off your cycle.